What will James Bond’s next car be? | The Car Podcast #51

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Hello and welcome to a mostly bespectacled Episode 51 of the car podcast with Chris

Harris and his pals.

Three of us are UK based.

One of us is living it large in Ibiza in it, Manish, with his bins on.

Let's start straight away with a very, very important point before we start why I'm wearing

bins.

There is a really good reason to do that.

Okay.

Well, basically just before I came out on holiday, I bought two pairs of spectacles.

I haven't been to have my eyes tested in a while and I had a normal prescription

pair and I had these prescription sunglasses made on my first evening in Ibiza.

I perhaps partook too much of the rosé.

Mr. Step got my balance right.

This is whilst wearing the normal glasses and did that thing that you never do.

I walked into some patio doors.

I hit my head so hard the actual glasses flew off and the right arm snapped off.

Because they're really brand new glasses that you're supposed to put on, they kept

doing this.

If I did it with one.

The bottom line is I've spent five days wearing sunglasses to bed, breakfast, lunch, dinner,

shower.

I've basically got to wear these, otherwise I can't see.

So that is why I'm wearing these glasses.

I apologise.

That is one of the best excuses I've ever heard, Manish.

You look cool as you've got palm trees behind you and a lovely blue sky and Chris

Cooper is now taking the piss.

Right.

Let's start with this.

What should James Bond's next car be?

There's so much chat about who the actor should be, but the conversation is all wrong.

No one gives a shit who plays James Bond.

We care about what the car is, don't we?

That's of course we care about the actor, but fundamentally the cars are what it's

all about.

I'm going to go straight over to our James Bond car correspondent, Neil Clifford,

who I'm sure has some thoughts on this subject.

My thinking here is new owners of James Bond, or half-owners, Amazon.

Well, if you read the detail, they've still got a 50-50 JV on the creative authority of

the thing.

I thought he completely washed their hands of it.

No, the brookleys are out.

They're gone.

Yeah.

Brookleys are gone.

Well, yeah.

Have a read of the detail of that.

Anyway, I agree.

It's Amazon.

So Amazon have got to come up with a whole new strategy of James Bond, and probably let's

hope not, but could well possibly bugger it up.

But let's hope they don't.

Let's hope they come up with a great strategy.

Now, if I was doing that, my strategy would be a bit like some of what Star Wars, where

you go back.

You go back further.

You go back to the start.

A bit like Wicked, which I think was about the witches, wasn't it?

And therefore, you're going back to the original James Bond.

You're going back to whenever it was, Manish will know, the 30.

Wicked was the Wizard of Oz, wasn't it?

Yeah.

Wicked was pre-Wizard of Oz, yes.

So you're jumping back.

And therefore, you're going to put him in a Bentley, because you're, you know, not

as if I've read the bloody books, but if you Google it, he drove a Bentley.

And he drove a slate gray or flat gray Bentley with red leather.

Nice.

So there's going to be a bidding war anyway on this, isn't there?

Because, you know, it's the most over-commercialized film in a great way, and, you know,

a ship on movie is great.

But there's so much product in there, isn't there, that's paid for.

So there's going to be a bidding war between Aston and Bentley.

They will win.

And then you're going to take that new SuperSport, that's not on their website, but I've seen

it on Instagram.

They've launched a SuperSport.

It's not on the website, but you're going to bore it out, because the current car is

a four-litre V8, but the original Bond car was a Bentley four-and-a-half-litre blower.

So you're going to make a special one of 50, because you're going to commercialize it as

well on some of these cars.

And you're going to make it into a race engine, a four-and-a-half-litre Bentley.

And you're going to take that hybrid shit out, and you're going to put two superchargers

in this car.

So it's going to be 800 horsepower, but not hybrid.

And you're going to make 50.

And then it's obviously the real James Bond's car is going to have machine guns

and ejector seats and smoke and other little toys that we can possibly think of.

But basically, it's a slate gray, non-metallic, Bentley SuperSport, bored out four-and-a-half-litre

twin supercharger, and we all want one.

That's what we're going to do.

There's a lot of sense in there.

Manish, I have to say, is often seen reading rather lovely old, well-thumbed copies

of Ian Fleming Bond novels.

I've never seen him read so many, or anyone read as many as he does.

So you must be an authority on this, Manish, or have thoughts?

I do.

I always bring on holiday.

In fact, he bought from Russia with love with me.

And if you remember the movie, right at the beginning, Bond is by, I don't know

where he is.

He's in Henley or somewhere.

He's in the wooded area, at the wooded cops.

Yes.

And weirdly, the lady who played that in the film was meant to be in many Bond films,

but she only made two.

And in fact, she's the one that he says Bond, James Bond to, in Dr. Noah, the casino.

So you actually see her twice.

I think of all the topics we've ever had on this podcast.

This is the hardest I have ever faced.

I think this is a really, really difficult challenge that I was imagining.

For me, the iconic Bond car is obviously Sean Connery's DB5.

And I was wondering, why is this thing so iconic?

Well, I think if he'd parked that on Bond Street, you at the time, it might have slightly

turned your head, but I don't think you'd want to graffiti it or scratch it.

I think if he'd parked that and you saw him get out and have lunch at Scots with Moneypenny,

you just think, what a cool guy.

And it was such a sort of complete car.

The look, I mean, just, you know, when something is just right, I didn't think that Bentley

Blower was right.

No, I wrote, I mean, a few qualities.

The Bentley Blower was powerful.

It was agile.

Probably the most important thing was it was resilient.

It was designed for Le Mans.

When that car could go flat out for 24 hours, Bond very often has very long chases.

