A diehard James Bond...
A diehard James Bond fan has reportedly shelled out Ò£200,000 for a DBS... that doesnò€™t work! The car in question cost Ò£37,500 more than the list price, but itò€™s not just a random wreck. Itò€™s the model written off by an Aston engineer during filming of the latest Bond epic ò€“ Quantum of Solace ò€“ which opens on 31 October.
The company I"m talking...
The company I"m talking about is back-from-the-dead Nissan. It already has a well established six-model off-road range, which includes the best-in-class X-Trail, giant Pathfinder and Patrol, ageing and very ordinary Terrano II, luxuriously agile Murano, and, as of this month, the new Navara pick-up. That means the Japanese firm currently boasts nearly as many products as Land Rover (Freelander, Defender, Discovery, Range Rover, Range Rover Sport) and Jeep (Wrangler, Cherokee, Grand Cherokee) combined.
But then there"s the Sunderland-built, all-wheel-drive model - known only as the Qashqai - which the company is being unusually cagey about. Add that to the list. And there"s also a range of vehicles such as the massive Titan pick-up which are available overseas but not here (yet!), plus the entire US Infiniti luxury 4x4 line-up. Do the maths and it"s fair to say the Nissan empire boasts far more AWD machines than its two rivals.
The Jeep range is not unreasonably priced, starting at around í‚á£16,000 and peaking at í‚á£38,000. Land Rovers cost from í‚á£16,000 to an absurd and inexplicable í‚á£73,000. Nissan has a slightly more expensive entry-level X-Trail at í‚á£16,000-plus, but the Murano comes in at less than í‚á£30,000. This means you can buy that vehicle, plus an X-Trail, plus the acclaimed 350Z sports car, for the price of one flagship Range Rover - and still have change.
Choosing a Nissan 4x4 makes even more sense when you realise its products are close to the top of the global quality/reliability league table. Land Rover is near the very bottom, according to respected experts and analysts at organisations such as Warranty Direct. And just when Land Rover, Jeep and other rivals hoped it couldn"t get much better for Nissan, it does. The Navara has gone straight to number one in the pick-up resale value chart, seeing off the likes of Toyota, Mitsubishi and Ford"s state-of-the-art models.
The icing on the cake for Nissan is that it also happens to be one of the world"s most profitable motor manufacturers, which enables it to design, invest in and, most important of all, put the absolute widest range of 4x4s in its showrooms. The Godfather of Nissan is Carlos Ghosn, who I"ve previously described in this column as the most impressive and talented motor industry boss I"ve ever met. And he"s now taking charge at alliance partner Renault, too. Casually, almost accidentally and while rival firms hadn"t even worked out what he was up to, he has taken on long-established 4x4 specialists and the young pretenders, and comprehensively wiped the floor with all of them.