Save on Car Insurance and spend out on Winter Tyres

Why is it that every winter when the snow comes we get bogged down with just a few centimetres of snow on the ground ? while our European neighbours have several feet of snow and life still goes on, for them anyway. It’s annoying to say this least of all for us Brit’s, especially with all the controversy we have with our local council’s regarding the lack of salt there is available or not available as the case may be for our roads and to think that there is talk that they might be planning to cut back the amount of salt available for our roads here in the UK for a 2 year period just so they can stock pile for the forthcoming years. So what will happen in the mean time?




Many of us work in the city centre but live in the suburbs and villages beyond our cities but commute to work by car and some of us even travel to our nearest train stations just to get to work, but with the lack of salt on our roads many of us are stranded thus meaning a loss of earnings which at this time of year especially with Christmas and New Year just behind us then who can afford to be out of pocket? And not forgetting the school run at least twice a day, if we cannot get about then this becomes a major struggle.


In recent years our government has slapped the highest road tax on 4x4 cars like the Mercedes ML, Land Rover and it’s big brother the Range Rover, VW Touareg, BMW X5, Porsche Cayenne, and the list goes on and on, and just when we hear these car types have been slagged off too much then suddenly everyone wants one as they are the only cars that seem to be able to drive in the snow with little worry to the drivers, and not just because they have 4 wheel drive technology or the fact that some of them have high and low ratio gear boxes but most of all, they all have sensible tyres.....yes we might all think that they have big chunky tyres that you would only expect to have on a JBC Road Digger or an extreme off road army vehicle, but honestly these vehicles all have one thing in common........sensible tyres......yes sensible tyres! That you could also have on your car too! As I’ve stated in two of my previous blogs I own two 4x4’s and guess what? They both have sensible tyres on them! But I am going to let you in to a big secret and that big secret is that both my
VW Touareg and my Dodge Nitro 4x4 both have Pirelli Scorpion Snow and Ice tyres fitted to them. For extra grip and for the safety factor too.



Forget your low profile tyres for a few months, who cares if they look cool, being cool might not save your life or your passengers lives if your involved in a car crash just because you didn’t fit sensible tyres, and even if you are not in a life threatening situation then you’re definitely not going far, low profile or normal cheap tyres will usually just cause your tyres to spin in the snow and so stopping you from travelling to work or wherever else you would rather be!




The tyres that I’ve mentioned that are on both of my 4x4’s are good strong winter tyres that have superb grip in the snow and that offer a huge amount of traction which allows me to drive nonstop in the snow no matter how deep the snow actually is. I was lucky enough to save some money on car insurance meaning I could spend extra on a decent and safe set of tyres. You can have them fitted to your car, they don’t just make them for 4x4’s they make them for your car too and you will be classed as being sensible if you fit them to your car, even if it’s only for 3 or 4 months they could save your life.



Most insurance companies love sensible people who fit winter tyres at this time of year as it can cut down on accidents caused by the snow. Don’t forget that when there is both snow and ice on the ground you could just as easily have an accident on your own and without colliding with another car as you could lose grip and even if you’re driving at a slow speed then your chances of not hitting an object like a parked car, or a brick wall or a tree or even a pedestrian could be very high indeed.



I found my insurance for both my cars through an online insurance company at http://www.1stinsurancefinder.co.uk/ and I highly recommend you looking on this site as they advertise just about every insurance available from Car and Van Insurance through to Term Life Insurance, Travel and Holiday Insurance, and many, many more insurance types.



As already mentioned the tyres that I have fitted on both of my cars are “Pirelli Scorpion Snow and Ice Tyres, which are an excellent hard wearing tyre that seems to lasts forever. They are made by various other top tyre manufactures as well, to include Bridgestone, Continental, Michelin, Toyo, Avon, Yokohama, Firestone, and Goodyear, and shop around and you may just find a few other manufacturers who may offer you a similar tyre for a cheaper price. Winter tyres are usually available in most sizes from 15” to 21” but you can check this out at your local tyre centre or you can buy them online which is by far the cheapest way to buy them.



