Bit of a long winded rant to start with here, sorry. But please bear with me as it does get to something about cars

I'm seriously considering a career change.
I've been an IT professional my whole working life. When I started, software was off-beat, specialist sort of industry, full of technical ingenuity in a 'geeky' sort of a way.
Well, it's not like that any more. Nowadays it's very big business, and with any big business, it's full of backstabbers, who have no knowledge of the technical side of the job and spend all their time in 'strategy' meetings. For the interesting, technical stuff, they simply get load of Indians to do it for pittance – who I end up having to train and then give unofficial telephone support to all the time. Technical ingenuity has been replaced with 'Business' ingenuity, which seems to me to be all about writing lots of wishy washy aspirational marketing BS about functions that the software product doesn't yet do, and ensuring a software release goes out on time, even if it doesn't work, or has not even been tested. They then use the customers to discover the faults for them.
Apart from the Indian training, the only other thing I seem to do these days it fix someone else's mistakes at some irate customer's site. I don't blame the developers for the mistakes, though. They are simply never given enough time to do it properly.

Talk about zero job satisfaction. I've had enough.

I had thought about setting up my own software firm. It's what I know and I have some good ideas, but it's just not the frontier type of business for a small firm to get in on the action with as it once was – 10 years ago maybe

So I'm thinking of types of things I could do that I'm interested in? Obviously, something to do with cars? Setting up a firm building cars would be great, and certainly get me going on the 'ingenuity' front, but somehow I think there is rather a glut of small British sports car makers out there.

So, what has occurred to me is to perhaps go into Wedding Car hire – bit of a leap, I know, but having some interesting cars to drive around in, and more importantly tinker with, sounds very appealing. I say weddings, but they would not be limited to that – anything that requires stand-out chauffeur driven cars really.

I've literally only thought of this today, so I've not started to look into if it's a viable business yet, but it's something for me to start thinking about and getting my mind off work.

So, finally, here's the question. What would you think would make nice makes/models of wedding cars? To start with, they would need to have a least two rear seats. They would also need to be reasonably priced as I would need at least two cars, probably three to start with (obviously this rules out buying some new RR Phantoms ). I'd also be looking for something a bit different perhaps? Something interesting from a car enthusiasts point of view, but obviously also acceptable to wife-to-be and her mother (let's face it, the groom won't get a look in )

Cheers,
Bill

When I got married last year I looked at a maseratti that a company in scotland used. I think it was about £500 for a few hours however they took any guest out in it that wanted a shot. In the end we didnt use cars as we had the wedding and reception in the same place. Why not try the back of a few wedding magazines and look at a few classic car mags to give you some inspiration for ideas.

Something a bit like this

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/661046.htm

dont go too extreme,you have to cater for joe public remember,white merc s class would be ideal

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Originally posted by K999NNY
Something a bit like this

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/661046.htm

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i got taken to the church in this

ive got the 1936 25/30 black roller for my wedding on the 20th spet , weve not actually paid yet , got anything to offer ?

http://www.lauraslimos.co.uk/classic.html

one thing to think about is MPG - these do 4 mpg - a bit different form 25-30 of something a bit more modern .

I was going to say Jag Mk2

I've actually thought of doing this. I also live near Bingham, notts so I think you should give me a job ^__^ (do need one!)

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Originally posted by Benzine
I was going to say Jag Mk2

I've actually thought of doing this. I also live near Bingham, notts so I think you should give me a job ^__^ (do need one!)

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Beauford and kit cars of that type are ideal, they look the part, are high too (which is ideal for a bride's dress)

And best of all, you can buy them in kit form.

John

My sensible head says nice modern merc or BMW but then you are competing with most other companies and not offering something special which is what gets the big bucks for wedding hires. The £500 hire of the maseratti didnt bother us as we are both petrol heads and would have went for something different. After all weddings are that expensive that another £500 for most is insignifficant. What about a stretch 7, that might be a worlds first?

My sensible head says nice modern merc or BMW but then you are competing with most other companies and not offering something special which is what gets the big bucks for wedding hires. The £500 hire of the maseratti didnt bother us as we are both petrol heads and would have went for something different. After all weddings are that expensive that another £500 for most is insignifficant. What about a stretch 7, that might be a worlds first?

My sensible head says nice modern merc or BMW but then you are competing with most other companies and not offering something special which is what gets the big bucks for wedding hires. The £500 hire of the maseratti didnt bother us as we are both petrol heads and would have went for something different. After all weddings are that expensive that another £500 for most is insignifficant. What about a stretch 7, that might be a worlds first?

This supports your claim it linky

well i live closer to bingham

i dont realli want a job but i just thought id throw that in there(i like being better)

and i would look at some classic cars.... mabye jags etc

Thanks for the replies so far guys. Certainly some options to think about.

completly OT but just realised us 3 live within about half hour of one another yet were all 3 in different countys... not very interesting i know but still

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Originally posted by Miks15
completly OT but just realised us 3 live within about half hour of one another yet were all 3 in different countys... not very interesting i know but still

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A hearse would set the mood.

Bitter ? Moi ?

A beauford is a good choice, its what we had at our wedding and everyone really liked it and thought it looked the part.

They get a bad reputation from PPC and practical classics but most people can't tell if they are a brand new kit car or an vintage car.

The guy who ran them had several that were in different colours I mean the hood etc not the paintwork! we were the second set of peeps to use the dark red one! He also had a BMW limo thing and a Mercedes.

We didn't have wedding cars when we got married, but I think that most wedding car hire businesses have a selection of cars, to cater for different tastes.

And that is going to be your difficulty when starting the business!

Do you go for the Pink Stretched Lincoln limo, or something more Classic, such as a Rolls etc.

Just one word of warning, there is a beautiful looking Rolls Royce that does the rounds in the North East. However being 50 years old and made in England, it doesn't like the rain. I've seen it twice in recent months "failing to proceed". Once in the middle of a set of traffic lights, with the driver stood at the back with an umbrella up, and an AA van in attendance. The second time it was just being loaded onto a recovery truck. Best to have a backup plan just incase! Or a spare limo at home!

Good luck, whatever you decide to do.

Cheers

Mike