When it come to buying a luxury car there the most important thing to do is do your homework. This is critical, you are about to buy one of the most expensive items you own after your house and it is also your dream car and you don’t want any bitter realities to hit home.

Buying a prestige car needs time and plenty of questions, it’s got to be right or it could disappointing and costly. Our top tips would be:

1. Inspect the car or have the car inspected thoroughly, mechanically and cosmetically. Take nothing to chance.
2. Ensure the car has been MOT’d within 6 months and serviced by specialist dealers. Check the service agents out.
3. Track ownership where you can, find out who had it and what it was used for as best you can.
4. Contact the registering dealer to make sure they did register it.
5. Carry out HPI clearance checks for finance interests, write off details and police alerts.

Apply these rules along with the normal rules of buying a car and you will be well on your way to having a great car prestige car on your drive way.

Iconic car tuning company Cosworth has now combined their stunning technology with the Ranger Rover Sport and Vogue model lines. Whils this is not an official Land Rover upgrade, Cosworth tuning and exterior and interior styling are a real must have for any lover of the classic brand and popular Range Rover.

The work is the brain child of Khan Cosworth and can be carried out on nearly new and new Range Rover Vogue and Range Rover Sport 3.6 TDV8’s. For more information why not contact Insignis Cars for more information.

Audi continues to go from strength to strength. The cars better and the range continue to grow. Mondeo man wants to upgrade and BMW and Mercedes drivers alike have turned coat and opted for the "other" German marque.

Audi is no budget car range but the one place it really is trying to save you money is on your fuel and tax bills. Take the Audi A4, the 2.0 TDI engine gives over 54 miles to the gallon combined with a Co2 Emission of circa 134g/km.

This is all combined with stunning performance from a 143ps engine. How many cars can your truly say offer performance, economy, green thinking as well as a prestige badge. Not many!!

Audi also is subject to some of the strongest residual values in the market place. Which means with the average Audi being worth 10-20% more after three years. Owners enjoy strong change over figures and those who lease exceptional rates.

As an example based on a 3 Year 10000 miles per annum contract hire, The average BMW 3 Series driver will pay £350 plus VAT per month an A4 driver could pay £285 plus VAT. The average BMW 1 series driver would pay £275.00 plus VAT per month and the A3 driver would pay £210.00.

Lease or buy an Audi?

With the British pound as weak as it is as the moment UK cars and vans make a seriously attractive propostion to our Euro wielding neighbours. Ok you need to be able to put up with a right hand drive car but the potential savings are massive. In the last 4 of 5 months alone interest from Southern Irish buyers has grown massively and in a difficult car sales market being able to buy a car either cheaper or at a price advantage is a major plus point for both private buyers and the trade.

In simple terms you can really feel the benefit in buying prestige product. The higher price tag means that the savings are greater in percentage terms particularly in the smaller EU countries. There has been a marked increase from the spanish islands and Malta to name but a few and especially Cyrus, who drive right hand drive cars are reaping the benefits.

BMW is back with another rendition of its ActiveHybrid system—this time in its flagship 7-series—with the world debut of the BMW Concept 7-series ActiveHybrid in October at the 2008 Paris auto show.

The automaker pairs the car’s twin-turbo, direction-injection, 4.4-liter V-8 engine with an electric drive for what is known as a mild hybrid—meaning the car cannot operate on electricity alone. Rather, the electric motors reduce fuel consumption and emissions—BMW claims by 15 percent—through such means as an automatic start-stop function that turns the vehicle off when it otherwise would be idling.

The idea is to make the car more efficient without compromising performance. The conventional version of the new 2009 7-series with the V-8 offers 400 hp and 450 lb-ft of torque and BMW says that is not diminished—in fact, the 20-hp electric motor will boost acceleration. Combining the two powertrains should produce about 415 hp and 605 lb-ft of torque, we are told. Channeling the power is an eight-speed automatic transmission. [more]

Energy captured in brake regeneration will be used to power many of the car’s features, leaving the fuel free to make the car go fast. BMW says enough energy can be stored to power substantially more electric components than in past vehicles—which seemingly makes it possible for an endless list of creature comforts. The energy is stored in lithium-ion batteries that are located in a trough in the trunk.

The components of the mild hybrid system come from a cooperative effort with Daimler. BMW first showed the fruits of these labors in the X5 Vision unveiled at the 2008 Geneva auto show. Mercedes introduced similar technology in Geneva with the Vision GLK BlueTec and S400 mild hybrid concepts.

Each luxury automaker insists its individual systems have been tweaked to reflect their brand images—a claim we’ll need to verify when we can drive their respective vehicles. A BMW source says the two automakers pooled their efforts for the first two steps of the development of the shared technology, at which point the work veered off in brand-specific directions. “Now we are at the fifth step of the technology,” he says. The source says BMW is using the technology to improve dynamics and performance, while Mercedes views the system as a means for better energy management—a claim Mercedes may or may not dispute.

Source: http://www.caranddriver.com