Most companies with deliver and fit them for you at your house or in my case I had then delivered to a local garage where they were fitted for me, by purchasing them online I saved over £100.00 for 2 tyres....I hear you asking how much did I pay in the first place? I paid £215.00 per tyre + insurance (yes! You can now get insurance on your tyres when you buy brand new) including VAT and fitting, so the total price including the insurance for 2 tyres was £445.00, my tyres are very large though with a size 19” so inevitably they were going to be expensive and yes it may sound like a lot of money but it could just save my life, not to mention keeping me mobile as well.


G.Smith

Check out the best online insurance deals at http://www.1stinsurancefinder.co.uk/

Nitro 4x4 the one to Dodge

Last week I wrote about my wonderful experience with my VW Touareg 3.0 V6 TDI Altitude if you missed this story then simply log on to http://www.1stinsurancefinder.co.uk/
and read this blog at the bottom of the home page, it’s a good one especially if you’ve got a family and your thinking of buying a bigger car.

Anyway this week I shall endeavour to tell you about another 4x4 that I leased last year for a 2 year period but wished that I had totally thought things through before I rushed into things with my tongue hanging out like an excited pet dog who hadn’t seen its master for a couple of weeks, I hear you say to yourself “second 4x4“? Yes I do have a passion for almost all cars as long as they’re either big, fast, or 4x4, or a mixture of all three put together and I am trying to teach myself not to be so greedy for all things that go vroom in the future and just have one car, after all everyone tells me that I can only drive one at a time, but somehow I don’t quite believe them!

Here I was last year driving up north through sunny Scotland for a romantic weekend with my other half when I took the wrong turn at the last roundabout north of Perth on the M9 while heading for Pitlochry and not only had I taken the wrong exit I had actually turned up in an industrial estate with a car showroom opposite me at the entrance of the estate, so I thought to myself “I’ll drive into their car showroom grounds and do a U-turn and then go back to the roundabout and find the correct turn for Pitlochry and so I spun around and I had a quick look in my rear view mirror to make sure that I could still pull out without hitting any other motorists coming from behind when I caught sight of something strangely beautiful out of the corner of my eye that I had never seen before, something inside clicked and I think I had a moment all to myself all in the space of a split second, so I stopped, reversed up and then parked the car and said to my good lady that I would only be two ticks as wanted to go over and take a closer look
Anyway I got out of the car and as I was walking over to have a closer look and see what it actually was a voice from behind uttered “nice looking car sir isn’t it”? typically the car sales man must have seen me and thought he would move on in with his sales pitch, to be honest I’m pretty sure he must have been previously employed as a parking attendant by his local council as he was on to me before I had even got to the car. The car turned out to be a Dodge Nitro 4x4 with automatic transmission which is striking looking at a glance, it oozes with the bad boy gangster appeal and I half expected to see Al Capone sitting there in the back seat with a big cigar sticking out of his mouth gripped only by his back teeth and while loading his sub machine gun with more ammo.


I think the car salesman sussed out my passion for cars all too quickly because before I could say boo I found myself sitting in the driver’s seat while the salesman put the trade plates on the car in which he seemed to whisk out from nowhere like a magician pulling a rabbit out of his hat. So I gave my good lady a shout and she came along for the ride, I think I remember her shaking her head with disapproval when she walked over to the car, and I think that I also gave her the rubber ear as I was all too excited at getting a test drive in this very fancy looking machine that looked like it was built to command the road.
After a short drive up the motorway and back I was told by the more than charismatic salesman that it came as an automatic in either a 2.8L diesel or a hefty 3.7L V6 petrol mode, and that although I had just test driven the punchy diesel, you couldn’t get hold of a diesel one for love nor money, but getting a petrol one would be no problem, I was to find out later on that this simply wasn’t true but it was to be too late by then.

