Citroen Van Site
Vans are proving to be the best choices for a motor vehicle, especially for those having an expanding or a huge family. They can also be beneficial for those having a number of items for carting around regularly. Used Citroen vans are especially popular amongst companies wanting a pre-decided monthly expenditure, as against those needing big one-off payments to 'Part With'.
The most economical option
Van leasing has been looked upon as a superb option for the people feeling that need of van is urgent for them, for commercial or personal use. Van leasing implies the company or individual renting van for some predefined time period for a monthly payment which is already set. This continues till the expiry of the lease. There are a number of advantages of van leasing. At the same time, there are also some disadvantages. These need to be taken into consideration prior to deciding on leasing of van.
Advantages
Amongst the greatest advantages of van leasing traces the fact that no huge payment is due initially, i.e. at the starting of leasing period. At the starting, only deposit is due. However, this payment is usually small. It sums up to around 1, 2, or 3 of monthly payments during lease period. Monthly installments relating to van leasing have also been quite less as compared to those involved in buying of a new van. This system not only saves a lot of money of individual or the company involved in van leasing but can make leasing pleasurable in terms of driving van of individual's choice. Of Course, this applies for a short-term only.
Van leasing permits the individual of giving up the van after having driven it for around 2 years. In such cases, the individual is likely to consider his van outdated or might just not wish to continue with the van which has been used day in day out. Once the period of leasing gets completed, the van can simply be returned by the individual to leasing company. He can then make an entry into new lease, towards a fresh van.
Disadvantages
Having discussed all the advantages, it's imperative to discuss the disadvantages of van leasing as well. The greatest one amongst those states that the individual never gets to own the van by this way. It remains the leasing company's property-always! The other disadvantage of van leasing states that calculating annual mileage, along with other charges can prove to be difficult. Any of the leased vans are bound to have pre-decided miles which can be gathered on them. If the 'Number of Miles' tends to exceed this number, charges can go upwards to a great extent. For averting this, it's essential to carry out the calculation of mileage accurately. Miscalculating might result into paying heavy charges. These charges can be beyond the imaginations of company or individual.
Other charges likely to be included through a lease are the damages caused to the van. Though these expenses are generally incurred by the owner, minor damages have to be repaired by the individual only.
By Raven Smith.
Visit the Blog about andre citroenCitro‘n C1 1.0i Vibe 3dr
It took the Great British public precisely 24 hours to drive a large Range Rover Sport right through Alistair Darling and his deputy Stephen LadymanÕs proposals for spy in the sky, pay as you go road pricing.
The idea is that youÕre charged anything up to £1.34 to use a busy road during the morning rush hour and as little as tuppence to pootle into a rural village at three in the afternoon. In return vehicle excise duty and tax on petrol will be dramatically reduced.
The head honchos at the Department for Transport insist they are not trying to get people out of their cars, claiming that by making people think about what roads they use and when, they will spread the rush hour load more evenly throughout the day.
The thing is though, Darling, if youÕre a school cleaner you can think all you like about when youÕd like to use the road, but if the job starts at 8.30am you kind of have to be there by then. And what if you want to go to Bristol from London? You can ponder away until the cows come home but youÕll struggle to find a realistic alternative to the M4.
And this is only the start. Teachers and firemen can no longer afford to live in the cities they serve because property prices are too high. Well, under Darling and Man LoveÕs proposals commuting will be too expensive as well.
And speaking of cost, has anyone actually thought about how unbelievably expensive this scheme might be? At present the big oil companies take £50m or whatever from you and me at the pumps and then send 70% to Gordon Brown, who pops it in the bank. Easy.
What Darling and Man Love are now suggesting, with straight faces, is that BritainÕs 32m vehicles will be fitted with a black box full of technology that hasnÕt yet been invented, and each of these boxes will be monitored by American military satellites. And then, at the end of every month, every single motorist in the land will be sent a bill.
Along with some speeding tickets, I should imagine, because if they know where you are 24 hours a day, theyÕll also know how fast youÕre going.
How many people will it take to run all this, to assimilate all the data from space, to deal with the queries from those in hire cars, and visitors from Belgium? ItÕll run to the thousands, and theyÕll all need health and safety officers and rubber plants and water fountains. And whoÕs going to pay their wages. Well, er, thatÕd be you and me.
