WarrantyWise data reveals the real cost of repairs for exotic cars from the likes of Lamborghini and Aston Martin

• WarrantyWise data reveals the real cost of repairs for exotic cars from the likes of Lamborghini, Maserati, Aston Martin and Porsche
• WarrantyWise’s biggest pay-out is for £15,000 to a Lamborghini Murcielago owner for major engine repairs – WarrantyWise cover is just £166 per month on average for a Murcielago
• A Porsche 911 and Maserati 4200 are the second and third largest pay-outs, of around £10,000 each for engine repairs
• Also in the top 10 is a £9,500 gearbox replacement for a Nissan GT-R and £8,057-worth of gearbox repairs on an Aston Martin Vanquish
• For more sensible warranty cover, WarrantyWise.co.uk offers plans for popular models like the Ford Fiesta and Volkswagen Golf from just £19 per month

WarrantyWise.co.uk has revealed the true cost of exotic car repairs, with data detailing its largest ever payouts. A Lamborghini Murcielago tops the list, with a major engine mechanical repair bill of £15,000 fully covered by WarrantyWise. By contrast, covering your Murcielago at WarrantyWise’s highest level of service will set you back just £166 per month.

The top ten list and beyond is full of some of the world’s most famous performance cars, with the top three largest payouts covering major engine mechanical repairs.  Following the Lamborghini in WarrantyWise’s second and third largest payouts were a Porsche 911 and a Maserati 4200 with bills of around £10,000 each. The average monthly cost of WarrantyWise cover for each of the cars is £82 and £146 respectively.

Gearbox issues can leave owners with a hefty bill, too, with big repair costs of just under £10,000 for Aston Martin’s Vanquish and DB9 models needing major repairs to their automatic gearboxes.

Away from the largest repair payouts, WarrantyWise’s data reveal just how expensive relatively minor issues can be in complex, exotic cars. Repairing the ECU in a Ferrari 360, for example, came with a bill of nearly £2,000, with a similar amount required for wheel bearing repairs in a Ferrari 355.

An air-conditioning fix in a Maserati GranTurismo resulted in a £1,885 payout from WarrantyWise and replacing the water pump in a GranTurismo Spider commanded a repair payout of £2,278.

Even the more run of the mill cars aren’t immune to a crippling bill, though, with payouts of more than £5,000 each for family favourites, the Renault Grand Espace and Volkswagen Passat.

Warranties at this more sensible end of the scale, including for popular models like the Ford Fiesta and Volkswagen Golf, start from just £19 per month.

Lawrence Whittaker, CEO of WarrantyWise, said: “When you lay out all the repair payouts WarrantyWise makes, you can see why so many of our customers swear by our service – especially on an exotic car where the bills are rarely cheap. But the fact that we also have the likes of Renault and Volkswagen in our largest ever payouts just goes to show that all cars have the potential to go very badly wrong – and the resulting repair bill can be large enough to really disrupt your life.”

WarrantyWise Top 10 Most Expensive Authorised Repairs

Make	Model	Issue	Amount Paid
Lamborghini	Murcielago	Engine (Major Mechanical)	£15,000
Porsche	911	Engine (Major Mechanical)	£10,051.63
Maserati	4200	Engine (Major Mechanical)	£10,000
Ferrari	550	Electrical (major)	£9996.52
Nissan	GT-R	Replace Gearbox	£9,500
Nissan	GT-R	Gearbox (selector)	£9,500
Aston Martin	Vanquish	Gearbox Auto	£8,057.56
Aston Martin	DB9	Gearbox (auto)	£7315.45
Lamborghini	Gallardo	F1 Actuator	£6437.27
Ferrari	575	Gearbox (selector)	£6161.21

Jaguar Land Rover showcases history whilst opening the new Plant with a plant at Solihull.

• Parade of 40 iconic Jaguar Land Rover models from both past and present marks historic opening of upgraded Solihull plant
• Sir Stirling Moss OBE leads the procession in one of Jaguar’s most iconic heritage cars – the XK120
• Models spanning across up to eight decades of both Jaguar Land Rover heritage form part of parade including Jaguar SS1 Tourer and Land Rover Series l to present-day Jaguar XE and Range Rover Sport SVR.
• Historic moment for the company as the first Jaguar XE rolls off the line at Solihull
• Milestone in Jaguar’s history in its 80^th year

A stunning procession of classic and iconic Jaguar and Land Rover models has kicked off the celebration of the opening of the newly upgraded Solihull plant and welcoming Jaguar production to the traditional home of Land Rover where the new XE saloon is now being made.

