one thing makes this video look dated; its not Clarkson, it's not the cars or the prices... it's the Radio Rentals man delivering a hulking 14inch 'portable' telly.
Well it was 1991 or so. 14 inch portables were what alot of folk had especially in their bedrooms LOL. We forget that with our 55+ inch SMART Telly's nowadays that we take for granted. Bet that's still sitting in his loft if he still lives there HAHAHA and probably still works.
That office car park is like an open air motor museum. Fantastic to see those cars new. The Rover 800 was a brilliant car in its day. Best thing they made in my opinion. Fetched one of those back from Cornwall in 1991, it was very quick compared to a lot of other cars in the same class at the time.
Looks like most lasted 10-13 years...bar the Escort and the 416, which lasted just 5 years! E73 JBV (1987 Escort, 0:37): Taxed until 25 August 1992 H556 FTM (1991 Cavalier, 0:50): Taxed until 1 September 2004 G797 TFK (1990 Astravan, 2:04): Taxed until 8 August 2002 F238 GNF (1988 820, 3:01): Taxed until 1 March 2001 H690 FGS (1990 Cavalier, 3:08): Taxed until 22 January 2004 H926 GHF (1990 Granada, 3:18): Taxed until 1 May 2003 E941 JUY (1988 Montego, 4:38): Taxed until 1 July 1999 H978 AHU (1990 416, 5:20): Taxed until 1 October 1995
Intersting that some lasted just 13/14 years. Very common to see 05/06/07/08 etc plates on the road these days (2022) Cars seem to be lasting much longer. I'm sure aluminium panels has something to do with it!
Ngl I do enjoy Top Gear with Clarkson, Hammond, and May. It's very fun But it would've been nice if they kept a "sister show," an accompanying Top Gear that was more informative like the Top Gear of old. It would be so nice to have an informational show on cars right now
looking at this video Clarkson has definitely lived his life in reverse to the rest of us. He has gone from being reasonably environmentally conscious to not really caring and craving more power.
Peugeot 205 GTi and the 306 were great cars. Solid and reliable. Today they are just over styled rubbish. Car makers are trying too hard to make cars modern, but in doing so they are taking things too far. You end up with pretentious looking pointless external body trim, big silly screens on the dashboard and just downright weird designs in Citroens etc with handbrakes in the ceiling, heated carpets, interior lights that change colours, its all just rubbish that wont last, will go wrong and will date very quickly. Cars are becoming far too reliant on electronics and computers for every single function, and are not made as solid as they were 30 years ago. Young drivers will think im talking shite, but us older folk know better :)
Matt Ludlam no they dont. French rubbish, style over substance. Best cars to get for long term ownership, NOT PCP lease crap which are a waste of money are brands that wont cost you a fortune out of warranty. Forget German cars unless you can afford to buy them outright in the first place. Stick to Ford, Toyota or Subaru. Yes Subaru. We are talking LONG term ownership and you cant beat those three. Plenty model in the range from those manufacturers to suit all tastes. People lose so much money trading in every three years or so, you just end up forever making monthly payments. Get one good car and keep it. Reliability and maintenance costs are the key factors. Ford has dealers everywhere, no problem getting parts etc and wont cost much to fix. Good solid great handling cars. Toyota and Subaru wont break down. They also get five year warranties.
@@oddities-whatnot im not the biggest fan of more modern basic cars either, but im trying to be optimistic about some of the newer peugeots, the 208 is really good looking, and whenever i see even some of the New SUV's from peugeot they tend to stick out in terms of design, i do think peugeot from around the 2010's, were a bit shit, but the ones from before that, the 90's and 80's ones are hard to replicate, ive had a 106 GTi and it was a lovely little car, and now i have a 1997 2.0 Turbo 605, which is also a very lovely car... although sometimes i do feel a little under equipped compared to some of the other cars from that period. Im gonna try and keep an open mind about future Peugeots, but this whole Opel purchase and whatever theyre doing with Fiat and Chrysler does have me a bit worried, and yes im a younger driver.