Goldfinger in the North is a fantastic, very long chase in that.

But I said, it's got to be parkable anywhere and kind of slightly vanish.

It needs to be repairable because Q has got to be able to repair this car.

And it's got to be loaded with all kinds of gadgets.

And you know what?

I think they have to build.

I think they have to build a new Bond car.

And I think it's got to be somewhere between this McLaren F1 SL that Murray has done.

I think it's also got to be a bit Aston Martin DB12.

And I think it's got to have the interior of the best ever modern Bentley.

So that's my answer.

There isn't one.

I think you have to invent a car and it's going to be an Aston Bentley McLaren.

Colab.

Yeah.

A British car.

Colab.

Yeah.

Manish.

I think it's very, very nearly right.

I think this is, I think this is the biggest question in motoring right now, by none.

I almost think this is an emergency podcast territory.

In fact, Finn, when we go back, we have a little, the little Frank Drebbin, little

police squad red revolving thing and the wah wah wah.

Very close to emergency podcast territory for actually very similar reasons to what the

two of you chapters had so far.

You kind of go back to the beginning, but you're not quite sure that's where you actually

want to be now.

And I think I almost, if we had more time, I'd have prerecorded myself in front of

the McLaren factory, a Bentley factory, an Aston Martin factory, and a Jaguar factory

zipping around just to sort of show how dramatic and important this question is.

I also agree.

I think this is a car that doesn't exist yet.

It's definitely British and probably more so than that DB10 thing they did in that

inspector and became the first modern V8 Vantage.

They called it DB10, didn't they, in the film?

They made some for their best customers, so they do exist.

I've never seen one for sale.

No, I've never seen one.

But I think the dominant gene of this collab, I think it's a Jag, I think it's a Jaguar.

It's a Jaguar that we'd all, we'd all dreamed to exist.

And a new bond.

Wouldn't that be great if a new CEO of Jaguar did that?

Yeah.

That would be pretty cool.

Yes.

Would that be?

New Jag.

How irritating am I that you've said that, because that was my idea.

I should never have let you go first.

Great mind.

He just, he butted in, you didn't let him go first.

Sorry about that.

I agree more.

And I think Jaguar has the opportunity to pull off the PR coup of the decade and right all

of the wrongs of that pink nonsense, if it just said, right, what's our marketing budget

for the relaunch of this thing?

Just throw it all at Bond, make a Bond car, throw everything at Bond and it's, and hopefully

we'll have a massive cool Britannia revival, it'll be like 97, a lot more like Brit

pop is cool.

Yeah.

The country will feel good about itself.

Yeah.

We'll get the Olympics back.

Everything will be brilliant.

We're at the Oasis.

Maybe it's a B type, a Bond type.

They never did a B type, did they?

That's good.

Love it.

I love that.

We should be in charge of everything.

We could.

It's interesting when Manage said, I'm trying to assess, you know, what is a Bond

car?

It's really interesting.

I'm lucky enough to have stood in a room full of real Bond cars, not at a museum, you

know, and a private shoot.

And actually, it's a much more varied nuanced subject than we realise.

And I don't, even though the DB5 is the iconic car, or I'm told it was a DB4

Vantage, wasn't it actually?

It wasn't actually a DB5.

Is that not the case?

I think it was a five, wasn't it?

No, it's a four Vantage.

Four hasn't got those headlamps.

Five has got those headlamps.

Go on to the forums.

So I said DB5 in front of someone with a large forehead.

And they went, no, no.

So, but when you stand around the cars, you do realise that actually, when I was

a kid, it wasn't a DB5.

It was the wider spree from the survive.

You love me.

There was a much more powerful symbol of James Bond's driving scenes, I think.

And I think a brand like James Bond should serve as a resurrection

tool for our great car brands.

So if it's not Jaguar, and if it still survives, it should be a Lotus.

But just, you know, Bentley's doing fine.

McLaren's got its recovery package going.

I think it should be either a Lotus or a Jaguar.

Yeah.

I think it'd be great.

I'll show you a little photo that a friend of mine took this.

This is, can you see this?

This was just parked in his, just randomly today.

He heard about this question.

He said, look what's parked in my little outdoor car park.

I think that's a DB4.

And what year is that, Bentley?

Yeah, it is.

It's a V8.

Oh, it's a J.

There's no doubt that, you know, Aston is a great Aston.

For me, it's still Aston.

But I would shake it up if I was...

I think that's where we've all got to, isn't it?

Yeah, it is.

Yeah, but Aston's cool.

But Jenny, do you know if you've been directing it?

And Stephen Knight is going to be right.

I mean, they're going to be brilliant.

I promise you, the films are going to be absolutely brilliant,

whatever they are.

I mean, you could see them in a vanquish.

I mean, what's the silly one?

Valhalla.

Valkyrie?

No.

That's a toy car.

He never has a toy car.

No.

No, it has a car with toys.

Didn't they have the Valhalla in the wind tunnel?

God knows why there was a wind tunnel anyway.

In the last Daniel Craig thing, just sort of behind him.

And God knows how much they've done for that.

Yes.

I mean, the Victor, that one-of-one thing.

Yeah.

That's a cool...

Yeah.

That's a cool bond.

That's got a whiff of bond about it.

Yeah, it has.

It has.

But, I mean, Jag, that would be a marketing piece of genius,

that would.

Yeah.

That would write all of the wrongs.

Yeah.

OK.

Name a car trying a bit too hard.

That's a really, really good question, that is.

I'm going to go straight to Cooper on this.

Oh.

So, quite interesting question, isn't it?

What do we mean by trying too hard?

Do we mean uncool?

