Date: Sat, 08 Jan 2005 08:59:19 +0000 From: Martin Rich <M.G.Richnospam.ac.uk> Subject: Re: New car - drawn to the Dark Side
On Fri, 7 Jan 2005 14:53:49 -0500, "The Malt Hound" <alistairdorenospamo.com> wrote in message >news:zqBDd.19305$C8.5523nospamnews.blueyonder.co.uk... >> Beamers are superbly engineered cars, and deserve their fine reputation >> for drivability and reliability. >> >> HOWEVER, you only drive one in the UK if you never want anyone but another >> Beamer driver to let you out at junctions, or into the traffic queue from >> a slip road. >> <snipped> > >You are making grand generalizations based entirely on your single vantage >point, being from the UK. > I'm fairly sure that Grunff lives in the west of England, so my reading is that Al, far from making a generalisation, was adding a rider that this is a UK experience. > >Also, nob-head sales managers do not get BMWs here as company cars. The >Fords and Chevies and Chryslers unless they opt to buy them themselves. >Many (most?) US companies will not provide their employees any non-domestic >brand cars. > 30-40 years ago some British companies had a 'buy British' poicy for company cars, but this would be hard to implement now. After all, would it be realistic to allow an employee to choose a car made by BMW in Britain called a Mini, but not to choose a car made by BMW in Germany called a 3-series? Would you allow a Nissan Primera made in Britain, but not a Ford Mondeo made in Belgium? Come to that, would you allow a GM car called a Vectra made in Luton, but not one made in Trollhattan called a Saab 9-3? It's a while ago, but when I worked in a place where there was a significant number of company cars, BMWs were a popular choice with the leasing company: they were reliable, had relatively low depreciation, and the standard leasing budget for a middle manager (nob headed or other) would cover a fairly low-end 3 series. >IMO, Mercedes does not compare on a performance level to either SAAB or BMW. >In fact, it's rather difficult to find a merc with anything but an automatic >transmission on this side of the big ditch. > For what it's worth, most Mercedes sold in Britain seem to be automatics, apart from the Sprinter delivery vans Martin
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