Surely there is no stronger sign of the motor car’s voodoo-like ascension from utilitarian transport tool into multi-tasking fashion statement, than BSM’s – the British School of Motoring’s – decision to dump the dowdy Vauxhall Corsa for the trendy Fiat 500 as their learner car of choice.
Part of the reason, according to BSM’s boss, is that the firm’s mostly young and style-conscious lady learners like to drive fashionable cars – as they kangaroo-hop, stall, over-rev, smoke the clutch, do 12-point turns and shuffle steering wheels.
Personally, I would have thought, for a learner driver, the more invisible the car the better. Fashion be damned when you’re trying to learn an important skill in such a public environment. That’s why Micras and Metros and Corsas have made such good learner cars: they are totally anonymous, blending into the roadside scenery like autumn leaves in the gutter.
Mind you, I almost went for my UK licence – 26 years ago – in a flash Italian car. When I first wrote for CAR, I used my Australian driving licence. Editor Steve Cropley, ever mindful of good story potential, suggested I go for my UK licence in something special.
Cropley, however, thought much bigger than those BSM bosses. There was no mere Fiat 500 in his colourful imagination! He wanted his young reporter to go for his licence in a Ferrari Boxer.
Unfortunately for CAR readers, but thankfully for my likelihood of passing, the Boxer (that I had tested just a week earlier) was rested and a well-scuffed BSM Metro was used instead.