The 40 car parade was led by legendary British racing driver Sir Stirling Moss OBE in a Jaguar XK120 alongside Solihull Operations Director, Alan Volkaerts. 

They were joined by renowned Jaguar test driver, Norman Dewis OBE, well-known TV presenter – and Jaguar Land Rover aficionado - Quentin Willson, plus many other VIP guests and Jaguar Land Rover employees.

Models from Jaguar’s illustrious 80-year history such as Jaguar’s SS1 Tourer, XK120, and E-Type were lined up with the XE in a circuit of the new £500 million pound facility. 

They were joined by Land Rover’s finest in the form of a Series l, 101 Forward Control and the newly launched Range Rover Sport SVR, marking the historic opening of this state of the art facility and the commencement of the first Jaguar to be made at the ‘home of Land Rover’.

John Edwards, Managing Director of Jaguar Land Rover Special Operations commented: ”It's wonderful to see great cars from both Jaguar and Land Rover's heritage helping us to celebrate the exciting new future at Solihull. Even more so when they are being joined by the future classics currently being made here such as the Jaguar XE.”

Sir Stirling Moss said: “Cars like the Jaguar XK120 and E-type look as wonderful today as they did when they were new and it's brilliant that they are here, taking part in the celebration of a great new chapter in Jaguar's illustrious history.”

The arrival of the XE at the Solihull manufacturing plant is significant for both the Jaguar and Land Rover brands. 

Renowned for producing some of the world’s most distinguishable saloon cars in history, the advent of XE production at Solihull marks a key milestone for Jaguar, this year celebrating its 80^th birthday. 

For Land Rover, welcoming the Jaguar brand to its home is the latest in a string of significant developments, which have seen the site undergo a spectacular transformation in just five years.

OBITUARY - Brian Lister, The Man, the Name and the legend lives on.

• Lister Cars founder Brian Lister died on December 16^th 2014
• Brian was a true racing legend and his passing marks the end of an era
• His famous 1954 Lister ‘Knobbly’ was the front-engined car to beat in period racing
• Touching interview with TV presenter Quentin Willson recorded on December 8^th 2014 can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2MTzTtx4Ow 

Brian Lister, who died aged 88 on December 16th, was one of Britain’s greatest unsung racing car builders. From its inception in 1954, Lister quickly became a benchmark for the front-engined sports racing car. The Lister ‘Knobbly’, as it was known, had few competitors.

Brian Horace Lister was born on 12 July 1926. He and his brother Raymond were the two sons of Horace and Nell Lister. Horace had joined the family engineering firm (established by his own father George in 1890) after the Great War and who had himself been trained as an engineer at Brotherwood’s in Peterborough, a torpedo manufacturer.

After attending the Perse School in Cambridge, Brian Lister was apprenticed to George Lister and Sons in 1942, completing his training in 1946, when he joined the Royal Air Force for two years of National Service. He chose the RAF for the twin reasons of engineering interest and an enthusiasm for Jazz music: “The RAF had the best bands...” he put it. He became a well-known performer with the drums, having formed a band, the Downbeats, during the war. It was an enthusiasm which never left him.

Another was the motor car. He had bought his first, a very tired ex-police MG, as soon as he was able, which was swiftly replaced by a Morgan 4/4, followed by a Cooper-MG. Lister rejoined the family firm in 1948.

In post-war Britain motor sport was fashionable and Brian helped to co-found the Cambridge 50 Car Club, another member of which was an oddly diminutive Scot, W.A. ‘Archie’ Scott Brown. The two men became firm friends and shared a mechanical guru, Donald Moore, who maintained the hard-worked engines on both their cars.

John Tojeiro, in nearby Huntingdon, was a customer of Lister Engineering and Brian Lister bought the second Tojeiro ever built, which he started to enter in sprint events in 1951. He was almost beaten by Scott Brown and on Moore’s advice handed the feral car over to him for the rest of its career; his own interest was veering towards being a constructor.