Or do we mean the right direction,

but it actually took itself too seriously?

And I think what we mean by that...

I mean, it's Neil's question,

if we were anything to see what Neil,

how Neil you've interpreted this.

But I kind of thought, I started thinking,

if this was a person, how would we know

that this was a person trying slightly too hard?

And I...

Bear with me for a second on this one.

When you...

Not that I watched them, but I'm aware that they exist

and occasionally see them on here,

these sort of reality TV things like Love Island or whatever.

And the blokes on there have clearly...

They've been to the gym,

but they've just taken it slightly too far.

So, their calf muscles are just too big.

That's not cool.

And they wear those trousers.

They wear those trousers,

which the young folk of today seem to...

Some of them, not all of them,

but some of them seem to very, very much cherish,

so the trousers are just too tight.

So, they're stretched over these distended calves

and they're slightly too short.

Don't like that.

Trousers are too short.

No, my mother would be horrified by that.

So, it's sort of...

They've gone the right direction,

but it's just...

It's slightly too much.

It's sort of...

Could it be uncool?

I think it's just trying.

No, now we don't like it.

It's offensive.

It's sort of...

I wouldn't have you around for tea.

I wouldn't be seen in that car,

would be what it was.

I think there's a real life...

I say real life.

It's not real life.

Both of these cars.

There are two, basically.

One is an example of where it didn't use to try too hard,

but now it definitely does,

and that's the Audi RS6.

Didn't use to try too hard.

Tries too hard now,

but there is only one winner of this question.

Don't fucking choose, my new bastard.

It's the T50.

Okay, that's not my...

It's the T50.

That fan is trying too hard.

The ones that he announced in Pebble Beach Quail,

neither of them had that little fanny thing on the back.

Even the beautiful, and it looks beautiful,

the way he's done the F1 thing.

It doesn't even know what Peter Stevens thinks.

I suspect we all know exactly what Peter Stevens thinks of that.

But I think the T50...

He's letting everyone know on Instagram.

Yeah, the T50 is trying too hard,

because it's sort of a bit unnecessary.

If you like that idea of a little big fan-suckery

sort of downforce thing,

the mercury have kind of sailed that ship

and sunk it in the mouth of the harbor,

and nobody's coming in or out.

So the T50, I think, right now...

And it's really irritating,

because the cars that try too hard,

you think, no, why did you do it?

You didn't have to do that.

That's my answer.

I'm really torn by this,

because I get what you're saying.

I was lucky enough...

I can probably say this,

but I'm breaking the embargo.

I spent a bit of time down at GMA last week,

and I got to talk to Gordon.

He's not been very well,

and it's really good to see him so full of energy.

It's quite weird when you're standing next to someone

who has achieved things that I can only imagine achieving.

And when you're asked about his car,

I can't but be honest.

I never quite got the way it looked.

And he doesn't get offended at all.

He's very professional.

He just goes, yeah, he goes,

I wanted to design something that was timeless.

It was about the packaging.

It wasn't about added bits,

and therefore the fan bit for him,

I do believe, was honest.

But what I find really strange is,

now I've driven it,

I view the car completely differently,

because once you've read the thing out to 12 on the road,

you view it completely differently.

Yeah, the engine's mega.

No, but it totally alters the way you look at the car afterwards.

It's such a weird thing.

I drove it,

and now I have utter lust for the vehicle

in a way that I just didn't before I drove it.

I'm prepared to drive it

and arrive at the same conclusion.

I'm available for that realignment.

You're also so cherished.

Yeah, the fan, I get the fan bit,

but I can't really describe the engine.

I can't really describe the rest of it.

It's an extraordinary motor vehicle.

When you're driving it, you're not looking at it, are you?

No, exactly.

Matt Manish, what do you think about this?

Well, do you remember a while ago,

we talked about facelifts

that we thought made cars much worse?

And I'm just going to take the Chris Cooper analogy a step further.

So you're talking about something

that fundamentally could have been right,

could have been okay,

but actually,

going to the gym,

taking too many steroids

and wearing the wrong trousers

just took you out.

For me, there's only one,

and it's a particular one.

It's the Kuntas 25th anniversary,

but with a wing.

Yeah, that's good.

And I think that wing,

there's just something about adding that wing

to an already absolutely unnecessary car.

You just add an unnecessary wing.

I mean, there's no way James Bond is driving that,

or a captain of industry,

or a very capable heart surgeon.

I mean, that is definitely,

I really want to be Rod Stewart,

but I can't sing.

There is something so wrong about that car.

That is for me the ultimate.

And in white,

it's just everything that could be trying too hard

about a car.

Yeah, it is trying too hard, yeah.

Neil, I think you posed this.

I really like this, Gawd.

I did.

These are two good questions to start off the podcast.

I think we're peaking too early, Chaps.

I was going to go SF-90,

just because, for fuck's sake,

if you design a car,

you can't put any luggage in it.

You just get in yourself about it, really, aren't you?

But I think for me, there's a clear winner.

It's one specific car,

but it's a series of cars,

which one manufacturer, which we all love

and we talk about this manufacturer,

often for many other people, too much.

It's limited edition 911s.

And I'll give you a specific one.

The Targa.

Well, the Targa could be up there, right?

The Targa's also shit, isn't it?

But the 50th anniversary turbo.

Yeah.

With the 50 written alongside.

And actually, any...

Okay, they do the GT3 thing and all that.

It's amazing.

That's their limited edition.

But when they start taking standard cars

and coming up with a stupid reason

to try and get another 20 grand off the punters,

but more importantly than that, they stick horrible.

The Germans are really quite bad at livery and logo.

