What happened to genuinely posh cars and their targets?
Discussion
themule said:
Interesting to read Alan Clark's motoring writings on this subject. After the war and into the fifties if you wanted a reliable, comfy car with decent performance you had very little choice in this country. Below the level of Rolls Royce and Bentley cars tended to be small, slow and badly built. People with money often imported US cars to be used as everyday transport.
Actually, few of the aristocracy went near such crass offerings; most, including the QM drove Jags or Daimlers:https://www.jaguarheritage.com/car/1955-jaguar-mar...
https://jec.org.uk/news/2017/jaguars-of-the-royal-...
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cars/features/great-br...
Of course one may feel that a family of robber barons are not especially posh.
Sahjahd said:
themule said:
Interesting to read Alan Clark's motoring writings on this subject. After the war and into the fifties if you wanted a reliable, comfy car with decent performance you had very little choice in this country. Below the level of Rolls Royce and Bentley cars tended to be small, slow and badly built. People with money often imported US cars to be used as everyday transport.
Actually, few of the aristocracy went near such crass offerings; most, including the QM drove Jags or Daimlers:https://www.jaguarheritage.com/car/1955-jaguar-mar...
https://jec.org.uk/news/2017/jaguars-of-the-royal-...
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cars/features/great-br...
Of course one may feel that a family of robber barons are not especially posh.
AW111 said:
Sahjahd said:
themule said:
Interesting to read Alan Clark's motoring writings on this subject. After the war and into the fifties if you wanted a reliable, comfy car with decent performance you had very little choice in this country. Below the level of Rolls Royce and Bentley cars tended to be small, slow and badly built. People with money often imported US cars to be used as everyday transport.
Actually, few of the aristocracy went near such crass offerings; most, including the QM drove Jags or Daimlers:https://www.jaguarheritage.com/car/1955-jaguar-mar...
https://jec.org.uk/news/2017/jaguars-of-the-royal-...
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cars/features/great-br...
Of course one may feel that a family of robber barons are not especially posh.
DonkeyApple said:
It's something we easily forget in our modern rent and throw away culture that there are still people who don't spend money, despite having it and keep things until they no longer work. And plenty of people driving around in old, plain cars despite being able to drive pretty much whatever they want.
There's a saying (which Google suggests should be attributed to Robert Dumas, chairman of Hermés from 1951 to 1978): “Luxury is what can be repaired.”MadCaptainJack said:
DonkeyApple said:
It's something we easily forget in our modern rent and throw away culture that there are still people who don't spend money, despite having it and keep things until they no longer work. And plenty of people driving around in old, plain cars despite being able to drive pretty much whatever they want.
There's a saying (which Google suggests should be attributed to Robert Dumas, chairman of Hermés from 1951 to 1978): “Luxury is what can be repaired.”RMDB9 said:
AW111 said:
Sahjahd said:
themule said:
Interesting to read Alan Clark's motoring writings on this subject. After the war and into the fifties if you wanted a reliable, comfy car with decent performance you had very little choice in this country. Below the level of Rolls Royce and Bentley cars tended to be small, slow and badly built. People with money often imported US cars to be used as everyday transport.
Actually, few of the aristocracy went near such crass offerings; most, including the QM drove Jags or Daimlers:https://www.jaguarheritage.com/car/1955-jaguar-mar...
https://jec.org.uk/news/2017/jaguars-of-the-royal-...
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cars/features/great-br...
Of course one may feel that a family of robber barons are not especially posh.
Perhaps it's an immigrant thing; I came to England a few decades ago and now find myself in a Jag after years of Japanese rust and German mechanical troubles (and rust). Maybe these bloody foreigners know something.
Not a Patel, but same region.
