15 Sep 06
I have a mate who was particularly interested in having a look at this Range Rover. He had one a couple of years back but it broke down a bit and drank fuel a lot so he sold it and has missed it ever since.
So I tootled round to his place and we went for a ride. 'Impressed' doesn't even begin to cover it. He marvelled at how much more precise it felt than his old car, yet how much more cosseting its ride seemed to be. He loved also the improvements to an interior many of us thought unimprovable; but most of all, he loved the new V8 engine. 'I used to think my motor was pretty smooth,' he said as I gunned it through the gears, 'but this is something else again. It's more refined, it feels quicker and it pulls like a train.' I just smiled sweetly and agreed with every word. This new V8 was all the things he had said when compared to the BMW V8 in his old Rangie. And one more besides. As I crunched back up his drive and delivered him to his doorstep, I could see him trying to work out if he could stretch to the considerable £53,995 it costs to buy even the cheapest version. So I killed the engine, turned to him and delivered the killer line. 'And of course, being a diesel, it'll use half the fuel of your old one.'
And now I rather wish I'd waited until we were in the pub, because if I'd timed it right I'm sure I could have got a mouthful of Herefordshire Pale Ale sprayed all over the fawning couple at the next table. Such was his disbelief that this was a diesel that I started it up again, but even that was not enough; when I showed him the paucity of digits on the rev-counter he started to suspect this was not some elaborate joke, but it was only when he had climbed down from the car and listened to it from the outside that he finally became a believer.