Dodge who are part of the more respectable Daimler Car Group, had a special offer on at the time of my test drive of a £10K discount on their list price of just £23.5K which meant they were now offering potential buyers the exact same car for only £13.5K...yes folks !! you heard it correctly....two and a half tones of bad boy muscle with 20” chrome alloy wheels and dark tinted windows all round for a mere snip of £13.5K for a brand spanking new car and what’s furthermore for around about deposit of only £2000.00 with 24 monthly payments of only £204.00 who in the right mind could ignore an offer like this £204.00 per month from then on in and until I part with the car 2 years later.........that’s nothing........you couldn’t hire a Vauxhall Astra for that price per month let alone a 2 ½ tonne monster


I could order a brand new one and collect it straight from the dealer on the very 1st day of the new number plate coming out which was a 58 plate at that time, yes with my thoughts running in overdrive of all my gossiping neighbours back home with nothing better to do excited me greatly, I shouldn’t think this way as most of them are either footballers or semi retired folks with bigger and better cars than me anyway and nice people too and to think here I am trying to get even with them.
So we left the car showroom and drove the last 59 miles up to Pitlochry for our romantic weekend away, we got there and checked in to our lovely hotel which was situated close to the beautiful and famous salmon river the River Tay with large mountains all around and then we spent a lovely weekend doing pretty much nothing....
She ....tried to be ever loving towards me, and ME ?.....Yes !.....I LIED.....YES FOLKS ! I did so pretend to be loving back but in honesty I really.....was.......lurking deep in my thoughts...... thinking about this car......yes folks I know how to put my right foot in it good and proper and totally ruining a romantic weekend and talk only about my 4 wheeled friends! not quite so romantic for my now ear bashed good lady who was by now thinking of giving in to me and saying “if that’s what you want to do with your money then that’s up to you just don’t come running to me when you get bored of it”
At the end of our trip and while driving back down towards Perth I decided to pay the friendly car salesman another visit at the local Dodge dealership and see if we could put pen to paper and get that new shiny 4x4 on my driveway by the first day of the new 58 number plate which was due to come out really soon.


On the day that I collected the car, I made all necessary payments and was then introduced to my new toy a red Dodge Nitro 3.7L V6 SXT Auto which I was eager to get in to and drive home. I’m ready I said to myself......I’m going to show the world who’s the boss..........but !....
While I was driving home I couldn’t help but think that I had made a huge mistake as not only had the car salesman bent over backwards and drove all the way to my house just to collect me and then drive all the way to Perth and then let me sign my life away but while driving the car itself I felt that there was no grunt in the engine, this was after all a V6 engine but with very little power, maybe it will kick in soon I kept telling myself, after all I had had a test drive in the diesel version which definitely felt good although not quite up to the standards of trustworthy my VW Touareg, but surely the V6 should be faster?, surely bigger engine means more power?, surely more is better ? all these questions were going round in my head as I headed south for home but sadly NO ! I have come to realise that bigger doesn’t always mean better, and as for the salesman collecting me are they this desperate to get rid of their cars or is their customer service really this good I asked myself. In the future I shall always ask more questions and not just let my head overtake the rest of my body as I think that with already owning a special car like the VW Touareg V6 TDI Altitude was like already owning a BMW X5 4.4L and then going out to buy a Daihatsu Terios 1.3L and expecting it to perform better than the BMW with the engine switched off.


The Dodge Nitro isn’t so bad a looking car in fact it looks pretty damned good as it attracted me in the first place and it fits in my garage easier than my VW Touareg. I’m sure that it will appeal to all these grown up boy racers who by now either have got a little bit older and or wiser and no longer suit their Pug 206’s and are looking for something a little more mature or maybe it will appeal to someone who is looking to get in to the 4 x 4 market but can’t quite afford the larger set 4x4, yes this car definitely will get you noticed even without that oversized exhaust that you use to have just to try and make you sound like you have something bigger......Sound familiar?

Insuring the Dodge Nitro 3.7L V6 is a group 14-15 which is very reasonable for a 4x4 of this size I found my insurance through a very good website www.1stinsurancefinder.co.uk where I found it easy to navigate through and find the cheapest insurance that I needed, I can safely say that I fully recommend using this website as it’s very good for anyone who is looking to insure their car, van, house or whatever including their pet cat or dog and probably more as well




The Pros of leasing a Dodge Nitro 3.7L V6 ......

