Yesterday I had a great drive down to Buckingham University. It was a beautiful spring day, just right for heading off the motorway and re-tracing my old route to Silverstone when I was a motor racing reporter for Autosport.
It traces through the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire countryside. There are lots of lovely villages on the way, all splashed with bright spring colours as the trees and flowers start to bloom. It was a great start to the day. And a highly enjoyable drive.
The purpose of my journey was for the launch of the new Colin Tourick book. Called Managing Your Company Cars: Expert Opinion, it really is some reference book.
Colin’s classic original forms the basis of our Total Card-supported Knowledge Bank series factsheets. These are free to download from this site. And cover some of the issues discussed on this website – such as contract hire and business car tax – in significant depth. If you haven’t had a look yet I urge you to do so.
Anyway, this time Colin has invited experts in every field to contribute their own chapter to provide a full overview of best practice. It’s an innovative idea. Even if, by Colin’s own admission, the original idea mushroomed way beyond its original kernal. In all, there are 43 chapters; 576 pages; and some 250,000 words. Colin kindly invited me to contribute a chapter on business car information for small businesses.
Colin had invited all the contributors to the grand unveiling. And to collect their books. Some of the names will be familiar to you from reading Business Car Manager. They included the guys from Total Card – who explained about the important new product to help manage fuel costs – more of that when it’s ready. The guys from Auto Windscreens, who have kindly agreed to help support a promotion of Colin’s new book in Business Car Manager by supplying a copy free to readers – more of that to come. And Mike Lloyd, who runs the BVRLA-approved car leasing broker Central Contracts.
I had a good chat to Mike. After the launch and a lunch, we all had to meander round to a side building to collect a boxload of books – or more, depending on how many had been ordered. And I found that Mike now drives an Audi A8. It’s a long wheelbase model, with the 4.2-litre diesel. It looks great.
“You need a big car for a big bloke!” joked Mike. “To be honest, I fell into it by accident. I’d had an unhappy experience with a Mercedes S-Class; then had a VW Passat diesel on contract hire. But I like a few more cylinders than four. And, in a roundabout way after a chat with one of my mates in the trade, he found me this secondhand. For the price of a new Audi A4 TDI I had an Audi A8 TDI. I must admit I love it. On average you get 28mpg. And on a long journey like today, over 35mpg. It does me just nicely.” Indeed it does. Looks cracking.
Pictured above is Mike with his Audi – and the star of the day, author Colin Tourick, loading his box of books into his car.
New Colin Tourick ‘bible’