Peugeot 205 1.9gti is just a beautiful car, so simple but yet looks fantastic! In the 80s and early 90s Peugeot were great cars then from the late 90s into the 2000s they just became fat bulbus ugly things with shark looking fronts. They have improved slightly now tho
Ah, those were the days, when you got tax breaks for driving the car more often on company business and you could get any car you wanted, packed to the rafters with luxury goodies and the company coughed up for your fuel. Not any more. Nowadays you're banded into monthly lease figures, with a restricted set of brands and models, where any extras are paid for out of your own pocket (but still incorporated into the BIK tax) and the tax incentives are more geared towards cars that chuck out fewer CO2. Not just that, but the HMRC fuel recovery rates don't even cover your business fuel use unless you drive like an absolute saint, and if any of your personal possessions are stolen out of your car, it's tough luck. And you can't even smoke in them any more, because they're classed as "business premises" even if you never transport anyone else anywhere whilst on business. Oh, and with the latest raft of travel expense bans, you can't use them for business anyway because nobody is doing that run from Croydon to Aberdeen out of their own pocket. But all that said, having a company car is still a lot cheaper than buying your own. Probably why personal leases are becoming so very popular.
leopold Id sooner buy my own, and lease deals are a total waste of money for private buyers. Best off getting one good car and keeping it long term instead of showing off new Mercs etc to the neighbours and equally arrogant work colleagues. These PCP deals are crazy. Nobody can afford the balloon payment so they just trade in every three years for another. Makes great sense paying £399 a month for a BMW and never owning it. Muppets.
@@oddities-whatnot It all rather depends on the situation. I couldn't afford to buy a big enough car for my family after being TUPEd to a company that doesn't offer cars (I had to turn my company wheels in as a result), so my options were pretty limited: - I didn't have the money for a big deposit for PCP financing - I didn't have the credit rating to make a straight finance deal affordable - I didn't have the time to go hunting for a decent used car - My office is 80 miles away, so not having a car at all isn't really an option My only remaining option was a personal lease. No biggie, I've had leased company cars for the last 20 years, so ownership just yet isn't a major issue. Once this four year deal is up, I'm hoping I'll be in a better position to buy outright.
Incredible how 30 years later you only see the odd one or two of these cars on the road and how cars have changed so much,sometimes good,sometimes bad! Some of these now old cars look better than many new cars today but also many new cars make ones of the past look pretty tinny and dull
I like the clean lines of older cars. Check out my '91 Audi 90 20v on my channel. Its a beaut 😍 Love driving it today. Simple and small. It's tiny and light compared with modern stuff but still feels solid and spacious.
It would appear he got worse with age....just check out his language, style of delivery. He even made an effort in his dressing.....wow....o and the hair......when did he change exactly......
I like these cars from a retrospective viewpoint but living in a Nation that had such a large tax dodging loophole such as this would be absolute hell for me.
It got changed about a decade ago as part of a general clearout of “benefit in kind” tax wheezes. It’s based on CO2 emissions now and while it’s still advantageous it’s much rarer to see a company car on a benefits package these days unless it’s actually for your job.
This video clip had seriously blowed my mind!!!! I thought the company car are "a fleet of cheapest&basicest equiped vehicles with same paint,same range,same model.(if they're bought in same purchase The deffent purchase can have diffent on those things) bought(and selected) by the company. Which not best but also not last economical cars that just simply get people from A2B and carry necessary loads" I mean the post van,cable com. van,delivery van, and the fleet of cars that companys let thier salesperson drive around for bussiness.I mean,since when the worker can chiose their company cars?As a social freshman who is still looking for job,I don't get the concept.
Bedsitdweller drivers were terrible back then. Unbelievably It was more socially acceptable to drink drive and use mobiles at the wheel. Today we have media and advertising campaigns together with changing attitudes.
The global warming message is not the point here - the problem is something which has always stood throughout history. You're not likely to care about the cost of investment when it's not your money you're spending. It is possible to run a prosperous society that does less damage to the environment, by making people responsible for their own purchasing decisions.
God seeing all these old Rovers and Fords and Vauxhalls and Peugeots with the alloy wheels and spoilers and sporty bodykits and MANUAL TRANSMISSIONS makes me sad, all these beautifully boxy cars probably sitting in a scrapheap somewhere
You call that recession? In Israel the fleet market takes around 70% of the total car market. But employees pay around 1000$ for their cars monthly. Here the best selling car is the hyundai accent... I'd certainly buy a 3 series if my government didn't tax it until it costs twice as much...
Some of Britain's laws regarding cars and taxes is confusing to me. Does this mileage tax only apply to business vehicles, or are they levied against private owners as well? And what is it with the iron fist of the MOT? Yes, there are some states here in the US (not all) that require vehicle inspections, but they're not nearly as stringent as the MOT requires. For example, in Pennsylvania, you can't have any rust holes in the body or the vehicle will fail.....BUT, you can fill or cover those holes with pretty much anything you like, and it will pass. Some people just pop-rivet aluminum over the holes, and I knew a guy who covered the back of the hole with a cut open beer can, and covered it with body filler on the outside; it passed.