• For £23.5K total price minus the £10k discount offer which now makes the car a total of only £13.5K that I lease purchased my car for on basic speck
• 5 speed Automatic gearbox with 2 towing gears
• Cruise control
• 20 Inch platinum-clad aluminium wheels
• 6 disc auto changer which has a very good speaker sound system...well what I really meant to say is that I haven’t blown the speakers yet.
• Rear sensor parking which is of utmost importance as trying to park a car if this size would be very difficult indeed without the rear sensor parking.
• Dark tinted windows for the back seats and tail gate
• Soft opening tail gait
• Electric windows and door mirrors
• Auto dim rear view mirror to stop all these ignorant drivers who try blind you from behind with their high beam just because you overtook them

The Cons of leasing a Doge Nitro 3.7L V6 ......


• It says 4X4 on the tailgate but this is only available if you actually flick the switch otherwise it is only 2 wheel drive, if you run it in 4 wheel drive then it is REALLY thirsty...I mean big time thirsty, and it doesn’t want to drive slowly in 4 wheel drive, which means if you’re on a slippery surface while say trying to reverse out of a parking space while there’s snow or ice on the road then your screwed baby! The only way to get the wheels to move at low speed in 4 wheel drive most is to give it some throttle and as I say if you’re in icy conditions you won’t want to do this for obvious reasons.
• Extremely slow 0 -60 mph in 10.3 seconds which is not exactly impressive, the book says that it can reach a top speed of 118 mph, when I drove it on the German autobahn recently It struggled to get to 100 mph and then really struggled to reach 110 mph, there’s no way I could get her to do any more than this speed, she really struggled and would safely say she is happy to do 90 –95 mph at the most.
• The fuel economy is listed as giving only 19 miles per gallon, however the onboard computer has never ever showed better than 14.4 miles to the gallon.....Pathetic really!! especially in that I have to put £20.00 in every two days just to drive about 25 miles around the city and motorway driving is no better.
• The “Load & Go” pull out floor panel which pulls out to make loading the boot supposedly easier which is totally useless unless you’re “4 ft 0” and can’t reach the back of the boot then what’s the point ?
• Faulty electric windows that don’t know whether they want to go up or down.
• Not much stability when going around corners when its wet, fortunately the traction control system always cuts in and saves the day but it is a little freaky as you feel the backend sliding
• Far too much plastic in the interior.....I've seen less plastic in a Tupperware factory
• Although the driver’s seat is semi-automatic there is a lumbar support which is supposed to make driving comfortable, it doesn’t though as it gives you a sore back really quickly and makes long terms driving a little uncomfortable

Conclusion

It has not been my favourite car to date but when you weigh up the Pro’s with the Con’s then it is quite a reasonable car to have on your driveway and it certainly is a real eye catcher. Maybe I have been spoilt in the past as I have had a huge line up of previous cars most of which were a lot more powerful than the Dodge Nitro, I’ve driven the fantastic Porsche Cayenne Turbo, (watch this space for my Porsche Cayenne Blog in the near future), I’ve also driven a TVR Cerbera 4.2 L, 2.8i L Ford Capri, a 2.5L Ford Cougar, a Jaguar XJ8 which was much, much more refined
(I must be getting old or something), an E Class Merc, and the list goes on... and currently I’m driving my second VW Touareg, this time a 3.0L V6 TDI Altitude so yes now driving the Dodge Nitro is a bit of a blow, however when I first had my test drive it was in the 2.8 Litre Turbo model which I previously said that you couldn’t get for love nor money, this turned out to be a big lie they saw me coming! as I tried to return my 3.7 L version a few days later complaining of its lack of power and terrible fuel economy to be told by the lady in charge of the garage that almost all their cars on the forecourt and inside were all 2.8 Litre Turbo Diesels (I felt conned and bitter towards them at the time and now I will be very reluctant to do any more business with them again in the future) so beware my friends....once you sign on the dotted line when lease hiring a car be very careful and read the small print first because sometimes there is no going back.