How can Darling and Man Love not have spotted this? How can two grown men have listened to their advisers and then thought, ÒYes, that sounds great. LetÕs take it to the public.Ó Are they mad? I found out, with one phone call to Transport for London that half Ñ half Ñ of the congestion charge is spent on administration.
If Gordon Brown suddenly found that half the revenue from motorists was being spent on rubber plants and civil servants, the National Health Service would stop and heÕd have to sell all our tanks.
Darling claims he canÕt do nothing, and that he canÕt build more roads because this would mean paving over Òthe whole countryÓ. No it wouldnÕt, because John Prescott is getting Barratt and Bryant to do that.
There is some good news though, because at present, with tax on fuel, people who drive large, thirsty cars pay more at the pumps than those who pootle around in small fuel efficient hatchbacks. With the new idea, everyone will pay the same, so you can go ahead and buy the Hummer youÕd been dreaming about. This will infuriate eco-mentalists, and thatÕs dreamy, Except, of course, it wonÕt be dreamy at all because weÕve had what feels like 900 years of BlairÕs barmy army now so we know how the system works. They make a suggestion, about smoking or smacking or hunting or guns or whatever, and then amid howls of protest go ahead and implement it anyway.
So instead of ditching the road-pricing scheme, Darling will insist all his frizzy haired, baggy breasted advisers dream up some ludicrous device whereby people in big cars end up paying £200 a mile while people in hateful hybrids are given free puppies.
This will need another 5,000 civil servants to administer, and then a special squad of armed men to police because people in large cars tend to be clever and will simply mess everything up by driving around with some tin foil wrapped round the aerial on the black box.
In the same way that more foxes have been killed by huntsmen since hunting with dogs was banned, I can pretty much guarantee that if someone puts a Darling and Man Love transmitter in my car IÕll never pay any car tax ever again.
Anyway, the thing is, you voted for Blair so plainly you like the idea of a world where all the animals are equal and all 4x4s come with a free hippie chained to the radiator grille. So IÕm sure youÕll be delighted to find that the subject of this weekÕs column is a small Citro‘n called the C1.
In many ways, itÕs the spiritual successor to the old 2CV, that poisonous upturned bathtub favoured by the sort of hippie whoÕs currently handcuffed to the tow hook of your Land Cruiser. If Citro‘n were really on the ball, theyÕd sell it in CND livery with Save the Whale bumper stickers ready fitted. And maybe get superhippie Steve Hillage to design the upholstery. Man.
Instead theyÕve been even cleverer, making a car that is pared to the bone and then shaved. To save development costs it shares a body, a floor, suspension and even an engine with both the new small Peugeot and the Toyota Aygo, the little car in which my colleagues on Top Gear recently played football.
And that was just the start. The rear tailgate is made entirely of glass rather than made from metal with a window glued in place. And thereÕs only one electric window switch on the driverÕs side. To get the passenger window down you have to lean over . . . which is no great hardship since this is not a big car.
IÕm reminded in fact of an advertisement Citro‘n ran many years ago for the 2CV which claimed it had central locking. ÒYou can easily reach all the doors from the driverÕs seat.Ó And that it was faster than a Ferrari. ÒAt 70mph the 2CV will easily overtake a 308 GTS travelling at 68mph.Ó
ThereÕs that same sense of jokey cheapness in the C1. And yet. And yet. Deep breath. I liked it enormously, because it has something which is sadly missing from most modern cars. Charm.
Oh sure, 0 to 60 takes a week, the rideÕs bouncier than a government adviserÕs breasts and the bootÕs barely big enough for DarlingÕs IQ, but the interior is a jolly place to be. It even has a docking port for an iPod, and you donÕt get that on an S-class Mercedes.
As a station car this would be absolutely ideal, especially when you look at the result of all the cost cutting. ItÕs only £6,500.
The only problem is quality. Citro‘ns have an unenviable reputation for breaking down a lot, which might lead you to the door of the identical Toyota Aygo. This is £500 more, which you might think is a small price to pay for that famed Japanese reliability.
But since the two cars are made in the same factory, by the same people, I would therefore save the money and go for the C1.
Then, when the road pricing scheme comes to fruition, with the anti 4x4 big-car bells and whistles in place, itÕd be just the right size . . . for driving right up DarlingÕs backside.
By Jeremy Clarkson.