Yeah.

They stick horrible liveries on them.

And then on the website,

Porsche Design Chronograph.

Only for the owners of high performance anniversary edition,

the Porsche Design Chronograph 911 Turbo 50th year watch,

limited to 1,974 pieces,

brings the feeling of the turbo to your wrist.

Lots of wank.

What the fuck is that all about?

With this poor guy going,

I had to buy this fucking watch to get this car.

It's already gone down 25 grand.

The limited edition Porsche thing is...

And we adore Porsche and they make some of the best cars,

if not most of the bloody best cars in the world.

But when they start doing liveries and stickers

and limited editions,

because they're all sat around the boardroom going,

shit, sales are 5% down.

What can we knock up now for an extra 30 grand?

Oh fuck, it's 50 years of the turbo.

It's really trying too hard.

That is.

I totally agree.

That's a good call.

Well, at least you know you'll be on the list

for all the limited series cars in the future.

There's a rumoured SC coming.

The convertible GT3.

Yeah, that's the world's worst.

World's worst secret.

I've just been crossed off the list.

Somewhere between Redding and Bristol.

Approximately.

This is a great question because

my interpretation of it is

probably from a

journalistic view.

This probably won't happen ever again,

but one of the most exciting events

if you're a total car nerd

throughout the 70s, 80s, 90s and into the 90s

was when you had new market entrance.

So you had brands that were established in other areas

that would make a model that would take on

a new vertical they hadn't been in before.

They were the best moments.

They generated amazing vehicles.

Some really clever thinking.

Think of when Mercedes did the 190.

They took on the three series.

In the early 80s that was huge news.

When Honda bought the NSX

straight at Ferrari and Porsche's Gullit,

the NSX took on the three series.

What often happened was

you could tell how well controlled

a brand was.

Whether the people that ran the company

really understood what they were doing.

Because they would normally execute in a way

that made you go so seamless.

They'd been in that marketplace for years.

When the 190 arrived,

they were like, you've been here for 10 years already, haven't you?

The 190 just looked right.

The genius like Bruno on the books

is going to be much easier to execute.

I remember a few of those

when I was working that were really exciting.

I remember going to see the Lexus IS 200

which was huge news.

That was Lexus taking on the three series.

That was their 190 moment.

And I think that slightly fell under the

heading of trying too hard on reflection.

There was a brand that was doing so well in America

and they tried to take on the three series

but they couldn't quite do it.

They built a car.

I remember a BMW engineer telling me when they took one apart

that they thought the game was over

because they couldn't believe how much money Lexus spent

on all the components and we can't compete with this.

But the sum of the components

was missing something.

And what they did is they applied a bit of chints.

I always remember the rear lights of the IS 200

was my definition of trying too hard.

I remember, yeah.

I just saw them and thought,

they're just a bit too dual like that.

The rear light clusters alone

is trying too hard.

So there's a few examples

in my working life like that.

I think that was one.

I also

totally agree that the latest RS6

is the definition of...

Is it trying too hard

or is it going a step too far?

Are they different phrases?

It's very interesting distinction.

For me it's gone a step too far.

It's lost any sense of cue

which was the whole point of the bloody

genre wasn't it?

The superstate is supposed to lurk under the radar

and I think it looks faster stationary

than any Ferrari, the RS6.

The car that for me takes it

is just trying too hard

actually that I've driven.

It's an exciting motor vehicle

and I'm not trying to wind them up

but if you look at the starting point

of the F12 Ferrari

I think one of the great

road-going Ferraris, if not

for sure.

It ends up as the 812 Evolutioni

which

I saw one yesterday at Silverstone

and I honestly think

if the four of us got together with some MDF

some glue and a load of beers

we could do a better job.

It's an absolute abomination to look at.

The green car

that was opposite the family.

I just don't get it.

I don't see how that is factory sanctioned.

So talk about trying too hard

if you drive that

sorry

I'd have an F12 all day long

but there you go.

These are three examples from me.

We all had a go at that.

It's a good one.

I've got loads more.

Car

finance

I'll add one other thing.

I always thought

I always had

in my mind

an absolute top-line model

of a car

often the one below it was the one that

made you look like you weren't trying too hard.

Maybe that's another way of approaching it.

How do you look like you're not trying too hard?

Do you mean

S500

not S560?

Exactly.

I always used to turn up

I remember being in Switzerland filming

and every time I saw just an

S4 Audi on Swiss plates

that is the definition of

very good.

That's the definition of not trying too hard.

We're comfortable with yourself.

If you've got the RS

it looked like you're trying too hard

and on the other side that was the case.

And I think

540 versus 530

sometimes if you came back one

you weren't trying as hard.

320i

So we're going to now discuss

the car finance

that ended up in the High Court

and Chris Cooper is going to explain

what the ruling was

and what we think about this situation.

So we probably all

saw

on social media lots of

adverts

and

people that we know in the automotive world

we all know who they were

imploring us

to get in contact

with the whole myriad of claims

management companies

because

the world was going to burn to the ground

over the behaviour

of dealers and lenders over

car finance

and we're all going to get lots of money back

bigger than the PPI scandal from

10, 15 years ago

and

it became a really, really big thing

for motor dealers, car makers, whatever.

It all came to a head

in a Supreme Court

ruling about a month ago

three or four weeks ago

and essentially boiling it all down

to the simplest level

it was about two questions

one was very, very general

which was

is there basically, has there basically been

illegal behaviour

in car dealers

and essentially was car dealers

and occasionally brokers

withholding the fact

that car dealers get commission

from banks and other finance institutions

who lend the money

to us to finance cars. Hands up

who's used car finance? I've used car finance.

