Audi A6 gives you executive-style motoring but without any of the bling
Business Car Manager: Editor’s Blog
LISTENING to the commentary on Radio 5 Live on Friday, the one word that kept on being repeated was ‘austerity’: “We’re moving into an age of austerity,” was the continuing refrain.
I’ve been thinking about this since, and what it might mean to business car choice. Could it be the smart thing to choose something classy but rather sober-suited – like my Audi A6, for instance, pictured left – rather than a car that’s more outwardly showy, such as a sports car?
It’s happened before. When the recession started – that Lehman Brothers moment in history (what business can forget its impact?) – suddenly big SUVs were absolutely the wrong thing to be in, 4×4 used prices plummeted, and there was consternation amongst buyers as they tried to shift these premium pieces of 4×4 technology that no one wanted anymore. It’s all changed now, of course.
But I wonder if we might see something similar happening as the mood of the nation changes. Further credence was given to this line of thinking when I saw a headline in The Guardian newspaper that city bonuses were being spent on luxury properties, rather than Porsches, Aston Martins and Bentleys.
If nothing else, an age of austerity will create further demand – helped by the adverse taxation on cars with heavy CO2 emissions – for smaller, upmarket compact city cars. Cars like the new Audi A1 and the ultra-successful MINI, with plenty of money spent on the options list, I suspect will become more prevalent. Same levels of executive car luxury, less spent on the tax. And the size of the car