One good thing though is that at the end of the agreement you can simply hand the car back in reasonable condition and simply walk away thus not leaving you with something that would depreciate faster than a Sinclair C5

Who’s chicken out the speck here then ?

Volkswagen Touareg

Peace at last....My Volkswagen Touareg 3.0 V6 TDI Altitude


Are you one of the many drivers like me who loves driving but hates having to do the weekend shopping, you know the scenario off by heart “how long dad are we nearly there yet”? And here you are stuck in a city centre traffic jam going nowhere fast, and other moans from the rear row of seats “mum I’m hungry” like you’re supposed to a magician and suddenly be in your local Pizza Hut, and more comments like “he’s annoying me tell him to stop it,” How many times have you heard these typical moans from the little blighters and yet here you are sat in your pride and joy and simply not enjoying the drive that you’ve waited all week for. Maybe it the fault of the garage where you bought the car after all there was no mention about this from the salesman you know “huh huh,” as the salesman clears his throat “I’m afraid that although we will attempt to sell you one of our best cars we have, we cannot guarantee that you’ll get peace and quiet from the little brats on the back seat.” No not a peep from him, where was this statement when he eagerly made you sign your life away


So what are you going to do about this situation when every single weekend of the year you’re going to be harassed silly driving the family everywhere and let’s not forget that you like me probably when you first bought the car you wanted some powerful engine and fancy alloy wheels and a nice sound system and yet you still haven’t really had that chance to use any of them to your satisfaction other than to keep up with the Jones’s next door.

Over the years I have spent fortunes on car insurance and have had various cars of all different shapes and sizes from my first car a Ford Capri that I bought at auction it was a great car until I went on my first long drive up to the North of England and that was more or less the beginning of the end, another Ford that I bought a few years later was a Ford Cougar, plenty of fun with plenty of engine torque and 170bhp to boot but terrible if you’re a rear seat passenger as there was only space for 2 people in the back and of course they were bucket seats too which we all know that you cannot fit a child safety seat in to a bucket seat, it just won’t work, no matter how hard you try 4 doesn’t go in to 2, so in those days every time we went out as a family we had to go in my partners slow but perfectly designed Nissan Micra with its 1.0L engine but hey ! no bucket seats in the back to worry about.


Anyway last year I was looking for a car that was going to be a little bigger with more space and still have plenty of grunt, something a bit more special, I also knew that it had to be good for the rest of the family too. I looked at various cars including saloon cars, MPV’s and several different 4x4’s when suddenly one day I had an accident, someone had ran in to the back of me while I was parked up and as a result the other driver was at fault and their insurance company offered me something bigger to drive as a courtesy car. Well I always say “never look a gift horse in the mouth” there I was with my seven year old Volvo that I was struggling to sell and get a good price for when next thing I know it’s been written off and I received more money from my own insurance company than I was trying to sell it for in the first place. My courtesy car turned out to be a Volkswagen Touareg 3.0L V6 TDI Altitude of which I instantly fell in love with. I had the courtesy car for about 2 weeks then extended the use of it at my own cost for about another 2 week’s, I just did not want to part with it. All my neighbours thought that I had won the lottery or something and I foolishly told all my friends and colleagues at the office that it was my new car, so one thing led to another and I paid Volkswagen a visit and shortly after I was the proud owner of my very own Volkswagen Touareg 3.0L V6 TDI Altitude.

The Volkswagen Touareg is definitely the most luxurious of all cars that I have ever driven and my advice is that if you are in the market to buy such a vehicle then you should definitely take a trip down to your local Volkswagen Dealer and book a test drive. It is probably one of the best drives you will ever experience. The Touareg has 225bhp and can sprint from 0 – 62mph in less than 8.5 seconds which is pretty dammed good considering that this car is about 2 tonnes in weight, the wheels are 19 inch spoke alloys which look really cool, and because it’s an Altitude then you get all the extra spoilers and twin chrome exhausts and a whole host of other goodies that you don’t get in the standard models. This car is definitely a head turner as the amount of people who look at you while you are sitting at the traffic lights probably wishing that they had one is unbelievable, everyone tells you “nice car mate”! Or “nice wheels” and boy racers don’t stand a chance in their heavily modified cars and their big fat exhausts blaring out sounds of thunder, one guy in a sported up car came up beside me at the traffic lights and he shouted to me “nice car mate” I told him that at least my car came with fat exhausts that were standard fit.