90% of

new cars in the UK

are financed with car finance

a healthily

functioning modern economy

whether it's for computers

for houses

for soft things like software

and certainly cars, tractors

lorries, buses

machine tools, equipment for factories

all require finance

in other words a bank

or something like a bank to lend money

to a customer so they can finance something

they don't have the capital or the ready

available cash for

so it's a really, really important thing

to get clarified

so there were two things that came

in front of the Supreme Court

one was

actually was it illegal

not to tell customers

that they were earning a commission

from a lender

to do the finance

and this became a big question

because the court that's below the Supreme Court

in the UK

the Court of Appeal

when they're looking at some test cases

three individual customers who brought their cases

said yes, actually

dealers did owe

what's called a fiduciary duty

i.e.

that they need to act in the interest of somebody else

not themselves

not surprisingly

the Supreme Court

decided this was utter bobbins

who could reasonably have

thought that a car dealer

was acting in their interest

i mean come on

you know

no one could reasonably believe that

and funnily enough the Supreme Court

you can read all this online

pretty much said who believes that

honestly

go and have yourself checked out if you think a car dealer

is acting in your interest not in theirs

so at a stroke

the vast majority

of the potential exposure

of banks and dealers and other lenders

and all of this

ridiculous excitement about

all these adverts we see on social media

dead

pretty much most of that

overnight with the Supreme Court ruling

there was a second question

which was slightly more

nuanced and a bit more complicated

probably a bit more to it

and this has been bubbling around

since almost the last 10 years

which are the so called

discretionary commission

arrangements now again

these have been around

for as long as i can remember

when i've been buying cars

probably since the romans

since somebody invented a wheel

and attached a vehicle

to it

discretionary commission agreements

have been a bit of a thing

and the idea of these arrangements

is that if a car dealer

or a broker

could get a higher

interest rate

from the customer they get more commission

from the lender

so clear conflict of interest

the regulator of these things

the FCA financial conduct authority

a few years ago maybe about

2018 i think somewhere like that

decided actually these are wrong

they've been around for decades

and decades

and in 2021

2021 they were deemed to be

illegal in other words you had to tell

the customer what the interest rate was

you couldn't vary it depending on how much

you squeeze out of them and deal

so those have been deemed to be

they were banned in 2021

so what the

Supreme Court said was there may be cases

prior to 2021

where some customers

didn't know what was going on

and if you look at the individual facts

of the case may have suffered

what's called harm that is

sounds like an obvious word it's a technical

legal word for

if things have been fair would they have

paid a lower price

so there is a small number

when you add all up it might be

a lot of money but it's a small number of cases

and individual

settlements might be much more

they're not going to be £10,000

people aren't going to be getting PPI type settlements

which at one level is a shame because

when consumers got all their PPI money

where it was after the GFC

people spending their PPI settlements

made a huge economic difference

the country suddenly there was 50 billion

of cash out there with people saying

it's Christmas early

so on these DCA agreements

the Supreme Court said yes

they probably do need

in some cases to be examined

where is it all now

so the FCA immediately after the Supreme

Court beginning of August said

we think there will be some compensation

we're going to consult in the next

six weeks or sometimes September will tell

you how we're going to deal with that

for the people listening

to this and asked as well because I've probably had

some agreements to fit into this category

the FCA has said

you don't need to use claims management

companies we may well

prescribe that

lenders have to sort this out for you

in fact you may not have to do

anything at all

so while the FCA is deliberating

what they're doing right now we're right at the end of August

they're doing it right now sometimes

September they will come back and say yes that's fine

so there may be some

mitigation to be

paid back to certain customers with these DCOs

one of the best quotes I saw about this

was

beginning of August Paul Barker

editor of auto express and esteemed

weekly is it still weekly

I used to work with Paul

yep, good guy

so he said today's Supreme Court ruling

which found that car finance firms

did not unlawfully

missell products simply by failing to

doze commission narrows the scope

anyone who

signed up for a discretionary commission arrangement

should between

2007-21 should still be eligible for

commission and the FCA is expecting

set out steps next few weeks

in the meantime Paul Barker and auto express said

we strongly

advise against using claims

management companies

which often take a hefty cut of any compensation

30%

probably or more

instead there are free tools and official routes

available to you to make a claim directly

these claims management

companies claim that they can tell you what

you're owed I don't know this

for sure because I don't know how the data protection

will work but I'm pretty sure if you go

to your credit referencing agency like an

Experian on Equifax during credit check

it will give you a list of all the agreements

you've ever had I think going back more than

six years

so you can do some of those things

waiting for the FCA

to

tell you how it's going to happen

so the bottom line of all of that is that

common sense is perverting

the FCA might still make a bit of a mess of it

if I'm honest

I'm wondering in the press about that

but a healthy functioning

car finance sector

will return

is returning has returned really

which is essential for our economy

for manufacturers for us

how we access cars because if all the

banks said it's far too risky

we're going to end money on tractors

or space rockets or aircraft

or railway

carriages but not cars

people in this country would

be harder to access cars so I think

it's not quite all as well as it ends well

there are still some matters to be resolved on these GCAs

but that's where we've got to

and I think Paul Barker gives a good

advice to say

sound still

clear of the claims management companies

there are tools available online check your own

credit referencing agency wait until

the FCA comes back in September

that is my summary of the matter my lord

the reason I'm looking at is my dog

has started to come into the room and is having

a 10 minute drink which is very noisy

I'm sorry about that so I apologise

very good summary there Mr C

look cars on the table I got approached

to do one of these adverts and I nearly did it

the only reason it didn't go up is there was a massive

cock up

in my edit and it never went up

so I'm not whiter than white

you know we've all got a way of living and I can't

make films for free wait there

PEP

and

my drinks for hours that dog

so

I get it

and I also

the advice I totally get but I've got

