CHRISTMAS MOTORING SPECIAL: Hire a car to impress
Bored with your car going on a business (or indeed a leisure) trip in the near future. What about renting a vehicle at the other end to impress those who you are visiting, and also give you an idea on how the other half lives? Guy Salmon Prestige Rental has a presence at most UK airports and indeed can deliver or collect from your home or business. Having hired such a vehicle you might even decide to buy one.
ABTN chose the new top of the range Rover Vogue. First impression is of a very large vehicle that exudes quality. There is the touch screen TV/navigation system, electrically operated driver”s seat, with three memory positions and even a rear view camera, which complete with the bleeping arrangement, should entirely eliminate any reversing problems. The Guy Salmon example had a naturally aspirated 4.4 litre V6 petrol engine, with a six speed automatic transmission making for well under 20 miles per gallon fuel use, when around town. You are sitting high up watching all around but surprisingly, for such a large vehicle, it is a nimble drive and very easy to park even for one more used to low slung, sports cars. Perhaps the only problem is actually getting into the Range Rover. The Guy Salmon vehicles do not have steps and if you are less than 5”5”, it is clearly a bit of a jump up. However, the effort is worth it as the seats themselves are extremely comfortable and with the GPS system life is very easy even in a foreign part (well Edinburgh actually) and one of the easiest to use. The three in the back are comfortable and the boot area is massive, although once again ”shorties” should be careful as the rear hatch door, when open, levels out at something around seven feet.
The Range Rover Vogue was designed from the beginning as an off the road vehicle, albeit of a somewhat superior mode. It has permanent four-wheel drive with a torque sensing central differential, high and low range gear ratios, a four channel anti-skidding device, a hill decent control, electronic friction control, dynamics for stability control and another device called break-force distribution. It has got air suspension too and variable ride height; the whole thing sitting on 19 inch alloy wheels. The Range Rover Vogue is not exactly slow, with a 0-60 time of 7.5 seconds and a maximum speed of 130 mph. It weighs 2570 kg. In truth for most uses the phenomenal off the road ability is available but not used. However a trip to a farm in the middle of winter quickly established the Range Rover as something else. One did not have to think about getting stuck. It just ploughed on as if the water and mud were not there.
Let us face it, if your normal mount is a Ford, the Range Rover Vogue is something special, represented by a hire cost of something in the order of ”225 per day. Rather like going by air these days the advertised prices are not quite what they seem. If your insurance does not cover you the driver waiver is ”16 per day. There is a road fund tax charge of ”1.12 per day and you also have to pay a DVLA charge of ”5, all of which are of course subject to VAT. No charge for use of a credit card! Guy Salmon realised that not everybody wants such a vehicle. Also on offer therefore, is the Mini Cooper S at ”55 per day, or if the weather is kind, the Renault M”gane Cabriolet at ”65 and an electric roof that disappears with the touch of a button. For the Mini Cooper, you have to be 25 years of age or more and the Range Rover Vogue, 30 years of age.
http://www.guysalmon.com