By far one of the nicest things in the car for me is the interior, the finish is definitely one of the best, it is utterly peerless. It has four zone climate control which means that your partner can have warm air if they want while you can have cool air at the same time, and where my kids used to complain that they were too hot in the past now at the press of a button can also have the same cool air circling around them too while they watch their favourite films on the DVD screen that unfolds from the ceiling and which now keeps them happily entertained on long journeys or in the heavy city centre traffic, as for me up front I’m more than happy sitting high above all the other traffic in what can only be described as sitting in the most comfortable leather seats I’ve ever sat on and which are heated too with 5 different settings from look warm to very warm. I particularly like it when it is dark outside as the dashboard lights up like the cockpit from the latest RAF fighter jet with interior lights colours of purple and red and I also have a state of the art satellite navigation which not only covers the UK but most of Europe too and will tell me everything from where to find the nearest hotels in a 30 mile radius to finding a bank or a restaurant anywhere in any city and in any country in Europe. My partner also seems to be very happy as she likes the warm tone of the wood effect trim along the dash board and feels like she is being treated like a lady in the luxury of this fine marque.

On the exterior is also what you would expect with high quality car like this with its metallic paint work and privacy glass windows and chrome finish around the windows and bumpers, grill, twin exhausts and wheels too. Not also forgetting that the Touareg has both front and rear sensor parking which makes parking problems a thing of the past.

The Touareg also has sleek dynamic looks, and although the engine is a diesel it’s very quiet too, at speed you can hardly hear any noise other than the wind rushing past. The automatic gearbox is very good too with 6 gears and it also is tiptronic which means that I can change into manual at any time although I don’t see the point in this as the engine is so incredibly responsive, I see little or no point in changing in to manual at any stage, what’s more there is even a sports gear which makes the transmission of the gears longer in automatically changing and gives you a more sportier drive. The fuel tank holds 100 litres of Diesel meaning fewer stops on a long journey and cheap insurance can be found online through the following online insurance website.


With two children in the back there is still loads of room and after the shopping has been done, now we never have to put the shopping in the back seats with the 2 children like we used to have to do, the boot is incredibly large with 555 Litres of space with the seats in their normal position this means you will easily get 3 large suitcases in or 2 sets of golf clubs in, and if you want to carry any abnormal loads other than the mother in law then with the seats folded flat you suddenly have a massive 1570 Litres of space.


The Volkswagen Touareg definitely isn’t cheap to buy but you will get heaps of fun and total satisfaction out of driving one, the basic car retails at about £39K without any extras and I think it’s safe to say that you should consider spending a few thousand more getting it specked out properly. You should at least get leather trim, satellite navigation, dual climate control and front and rear sensor parking otherwise you may not retain the good residual values that the Touareg enjoys. It is possible to pick up a good used 3 year old Altitude from around £25K with low mileage, and a normal Touareg but of a lower speck that the Altitude for around £23K with low mileage as well from a main dealer. One very good point to make out here is that servicing of this car is either every 2 years or every 20,000 miles whichever comes first.


Buying Insurance for the Touareg is a group 16 which means for myself is £440.00 per year fully comp which is pretty damned good and I found the insurance online through a company called 1st Insurance Finder http://www.1stinsurancefinder.co.uk/ this online insurance website was easy to use and I've now used them a few times and I'll definately use them again.

Finally on a recent trip away without the children, we took an overnight ferry from Newcastle upon Tyne to Ijmuiden near Amsterdam and then drove all the way to the Polish border to visit an elderly relative in just 7 hours and only stopping twice to refill the fuel tank in the whole journey (one way) this meant driving at high speed where the law permitted in Germany, the engine just keeps going and going and will accelerate all the way up to 125mph without stopping, once I reached about 100mph I then simply selected the sports gear on the auto box and she just cruised without any hesitation at all. The only noise you could hear was the noise of the wind rushing past the car, I drove at an average speed of about 120mph most of the way, although it wasn’t all plain sailing as Germany too has its own unfair amount of road works and parts of the Autobahn that is regulated.


