Amazon Primed to Sell Cars in the UK

Allegedly, you can already buy a new Fiat 500, 500L or Panda through Amazon in Italy.

I can't find any evidence of that actually happening though.

Autocar have the story here.  It looks like it will be Fiat Chrysler Group cars they'll be flogging though.

Hope they've got a big drone.

If it was to have been used cars, then they should have been thinking Volvo:

(That's a Volvo Amazon)

 

Now they just need some way of publicising the venture to lots of people interested in cars. Can't think how they may go about that...

Not For The Children

I thought there would have been some complaints.

Clarkson and the boys messing about with sex toys.

It's not aimed at children but I know lots enjoy watching the show.  It's a safe bet that if it had been on the BBC, there would have been at least six phone calls and the media would have gone loopy.

I don't believe that "Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells" has an Amazon Prime subscription.

I suppose they might get one now they have read about it in The Sunday Express.  But then they won't know who they can complain to.  And they do enjoy a good moan.  The Express themselves were quite positive about the show although their readers don't seem to like it judging by the comments at the end of the article.

But that's Express readers for you.

The Telegraph were unusually favourable about the show too.  Maybe because they didn't let their Dance Correspondent write their review this week.

I did notice that the audience didn't get Jeremy's "Pass The Dutchie" joke en route to exploding his sex doll.  Possibly Musical Youth were not big in The Netherlands.

Talking of fake people you can use in High Occupancy Vehicle Lanes...

This BBC story amused me about police in New York State breaking in to a car after reports of an old lady being frozen to death left in a car overnight in minus temperatures.

It turned out to be a very realistic mannequin used for medical training pruposes - at least that's what the owner claimed it was for.  He was not best pleased.

"It is my understanding that the owner was incredulous that we took action in this matter," police chief L Edward Moore said in a statement. "He apparently was quite vocal and vulgar to my sergeant."

I did have a litttle sympathy for the owner.  But then again, why strap the mannequin in to the passenger seat as though it was a real person?  But then again again, I imagine the police would get called out more often if he was seen regularly stuffing an old lady into the boot of his car.


I do though, particularly like Chief Moore's message for mannequin owners:

"Just to clear the record, all citizens of Hudson should be put on notice that if you park your locked vehicle on the street on a sub-zero night with a life-size realistic mannequin seated in it... we will break your window."

Droning On

I'm not sure I believe this story from Car+Driver.

It comes with this picture:

And it is reported by several sites so I'm going with it's true.

Apparently Uber (the taxi people) are using Drones in Mexico to display messages to drivers stuck in traffic jams.  The one in this picture translates to, "The city is for you, not for 5.5 million cars."

They seem to be nagging messages - I'd have gone with one of the following:

• money generating advertising messages like "Cheap power tools at Home Depot - this week only"
• pro-Uber messages like "Share an Uber to cut down on the number of cars here"
• useful messages like "This tailback lasts for 2km and is due to an idiot driving into a lamp-post"

It doesn't say who creates the messages or where the drones take off from.  Do Uber drivers carry a drone, a piece of card and a marker pen with them?

Local take-aways could use them to get food orders, deliver the food and take the money - if you're stuck in a jam, you don't want to go hungry now, do you?

Or, if you're just bored in the jam, you could always do some shopping:

Trailer Trash?

About this time last week, The Top Gear Team published this trailer on YouTube:

Today, I found this one from Hammond, May & Clarkson:

The first one got absolutely slammed by the commenters.  And, much as it pains me to say it - I can see where they are coming from.  It looks like Evans & Co. are trying too hard to be like Clarkson & Co.  The second clip shows why Clarkson & Co. just don't need to try at all - it's just over a minute of light comedy plugging the new Amazon Prime show.  The only cars in it are a set of parked Reliant Robins - older incarnations of the Rialtos modified by Evans & Co for new Top Gear.  I think these are their new "Company Cars" - reinforcing the doddery old men image that James May in particular is happy to promote - did you see that white beard he had in James May: The Reassembler?

Trouble is, he is only four years older than me.