to offer the counterpoint which is all bloody

lazy and if

someone presents a really easy tool

and you get

70% of what you might be owed back

well most people just go stuffer I'll use the

service don't they but I can see

also that

these sums of money probably aren't going to be in the same

areas

magnitude of as PPI are they

they're looking at a couple so what you're going to get

is a percentage of the gap

that your own in other words if the rate

was

how do they calculate the rate you should have been

offered that's the bit I don't understand

that that is one of the questions that appears

unresolved right now which is

because the paperwork

the FCA

and we all know you keep your records for six years if it's the

tax man or whatever it is

some of these go back nearly 20 years

so will the lender have

the paperwork or will they have followed

their own protocols of disposing

of documents so they're not lying around with

people's details in so

that that is a very murky area

as to do they even have the paperwork

and if so how would they calculate

harm or what should you have paid

there is

on this on the non on the

just a pure

did you was it okay that the dealer took

commission there was one case

that the supreme court did up hold

where

the commission was so

ridiculously large that was

regarded as illegal under

existing long standing consumer credit act

regulation and I think that's

probably very much an outlier

involving that particular lender

and conduct they had at the time

so I mean I haven't checked myself

but I'm guessing that Martin Lewis the consumer

champion you go to

his website there will be lots of tools

you can use blah blah blah

but you're right Chris there may be some

who still want to do it and say look

somebody else manage the problem for me

yeah I might

when this all blew up

I remember thinking quite glad that didn't go

up so there we go I'm being very honest with

you and maybe I should have looked at it

a bit more closely and I might have said

this is not the right thing to do but ultimately

we all

we all experiment don't we anything to add

Neil Clifford car finance manage you've never

financed a car have you

but I do have the great quote it says

Marcus Johnson this is the third case

you were talking about Marcus Johnson

who was a Suzuki Swift and was charged

one thousand six hundred and fifty one

pounds in commissions on a car

worth six thousand four hundred and ninety

nine that's the case

that's the case that

Mr Cooper was talking about I mean

it's unbelievable

they absolutely

the commission was a quarter of the

resale value of the car

and half the interest payments

I remember going to a

very well-known car dealership

group

in probably ten years ago

and as I was

you know I was never

in the days of free money

you know I just financed everything

of course you did you went as skinny as possible

there was nothing and you just pay

you just and you were gambling on the vehicle going out

because you knew the market well

and I remember sitting there

computer was doing this well I put

20 in what do you want

one year two years three years

yeah it's usual thing what product do you want

and I thought I've never asked the question

is that the best rate you can offer me

because you don't when you're sitting there

and they've given you your very expensive cup of tea

in a nice mug you just want them to say yes

exactly you just want

you go oh

when they say yes but I just said

is that the best rate you can offer me

and he went

you can see his face slightly crumpled

he's like shit that's the question

we don't want to be asked because no one asks it

and I didn't do it because I was being clever

I was just curious and he went

well actually we could and I thought oh my god

that's what I did think this is a bit more complicated

than I first realised

yeah yeah yeah I think that's fine

is that the best price you can offer

yes you've got the smell of the car

you don't

at that point you don't give a shit do you

you just want him to say oh yes

it's been authorised you're like great

also that's another

Finn write this down for us please

shit you've done in car showrooms

that you can't quite believe I can remember

buying a car

I mean the stuff you buy

I remember coming home once I bought

a 997 Carrera 2

I came home with a Recaro baby

baby seat for a child that

hadn't yet been born

and I think it was

£600 and you can get the same

one in mother care for about 80

yeah I remember thinking

everyone in the house going what

have we done that for you

you're mesmerised by these showrooms

the tat that you buy I'll have one of them

yeah you just want him to say yes

you're committed straight away

committed yeah doesn't really matter

why much the interest rate is

moving on

to a very very important

segment this

Chris Cooper is going to have his chance

to launch

cheese or car

so this is a

I gather a quiz an interactive

quiz it helps if you can see

if you can't see this is a

difficult one probably is that the case or not

no it's there are some visuals

but everyone can

everyone can play along at home

so

this is the first in

what might be an occasional series

it might be a one of one

depending on how this goes

I mean may never decide to do this again

so

it sort of plays

there's a bit of a British theme in what we're talking about tonight

after James Bond

and British

great British car brands

so

we had to go a while ago at

cheese or service station

could you be spot

from the name

is that a cheese or is it a service station

harder than it sounded

to be clear we didn't have a go

we knocked it out of the park

I think you got two out of ten

and Neil got one out of ten

Neil did worse

than somebody purely guessing

because he was trying to

that might happen tonight

so I have a list of

twelve names

of British car makers

these are makers names

not model names, makers names

some still exist

some may be

resting

in that great lexicon of great British car brands

from recent or past

years

and I've also perused a list of

British cheeses

of soft or hard

cheddar or goatee or other varieties

and

I'm going to read these twelve names

and you've got to decide

whether they are

cheese

or

car

so here we go I'm going to call them all out

you need to think about it and then we'll go through them and say which one it is

alright so the first one is

Beauford

Beauford cheese

or car

number two

Buckland

car or cheese

number three

is Brinkburn

cheese or car

car or cheese

number four

is Crowdy

C-R-O-W-D-I-E

why is that funny

you're motoring me

you're complaining about the music

Crowdy

number five

is Darian

Darian

D-A-R-R-I-A-N

hmm this is harder

than I thought obviously

and the next one

Dunlop

I think we know that one

that's a trick one

pretty fucking trick

Fairthorpe

and then one, two, three, four, five, six

number eight

Farley Wallop

that's a trick one as well

number nine

Simon

number ten

is Pilbeam

I think they're all fucking cheeses

number eleven

it's a trick

is Renegade

yeah

and number

the last one, number twelve

is Strathcarran

yeah

I can only guarantee

I've got three of those right

yeah

that's three more than I can guarantee

I'm going to call

hold your answer up now

so we can make sure you're not cheating

you've actually written something down

that's my answer

take a screenshot of that now

there we go

right okay so you haven't cheated

you've got two sets of answers

right okay

what do we think Beauford is?