Now that we are back in the UK it's back to sensible driving and being stuck in the usual city centre traffic but who cares when you are stuck in such a beautiful car as the Volkswagen Touareg

The Queen of Pop Bows to the Raging Bull

The Queen of Pop Bows to the Raging Bull

Madonna had a top hit song with Take a Bow which went in to the American charts in December 1994 and has to this day it has been her longest ever running number one song topping the Billboard Hot 100 music charts for 7 weeks. The video for this song is about a Matador who loves fighting bulls more than the love of the aristocratic woman who yearns for his return. The video for the song got to number 27 out of 50 on VH1’s Top 50 Sexiest Video Moments.

Ferruccio Lamborghini was a Taurus himself and also had a love of Bull fighting.

Ferruccio Lamborghini was a very successful business man who owned various businesses although his main line of business was building and selling tractors. Ferruccio’s philosophy was to work hard in the morning and enjoy himself in the afternoon. One day while racing his Ferrari with his close friend Enzo Ferrari he told him that he didn’t quite think that his car was good enough! Enzo took it the wrong way and replied “what would you know about building sports cars, you only know how to build tractors”? Ferruccio felt insulted and decided to build himself his own sports cars. At first everybody laughed at his big ideas. But in 1963 he opened his state of the art factory in Sant’ Agata in Bolognese about 25km from Bologna.

Ferruccio Lamborghini’s love of bulls was so strong that he would often visit Don Eduardo Miura who was the owner of a famous bull ranch in the region of Seville and who bred several species. It was this passion that led him to name several of his cars after various breeds of bull which were reared on this ranch. In 1966 at The Geneva Motor Show an early prototype car called the P400S received so much attention that it went in to production under a different name as the Miura a 4 litre car with 280 bhp which is named after a savage breed of Bull bred by Don Eduardo Miura himself, and several variations followed including the SV Concept, Roadster, SV, and the Jota
A replacement for the Miura was to become the Islero 400GT and Islero 400GTS a 2+2 coupe which was built between 1968 and 1969 and was named after the bull that killed the famous matador Manolete in 1947.
The Espada which is the Spanish word for Sword appeared in 1968 at the Geneva motor show and was designed by Marcello Gandini of Bertone the famous car designer who designed several cars for Lamborghini
Other cars which had names related to bull fighting were the Jalpa which made its debut at the Geneva Auto Show in 1981 and was named after a breed of bull.
In 1990 Diablo was named after a famous bull fight in 1869 when the Duke of Veragua’s raging bull was in an epic battle with El Chicorro.

Some of the more modern supercars of this era include the Muircéilago who was named after the legendary bull in 1879 whose life was spared by Matador El Lagartijo for his amazing performance in the arena and who survived more than 28 strokes from the estoc at this point the matador decided to spare it its life which is very unusual in bull fighting. Gallardo was the name of one of five famous castles of the fighting bull breed, and in 1943 the Reventón was named after the famous bull that took the life of the Mexican torero Félix Guzmán, and finally the 2008 concept car called the Estoque which is named after the estoc or sword in English language which is used to kill the bull in contest.

Although there was one very special Lamborghini supercar which wasn’t connected to the name of any bull or bullfighting but could quite possibly be referred to as Madonna herself. This was of course the Countach, this came about when famous car designer Giuseppe Bertone first set eyes on the car. He was almost speechless except for one word which he managed to utter! This word was of course Countach which is often said as an act of astonishment and quite often used by Piedmontese men when they first set eyes on a beautiful woman.

After many years Ferruccio Lamborghini eventually retired in 1974 from the motoring industry having become disillusioned with the business, he had gone on to build more than 67 sports cars as well as many other variations and prototypes. Returning to his roots as a farmer in Castiglione del Lago in the Provence of Perugia in Central Italy, he found a new success making wine, he also continued his many other business ventures until 1993 when he took a heart attack and died at 76 years of age.