MOT's are supposed to make sure that all cars on the road are safe for the user and other road users (pedestrians etc.) Of course it only checks on the day it is tested (of the tester does it properly)
MOT's are annual checks on a vehicle to make sure it's road legal, but in essence they're a waste of time as it's technically certified road legal for that day, the next day it could be a fail but it doesn't matter as you've just passed and you've got 364 days before you have to worry about it again. A lot of people with modified cars will take their mods off for the MOT to make sure it passes then pop them all back on afterwards for example.
I'm too young to remember those particular rules, but nowadays the tax level is based on how much carbon dioxide you emit. You take the manufacturer's list price and multiply it by a percentage based on the CO2 (up to a maximum of 35%) and that's the benefit you're taxed on. Electric cars are taxed at 4% of list price.
@@moltenriches While it is true that an MOT only checks on that day, if you are stopped by the police and they think you have an unsafe car even if you have a current MOT you can be fined up to £2500, be banned from driving or get 3 points on your license.
Will Poundstone correct. I lost my well paid job that year. Tried to buy the company BMW 318i I was driving off them, as they owned it outright and because it was an asset, the receivers would have taken it, so I was allowed to buy it for myself. Only reason I didn't was I couldn't afford the insurance at 21 :(
Jeff the Escort was indeed a terrible car that year. Took a new one down to Cornwall once (hire car from Hertz), and of course it was nice to drive, it was new but the engine was so old fashioned. A rattly CVH unit taken from the previous model. As regards what would my favourite car be from 1991, hmmm. Got to be the VW Golf GTI 16v model. Had a run out in a new one of them, was a company car for one of the managers and I was taking it for a service I think. Fabulous, solid, refined quick and stable with good gearing for motorways as well. Yep. Thats my choice.
steve downard Sierra has an awful noisy engine. The 1.8 was so unrefined. Vauxhall engines were better in my opinion back then. Astra SRI new was fantastic. Fiestas have always been great. Was driving a nearly new one in 1989, 1.1 litre engine but was excellent on the motorway. Happy days
See that's alot of what the issue is with business , it wasn't always changing times or consumer demands. It was the bigger employee's higher up the ladder takin the piss and Taking every benefit and gettine away with doing as little as possible. Which is why alot of industry has moved to Asia and other countries, they generally work hard. I'm generalizing here of course not saying everyone's like that but it's defo something I've noticed with management of alot of places I've seen. Granted I'm only 30 but when ye see workplaces and people ye get to know how people operate and there's patern's with people. Hard working people in often don't get the recognition they deserve as the senior manage ment, especially in Britain, alot of the time are either status conscious, so if yer saying anything bad about anything ye get shot down even if it's a perfectly valid point, or glory hunters. Just an observation. Applied to company cars which is waht we're talking about here. The folk who get the "perk" that money's gotta come from somewhere and is paid by someone else. Nout is free and those that got away with paying little for their vehicle and maybe not always using them for what they were supposed to be using em for. Well ye see ma point, it hdefo had an effect on everybody else somewhere along the line LOL.
I'm lucky enough to have an S-line Audi A6 for a company car. I wonder if it'll be viewed as shit in 20 years time like these old cavaliers & rover sterlings are now 🙈
Nope. As they said in 1:48, the reason is about taxes. The UK both undertaxed company cars and is combined with a higher income tax rate than the US. This makes it far more desirable for a company to pay a lower salary and provide a company car, than to pay the fully-taxed salary and the employee goes out and buys their own car. In the US, rules about mileage logs, the IRS mileage rate, and deductibility of cars (versus trucks and vans) make it less favorable to game the system like this.
Yeah the global warming lie has been going on for decades now. They were whining about global warming when I was a child (in the mid 2010s). But it goes decades before that too. still nothing has happened 🤷♂️
What’s funny, is the boss’ car is only a few times the cost of the employee. Now the boss drives a new Porsche, while employee has a 10 yr old beater. And if they miss work because car trouble, the boss gets outraged for their poor work ethic. Need to go back to the old days
At least they never had worry about this Morden day scam such as congestion charge ulez I live 20 yard by congestion charge and ulez I can't cross the road with my car I have to pay £ 12 what a scam