car

it is a car

do you know what it is?

it's still made

it's that

they're lovely I'm sure

occasionally there's wedding cars

they're like white old fashioned

vintage cars

with big red wings

they've got mishandese engines in them

yeah that's a Beauford

that's a Beauford

I've got that

who's got that?

I thought it was a Bristol

to be honest

Buckland

what do you think Buckland is?

cheese

it's a Morgan old boy

it's a car

it's a screen wheeler kit car

it's still made

I'm not sure how many there's been

that's a car

definitely on the Q plate

if we can find a picture one at all

Buckland

right number three Brinkburn

cheese or car

cheese

please don't be a car

it's cheese old boy

yes

great

right

you should know this one

sorry hang on

I missed one out

what do you think Crowdy is?

I've written car

it sounds like a car

to me

get the Crowdy old boy

it's cheese

it's a Scottish cream cheese

it actually sounds quite delicious

it's tasting notes

anyway

I'll tell you what goes very well

what goes very well with cheese

a good cheese is whiskey

it does

totally

I think I can go wrong there

right Daryon

car

it is a car

Mr H what is it?

rally car

it's a rally car

Dunlop

cheese

yes

it's a trick it's a cheese

don't try and trick us with your cheese humour Cooper

cheese

it's a cheese

it's actually

it's not a hard cheese it's a soft cheddar

that one

this is Dunlop

Dunlop is a soft cheddar

that's number six what's number seven then?

Fairthorpe

sounds like a cheese

it's got to be a cheese

no he's going to hold up a bloody car isn't he?

it's a Morgan Allboy

it's a car

it's actually quite nice

it's a little two seater

glass fibre body

a little sort of midget size sort of thing

bit more faired round than that

it's got a motorcycle engine

actually look quite cool I quite liked it

so Fairthorpe is a car

right Farley Wallop

this is obvious

I know it's a cheese but I'm hoping it's a car

so I wrote it

I wrote cheese

it's a cheese

yes

do you know

who cheese is it?

Farley Wallop

is that Alex James off of blur?

where was it?