He asked his father to fund the development of a car bearing the family name. Horace assented, and by the Summer of 1953 the project was underway. Brian would build the car, Don Moore would provide an MG engine and Scott Brown would drive it. The car made its debut on April 3, 1954 at Snetterton. It won.

But at the British Empire Trophy race at Oulton Park a week later there was a huge potential setback. Scott Brown was severely disabled; possessed of only one hand and foreshortened legs, he stood only five feet tall. Another competitor protested his entry on safety grounds and his racing license was summarily withdrawn until, on appeal, it was restored two months later. But Lister kept his faith in Scott Brown, engaging other drivers only as long as Archie was unable to drive the car. It was to be one of the most remarkable synergies in sport.

The Lister car evolved rapidly, powered by Bristol and, later, Maserati engines. On the strength of his Lister drives, Scott Brown was retained as a Formula 1 driver for Connaught, which frustrated Lister’s own efforts in Formula 2 somewhat. Then, in 1957, the Lister-Jaguar appeared, which drew everyone’s attention. 

That season, out of fourteen races entered, it won twelve, setting either fastest lap or an outright record on each occasion. Unsurprisingly, customers appeared for the next year and the car was put into production for 1958, powered either by a Jaguar engine or, for the American market, a Chevrolet option. Lister was suddenly in the first rank of sports car builders, yet Brian achieved international success with great humility and on a budget much smaller than the major racing teams.

It was at Spa, in May 1958 that the great adventure started to falter; Scott Brown died after a fiery crash and Brian needed persuasion to keep going. He did, but only after some lengthy introspection on his part. He continued, but persistent deaths in motor sport gave him pause for more thought. 

Finally, in the Summer of 1959, after the deaths of Ivor Bueb and Jean Behra (neither of them in Lister cars) he withdrew from racing completely, supporting existing customers until the effort wound down in the 1960s. His last foray into racing was the preparation of the works Sunbeam Tigers for the 1964 Le Mans race.

He remained actively involved in Lister Engineering, taking it successfully into the field of packaging machine manufacture, and continued with his interest in music, performing publicly as late as 1990. In 2014 the Lister ‘Knobbly’ was reborn under the stewardship of the Whittaker family and turnkey replicas are now built at the same Lister factory in Cambridgeshire for historic racing. Weeks before he died Brian inspected the first continuation Knobby built and was delighted that the Lister legend lives on.

An unfailingly polite, drily humourous but essentially diffident man, despite his affection for highly colourful bow ties, Brian Lister viewed his professional association with Archie Scott Brown as both the highest point of his career but, all too suddenly, also the lowest. He married, in 1951, Josephine Prest, who survives him. They had one daughter.

Lawrence Whittaker, Managing Director of Lister Cars, said: “Brian Lister was a wonderful man - kind with a great sense of humour, he was always incredibly modest about his amazing achievements. Whenever I met him, I was left with the lasting impression of his passion for British engineering. He will be sorely missed, but we will make sure his ethos and legacy lives on at Lister Cars.” 

Mitsubishi celebrates another Green award for its outstanding Outlander PHEV

Mitsubishi Motors in the UK is celebrating its success at the 2014 Green Fleet Awards. The presentation was made by motoring journalist Quentin Willson at the Heritage Motor Centre Museum in Gaydon.

The awards recognise individuals and organisations which strive to reduce the environmental impact of fleet transport through innovation. 

The PHEV Manufacturer of the Year Award is sponsored by EDF Energy. It recognises the manufacturer of either a commercial or consumer PHEV that demonstrates the best performance and best suitability for purpose in its class. Shortlisted, alongside the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV was the Toyota Prius Plug-in hybrid and the Volvo V60 Plug-in hybrid.

Clive Messenger, Head of Corporate Sales at Mitsubishi in the Motors UK, said:

“We are absolutely delighted that we have won ‘PHEV Manufacturer of the Year’ at the GreenFleet Awards. The Outlander PHEV is an exciting new vehicle, at the forefront of a new era in fleet and company car use.”

The Outlander PHEV is a full-sized family 4x4 SUV. It uses both electric and petrol power to propel itself. Unlike many other traditional hybrid vehicles, the Outlander PHEV can travel a long way without using any petrol, 32.5 miles in fact. Such an impressive electric range gives the vehicle phenomenal environmental credentials. It emits just 44g/km of CO₂ and the official combined fuel consumption figure is 148mpg.