The Vultures Are Circling

Don't you just hate lawyers?

I've just found this full-page advert in my local free paper:

After years of annoying us with awful TV and radio ads (and nuisance phone calls) about the mis-selling of PPI, it looks like they are now trying to get their greedy little paws on VW Group Diesel car owners.

And, they are going about it in a particularly amateurish way.

Apart from the misspelling of mis-selling, they seem to think that Passat is a brand of car within the VW Group.

It also states that "£6.5 Million set aside by motor industry."

Nope.  Not even a real sentence.  To be fair, they did get the 6.5 bit right.

Actually 6.5 Billion Euros has been set aside by the VW Group - that is about £4.75 Billion.

So, if you want to know "What's the implications" - don't bother with this lot.

Oil Painting

I do like a Lego story.

So I was all ready to post something about this one from Autoguide.

 

They are asking readers to vote to get this rather nice BMW M3 (E30 flavour) made into a saleable model kit.

But then this Autoguide story caught my eye.

This one is about photographer Freddy Fabris using car mechanics to recreate several world-famous Renaissance paintings.

Here is is take on "The Anatomy Lesson" by Rembrandt:

And here is one that Rembrandt himself made earlier:

 

I do hope that these really are car mechanics pratting about and not actors.

Here's the Fabris version of "The Last Supper" by da Vinci (with added halo):

And again, the orginal (with added doorway underneath)

I particularly like the phrase from the Autoguide write-up that goes, "Blending two worlds that seemingly would never meet, considering automobiles didn’t exist during the Renaissance period"

Having said that, I did hear that Judas had a chariot.

Insurance Bond

Today is Back To The Future Day.

But I covered that last week so let's talk James Bond instead.

Here he is getting out of his Aston Martin DB10 - a car you can't actually buy.

Therefore, it would be a nightmare to insure.  I've just renewed my car insurance so I know it can be a bit pricey - mine was not far short of £300.  But I do have full no-claims discount.

One company I didn't ask for a quote from though, was Kwik Fit Insurance.  I've heard several stories over the years of people going in to Kwik Fit Centres with a puncture, or needing some cheap tyres, and being told they need a new exhaust and a new set of shocks.

Shocking.

So imagine trying to get a motor insurance quote and finding out you need life insurance and pet insurance too.

Kwik Fit have also come up with a quote for Mr.Bond.

Here it is.

It seems to take in to account third-party items that I'm not sure he would be liable for - like damage to a Jaguar C-X75 (also unavailable for sale - and unavailable for replace as new) but surely it is the responsibility of whoever looks after Spectre's insurance.  I'd imagine they would accept knock-for-knock on that one.

It also takes into account "Number of near-death experiences" but doesn't mention occupation.  He could call himself "Navy Officer" or "Government Employee" in which case, that might not be too bad.  I don't remember seeing "assassin" on my confused.com form so that may not be an option.

Obviously Mr.Bond will not have built up a no-claims.

Kwik Fit seem to think that Q has to foot the bill.  If so, he could do a lot worse than seeing what Confused can do for him - bound to be cheaper than Kwik Fit's £1.5 million.

And he'll get a free Brian toy.

I Asked Google for a picture of Christopher Lloyd with a Taxi

But there weren't any decent ones - despite him being a star of the brilliant series Taxi.

Here's one of him from around that time:

In this photo, I think he looks like that bloke who plays Nick in New Girl who was also in Jurassic World.  If they ever do a Back To The Future where they go back to when Doc Brown was about thirty, then that's the guy to play him.

Talking of Back To The Future, here's a picture of Michael J.Fox with a taxi.

Also talking of Back To The Future, have you noticed the date?  It's October 15th, 2015.

Which is nearly October 21st, 2015.

Which is the date that Marty & Doc travelled to in Back To The Future II.

Here's a taster for a video that Toyota will be releasing on that date next week:

And remember, Toyota's posh arm, Lexus, have been working on a Hoverboard:

Unfortunately, it uses Maglev technology so we won't be seeing it on the streets of October 2015.

Meanwhile, Toyota's own view of the future doesn't look brilliant for us petrolheads.  Not if you only read the headlines anyway:

TOYOTA AIMS TO PHASE OUT REGULAR GASOLINE VEHICLES BY 2050 

TOYOTA AIMS TO NEARLY ELIMINATE GASOLINE CARS BY 2050

TOYOTA: CONVENTIONAL ENGINES WILL BE GONE BY 2050

Although if you click on the links (these are just 3 of plenty) you will see that they want to concentrate on hydrogen and hybrids so there will still be some gas being burned in the hybrids at least.

And they do all state that electric cars are not a big part of their plans.

So I guess the guys at Investor's Business Daily just went by the headlines.

If only there was some way of travelling forward to 2050 to find out...

I Asked Google for a Picture of Richard Osman with Jeremy Clarkson

But it couldn't find one.

So here's a picture of Richard Osman with a picture of Jeremy Clarkson.

 

Richard might not be too comfortable with that.

I've just watched last night's "Have I Got a Bit More News For You?" - the extended version of last Friday's "Have I Got News for You?"

Jeremy was hosting and Richard was a guest - two of my most favourite people on telly.  Richard, the urbane, witty and very likeable Quizzer and Jeremy - who is simply Jeremy.

There were a few unusual rants early on in the show.  Paul Merton had a go at Trident and Ian Hislop kicked off about Lord Ashcroft.  Reasonable subjects to get annoyed with but they seemed strange in the context of the show.

There was also some right-wing journalist there to make snide remarks the way that right-wing journalists tend to do.

And she did.

But nowhere near as badly as Richard did - and all of his were directed at Jeremy.  I don't know what Jeremy has done to offend him but he went completely over the top - calling him a cock, past his prime, who knows less about cars than Chris Evans - things got personal.

I know Richard's eye condition, nystagmus, means that he isn't allowed to drive - so maybe he was turned down to appear as a "Star in a Reasonably Priced Car".

Google also can't find any pictures of Richard Osman with Richard Hammond.

Or with James May either.

Unless...

Now that would explain it.

Smoke and Mirrors

Rear-view mirrors?  Well this is a motoring story.

For the past few days, my local electronic road-sign has been informing me (and anyone else passing it) that as of October 1st, it is illegal to smoke in a car when a "U18" is present.  They must have been just short of enough characters to write "child".

The law did indeed change on Thursday - the Beeb cover it here.  Including a video of a very selfish woman called Lucy Hardcastle.

I first broached the subject back in 2010 with my detailed analysis entitled, "Doctors Today Urged that Smoking be Banned in Cars - Are They Right?"

Anyway, according to Auntie Beeb, the new law states that "A law banning smoking in vehicles carrying children has come into force in England and Wales"

I think it needs a bit of clarification though.  They do state that e-Cigs are not included - and, quite sensibly, people in convertibles with the hood down are not included.  I would imagine cigars will be included.  But what about smoking pipes, or pot?  Or whatever it is that this doll that they used for the research is smoking:

And here's another question...

What happens when it is the U18 that is doing the smoking?