no

it's a semi soft

pasteurised goat's cheese

it's wrapped in

pulled in time

and has elements of citrus and lime

I thought it sounded quite nice

Farley Wallop

right Huntsman

cheese

I think it's a car

should be car

is a cheese

yes

I'm doing badly here I need these last three

right I'm in trouble here

right I'm good

that's a car

cheese

it's definitely a car

it is a very famous manufacturer

of single-seaters

for the hill climbing inclined

very very famous cars

last two

renegade

car

cheese

it's a cheap

it's cheese

renegade is a model

no it's a model

it's a model

haven't they

no it's a renegade is a cheese

it's a soft blue cheese

washed in ale

I quite like that one as well

last one

Strathcaron

cheese

I went to see it

I don't think I ever drove it

I drove to Norfolk to meet his lordship

and see the car

it's a car

Strathcaron was a car

it was designed and engineered by Reynard

motorsport

about 25 years ago

just before they started working on the catering thing I did with them

and the lead engineer

who was designing it

his name is Kieran Salter

who now runs a really really impressive motorsport

and engineering high-tech business of Silverstone

Reynard being in the motorsport industry

so the blokes that Reynard at the time

nicknamed this car

not the Strathcaron, the Strathcaron

so in my head I can always see a Strathcaron

I think they made it

it was quite a round, it looked a bit like an Audi TT

convertible thing

whatever

so Neil Clifford

8 out of 10

and Rhys Harris

7

Manish

7

from the middle of the class

to the top

can I have some cheese please

I will send you some cheese

a medley of cheeses

from across the British Isles

I thought you were here to complain about the music

that was

a lovely little break in tempo

because I congratulate you on your day

loved it, the preparation

just a loop back

to the way we began there

I have to ask the important question

what cheese would James Bond eat

because we've sort of merged

James Bond theme there with the cheese

come on, off the cuff

I think he's

kind of a punchy Stilton man

I was going to say that

Stilton, Cars Water Biscuit

no messing about, gets on with it

what would you drink with it

yeah yeah, that's a huge

James Bond pours

port into his Stilton

eats it with a huge tablespoon

that's what he does, no faffing

yeah

there we go

now what are we doing next

our two car garage

I'll read this out now

you're going on holiday to Ibiza with your family

four in total

you need something rugged that you can take

to the dusty beach car parks and forget

but that gives you some pleasure on the twisty roads

for your second car

you want to arrive in style

how do you say that Manish

your second car

you want

to arrive in style at

Ushuaia

Ushuaia, thank you

Ushuaia, Ushuaia

when you've got VIP tickets for Calvin Harris

Brackets, no relation

there is no budget

do you mean there's no money

or there's no limit on money Manish

sitting there and I read it

is your film producer glasses on

I suspect it's the latter

now darling, I've gone about

this a different way today

because I am a little bit

I haven't been sleeping too well recently

and when I'm not sleeping too well

I'm all over the classifieds

what I do between two and five in the morning

I just go through the usual

classifieds and I love it

I now realise it's just been

a medicine in my life

and I went to the coming soon

the auctions coming soon

section on the car on classic

just because sometimes nicely what's coming up

and I've chosen two from there

and they overlap a bit

but I really love them

so first of all the ultimate

Iberian island car for me

is the Renault 4

so I think that's the car

you only need one car

you turn up to the club in that

you're still the coolest dude aren't you

whatever you do it's a classless piece

of genius engineering

it's got the small bumpers

I love it, however you're allowed

two cars and you want to make an entrance

I think everyone else turns up

in their fancy supercar

I think a proper convertible

Land Rover

they're not really my thing

I don't like as I know

the Defender thing but those

with the fold down screen

is a really cool thing actually

so I just think if you rock up in those two

wherever you are on that island

you're winning and they're both coming soon

they're auctions that start I believe

on the 27th of this month

so get bidding

over to you Neil Clifford

it's a very dangerous question

this managed because

oh no I beat the expert

I've been a few times

the worst thing you can do

in Ibiza is turn up really

in anything big and flash

you're going to get

you're going to get laughed

off the island

it's all very sort of shabby

chic

the wealthier you are

the scruffier you are

sort of 70's California

vibe with a bit of Peter String

fellow sort of mixed in really

I think

the only way you could do it

with super car in my view

is go the sort of

De Tomaso de Ville

you know this sort of thing

it's got a few

it's got rust bubbles everywhere

the AC doesn't work

it's still got cassettes in the middle

there's cigar ash everywhere

you might be able to pull that off

in a sort of 1980's

football, hooligan

drug dealer sort of way

on that note can we just remember

the fabulous 456 manual

there was an automatic that used to be parked

round the back of Harrods

and it had dents on scuffs

every single wheel, every panel

and it used to get service down at Park Royal

it just lived on the street didn't it

for about seven or eight years

I think you can pull off

Ibiza in that way

but I think in general

unless you're living there

you've got more authority

if you're living there

to do the rust bucket

you know

Maserati Bora

that's running on seven

but I think if you're

rocking up

you've got to be really careful

because you look at Dick very quickly

and I'm in the auctions

so I found

actually you're going to ruin it a bit

but a lovely restored

W123

which is on actually

some lunatic

has brilliantly put it on

an air ride system

so you can lift it up going on to the beach

you can chuck all the

beach shit in the back

it's got a custom period roof rack costing

£4,000 alone

whatever sort of roof rack that is

but I think that you could smoke around

in that it hasn't got AC

but you have the windows down anyway

but then you do need a convertible

but again

there's risk attached to the convertible

so I'm going

a sort of crappy old jag

I think you can pull that off

it's a bit sort of Gary Linnaker's brother

if you know what I mean

there's a bit wide boy about

you own a nightclub

you've got a pizza restaurant

the government's chasing you

for tax back in the UK

it hasn't been service for

nine years

but I think still bombing about

an XJR

or an XJ

I think

the R is a bit too much

you just want the standard car

again AC doesn't work

CD players all a bit jammed up

but

they go forever those things right

yeah they do

no one can service it on the island anyway

so I think

you're going to do it quite scruffy

or you're going to look a bit out of place

in Ibiza

bang on

Manish, you are currently in Ibiza

what two cars would you have

I would have

this 30 year old

E34 525i touring

that would be

family car

it's got 85,000 miles on it

I think probably only four owners

I think this is a babe

you could take this to Jondal

Kala Jondal

go and park it, it would be covered in sand

it doesn't matter, put all your stuff in the back

you can be back at your villa

in no time at all

it's gorgeous, 30 years old

it's shabby shig

CD in the plane constantly

but I think you're going to go do shwire

and apparently

the grown up nightclub

culture here has changed

so at night

they kind of go in the late afternoon

early evening

have a bit of dinner, have a drink

have a dance and they're back by midnight

basically that's what you do

if you're kind of middle aged

I went there two years ago

and I was

found on a dual carriageway

by a friendly local taxi driver

at five in the morning

so I begged to differ

I'm sure you can find that life

but I would actually turn up

where did it go

I would actually turn up in this

beautifully restored

E-Type Jaguar

it's black with burgundy

God knows how much this thing is going to cost

it's a 4.2

I just think you roll up to your nightclub

and that's a famous film producer

you enjoy yourself and

Bob's your uncle

anyway I didn't do any of that staying out too late

stuff anymore

it's very Ibiza

well it's a very British island

unless you go to the

bit over there

it's all a bit German

but really it's brilliantly British

lovely

I like that

I love how Manish says he doesn't indulge in the nightlife

and he started this podcast by saying

he got pissed up and walked into a window

and broke his glasses

you don't strike me as being that

abstemious Manish

it was a very very scary small amount of rosé

that's what I can say

I've got some

CCTV footage of me walking

into a pane of glass earlier this year

in someone's showroom

it's that shock isn't it

you have no idea what's happening to you

God

bless you

so Ibiza

I haven't been there

for about 40 years

35 years

and the last time I was there

I was doing

must be a bit more 35 years

when I was a student

I used to do yacht delivery

I was used to into sailing

so to make money, summer jobs

you'd help somebody sail their boat

usually from the Mediterranean

back to the UK

at the end of the summer

you get your airfare paid

and you got your food on the boat

you might get 50 quid at the end of it

and it was quite good

I knew a little bit about it

I went from Yorker

we went to Ibiza

What will James Bond’s next car be? | The Car Podcast #51

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