None taken, from either.
ruff'n'smov said:
When you see a 65+ old bird in a velour 'juicy' tracksuit get out of a Bentley Bontega in ASDA Bradford. You know posh has gone by the wayside
I think that this plus the post above re the 7 series tend to highlight that cars don't define anything and that it is down to context. Just like earlier posts re bangers have actually focussed around the individual behind the wheel. It's actually all about where you see the car and who is in it as well as the trim level of the vehicle. The actual vehicle itself really is a blank canvas.
Stick the Queen behind the wheel of an old X Type in Windsor park and there is an air of 'class' but stick the gammon faced pensioner who spent their youth on National Front marches behind the wheel in a Tesco car park and there's more class in the two dogs rutting on the undeveloped land next to the car park.
Same with the 7 series and Bentley. Nice country pub location with a normally dressed person versus the same car outside Dunelm and driven by a Jimmy Saville fan club member and the picture reverses.
Generally speaking, our first impressions stem from where we are and what the people are like as opposed to the car when you think about it.
DonkeyApple said:
ruff'n'smov said:
When you see a 65+ old bird in a velour 'juicy' tracksuit get out of a Bentley Bontega in ASDA Bradford. You know posh has gone by the wayside
I think that this plus the post above re the 7 series tend to highlight that cars don't define anything and that it is down to context. Just like earlier posts re bangers have actually focussed around the individual behind the wheel. It's actually all about where you see the car and who is in it as well as the trim level of the vehicle. The actual vehicle itself really is a blank canvas.
Stick the Queen behind the wheel of an old X Type in Windsor park and there is an air of 'class' but stick the gammon faced pensioner who spent their youth on National Front marches behind the wheel in a Tesco car park and there's more class in the two dogs rutting on the undeveloped land next to the car park.
Same with the 7 series and Bentley. Nice country pub location with a normally dressed person versus the same car outside Dunelm and driven by a Jimmy Saville fan club member and the picture reverses.
Generally speaking, our first impressions stem from where we are and what the people are like as opposed to the car when you think about it.
Remember when was looking at M3's, there was one with a discarded Coke bottle and KFC debris parked on a grass verge, if you cant be bothered to move the litter from your picture then can be fairly sure they owner is a cretin and the car a badly maintained shed.
travisc said:
Ok I’ll give it a try.
Black BMW 750. Not tinted or blacked wheels.
Expensive Private plate
Saw one and I think it belonged to someone reasonably upper class
Large German saloons have always carried a whiff of bizniss here; the average customer for a new 7 Series is probably a Turkish kebab gangster in Germany (they aren’t even favoured for Terminal 5 taxis).Black BMW 750. Not tinted or blacked wheels.
Expensive Private plate
Saw one and I think it belonged to someone reasonably upper class
All of this reminded me that a friend rides around in a well used 1992 Range Rover Vogue that his Dad passed to him. Turns up to our shoot every year in this thing and happily uses it to plug around the fields carrying us, dogs and shotguns.
Hasn't two pennies to rub together, family home now belongs to the National Trust. He's a Viscount.
I know for a fact he'd love a Bentayga. I know this, as one of the boys on the shoot (from Kent, wide as you like, brilliant bloke) drives one, and the Viscount loves the thing to pieces. They often swap cars for a few drives.
Hasn't two pennies to rub together, family home now belongs to the National Trust. He's a Viscount.
I know for a fact he'd love a Bentayga. I know this, as one of the boys on the shoot (from Kent, wide as you like, brilliant bloke) drives one, and the Viscount loves the thing to pieces. They often swap cars for a few drives.
Edited by Harry Flashman on Monday 19th April 22:52
MadCaptainJack said:
I doubt anyone wants a clapped out Volvo. I feel like the sort of “posho” who drives a clapped out Volvo does so at least partly because they don’t care what anyone else thinks of them, so they’re not in the market for something obnoxiously flashy.
Some would find a clapped out Volvo - or clapped out anything else for that matter - desirable because you then don't have to care. Providing it works and is reasonably comfortable owning any car you don't have to care about and that makes small demands on your time and money is incredibly liberating. People who desire such a car will be of the view cars make excellent servants but terrible masters.
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