Pick up a bargain

Today’s Times has the fascinating news that Jensen Button has put his Bugatti Veyron on the market – a snip at £900,000 with one not-so careful owner.

I hope he does better than me the last time I put a car in Autotrader. I got a lot of telephone calls from people selling advertising space in other magazines – and time wasters who never showed up.

I’m undecided about the Veyron. I like it and Jeremy Clarkson speaks very highly about it on Top Gear. But I am a bit worried about the £25,000 annual service bills – and the fact that I haven’t got £900 – let alone £900,000.

According to a helpful article on buying Supercars in the Sunday Times last weekend, the Veyron is not a particularly good buy. It’s too big to use on British roads – and it depreciates almost as fast as it travels.

So I can only assume Jensen Button reads the Sunday Times when he is not driving around in circles. Their recommendation was for another million pound motor – the Enzo Ferrari.

And I see Mr Button is keeping his one of those too for the time being. Button must have quite a big garage in Monte Carlo because he apparently has a Mercedes AMG and an Audi RS6 Avant too.

Well I suppose his girlfriend needs a car to get to the shops – and the Audi is dead useful when you want to take your dog for a ride at 180mph All of which brings me back to the car I tried to sell in Autotrader.

I still have it sitting forlornly in the back of my garden. It used to be a bit of a liability – but now it is apparently worth £2000! The only snag is that I will have to exchange it for a new car… something I don’t want to do as I have never bought a new car in my life.

I’m not much of a one for green mania – and I cannot see the logic in swapping a car that does not go – and is therefore not polluting the environment one iota – for one that does go.

Even if you believe the baloney that marginally improved fuel efficiency is somehow important – there is the small matter of making the car that nobody currently wants to buy. Wouldn’t it be just a tad more ecologically friendly not to build all those cars in the first place?