Madonna The Queen of Pop is one of the most successful female musicians of this era, having débuted in 1983 with the hit single Everybody. Madonna has gone on from strength to strength having had 25 albums in total and with 13 number one hits here in the UK and 12 number one hits in the US.

Ferruccio Lamborghini built some of the greatest supercars the world has ever seen; he had gone on to build some of the finest supercars the world has ever seen. Lamborghini as a company has produced more than 67 sports cars including many variations and prototypes not to mention Formula 1 Racing cars. Today Lamborghini is owned and run by Audi AG which is part of the Volkswagen Group and is still producing some of the most sought after cars on the market today with that famous badge the Raging Bull

1st Insurance Finder
Thursday, 22 October 2009

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1st Insurance Finder - Bubble Trouble?

Bubble Trouble?

What better way to get around town than in a small car. Easy to just jump in the car, nip down to your local supermarket to buy a loaf of bread, and a pint of milk, easy to park, cheap car insurance and very economical to run. Sounds very easy you may think, that’s great if you’re of average height and build!

But what if you’re of big build? What if you’re like me and you find it difficult to drive a small car without your head being pushed sideways and your knees are half way up the side of the steering wheel, uncomfortable to say the least, it would almost be easier to rip the front seat out and drive your small car sitting on the back seat.

Fortunately small cars of this era are being better designed by today’s motoring manufacturers, and the people whose job it is to design cars in the first place have come to realise that many people in today’s society either have a problem with their weight or have an issue with height and so getting in and out of a small car is a little awkward if not downright uncomfortable.

This is of course where Ford comes in. In September 1996 Ford introduced us to the Ford Ka. This car has become an icon and a legend in its own rights driven by millions on British roads each year, with plenty of head room and good leg room too, enough space for 3 adult passengers, and a small suitcase in the boot, cheap car insurance, economicle to run - who could ask for more?

Ford after 12 years decided to give the public a new version of its baby classic with the new Ka not only being better built but turning heads where ever its driven. This car is built to a very high standard and definitely oozes sex appeal and being further enhanced with a list of optional extras available including sports chrome wheels , fancy paint work and leather trim, while the standard trim still gets you (EPAS) electric power assisted steering and (ABS) anti lock breaking system, and with (EBD) electronic brake force distribution and if all this is too technical for you, you will still get the ultra cool interior layout, and a radio/CD player with MP3/AUX jack and a six speaker system.

· There are 4 models of Ford Ka in the range to choose from with the basic model called Studio starting at around just over £8,500 and rising to just over £9,000 for the aptly named Style and next up is the Style+ comes in at just under £10,000, and finely on to the top of the range is the Zetec which is reasonably priced at just under £10,400

· Engines are low carbon and available in both 1.2 Litre Duratec petrol and the sportier 1.3 Litre Duratorq TDCi diesel engine which both emits less than 120g/km
So back to my thoughts of are small cars uncomfortable to drive for larger people like me?,

My answer would be thanks to Ford with their super new Ka design, I’d be more than happy to consider buying a new Ka as Ford have taken the trouble to design a larger than life bubble.

Check out online insurance quotes at http://www.1stinsurancefinder.co.uk/

1st Insurance Finder

1st Insurance One Stop Shop online Insurance Quotes

Find the best insurance deals online with 1st insurance finder1st Insurance Finder provides a specialist online insurance comparison service that strives to offer our customers the most comprehensive and cost efficient Insurance products currently in the marketplace.


Buy insurance online, our products include budget Car & Van Insurance, cheap Home Insurance, Home contents Insurance through to affordable Term Life Insurance, Event Insurance as well as Travel and Holiday Insurance – (please see our insurance products page for further details) 1st Insurance Finders online Insurance providers are authorized and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. We are proud to work on behalf of some of the most established Insurance companies in the marketplace; these Insurance specialists include Columbus Insurance, Prudential Insurance, as well as ASDA and Tesco Insurance Compare services.