Picking A Pretty Prestige Car

Sadly I am not a wealthy man. If I harboured dreams of owning a fast car and a country mansion I would likely end up disappointed. However I need not despair; the advent of prestige car hire offers hope for people like me that want to experience the enjoyment of driving a seriously cool car without having to sell a kidney. The following are the three cars that I would go for if I was looking to hire a prestige company car.

Aston Martin DB9

The Aston Martin DB9 was considered so cool by the presenters of Top Gear that they invented a new category on their "cool wall" that categorises the cars they review into "seriously uncool" to sub zero. The DB9 was so popular that they wheeled in a fridge to demonstrate that it was way off their scale and they triumphed the car despite the fact that presenter Jeremy Clarkson owns one.

Aston Martin is synonymous with cool and has long been the choice of James Bond. The car is also the choice for the young sexy women in Hollywood: the DB9 is driven by the character Gabrielle Solis played by Eva Longoria in the US TV series Desperate Housewives.

The DB name stems from the man that owned Aston Martin from the early 40s to mid 60s, David Brown. The DB9 is hand built and the numbers that are made are limited. Buying an Aston Martin DB9 will set you back around 110,850 - 119,850. It can be leased on 48 month business contract hire if you have the 9359.94 deposit and monthly rental fee of 1559.99 that must be paid for 47 months.

Bentley Continental GT

This Grand Tourer coupe is a favourite of celebrities and along with the Chrysler 300 is known as the "Baby Bentley". The 4 time World Rally Champion Juha Kankkunen used the Bentley Continental to break the World speed record on Ice when he drove it on a section of the frozen Baltic sea near Oulu in Finland. He reached a speed of 207mph which smashed the previous record of 184mph.

An interesting feature on the Bentley Continental GT is that the grille is made of plastic. It is designed to look like chrome based mesh but plastic is used as a safety measure as it will break apart on impact with a pedestrian.

The Bentley Continental is related to the Audi A8. Both are made by parent company Volkswagen AG. Details of a Bentley Continental GT speed have been released that will modify the current design to achieve a top speed of 202mph and a 0-60 time of 4.3 seconds.

The current version sells for between 110,000 and 120,000. A 48 Month Business Contract Hire will cost you an initial deposit of 8399.94 followed by 47 months at 1399.99 per month.

Jaguar XK

The Jaguar XK is quintessentially British. The Scottish designer Ian Callum is said to have modelled the car with British actress Kate Winslet in mind. He stated that "a Jaguar should be sensuous and voluptuous". Jeremy Clarkson has described the XK as "pant-wettingly pretty". It won the GT of the year award from Top Gear magazine as well as the car of the year award for 2006.

Jaguar have designed and introduced this vehicle to replace the XJS. The XK8 and XKR versions are electronically limited to a maximum speed of 155mph. The car comes with 18 inch alloy wheels as standard with the option of increasing them to 19 or 20 inches.

Jaguar has worked extensively to improve the safety features on the XK and have developed a bonnet airbag system that is designed to cushion the head of a pedestrian in the event of an accident. Previously when a pedestrian was hit by a Jaguar severe injury occurred because the victims head pushed through the bonnet and collided with the engine. The new system senses the impact and raises the bonnet to prevent this happening. It is called the Pedestrian Deployable Bonnet System or PDBS.

With a price tag of 60,000 it is not within everyone's budget. A 48 Month Business Contract Hire will cost a deposit of 4199.94 followed by 47 months at 699.99.

About The Author-- Car expert Shaun Parker uses his years of experience in the car industry to looks at the variety of prestige cars on the hire market.

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