Civic pride being taken for a ride?

First things first: I like cars. I’ve been fortunate enough to drive some posh ones in my time, Jaguars among them, and they are something to be proud of.
So is Nottingham, and I completely understand the logic in the Lord Mayor driving round in a status symbol appropriate to a big city.
What I don’t understand is either the financial process that arrived at two long-wheelbase Jaguars as new civic limos; or a deal that means we keep these cars until 2018; or a result which doesn’t appear to save any money.
(Unless, of course, the object all along was that hoary old council tactic of making sure you spend up to your departmental budget).
There’s no question that the two civic Bentleys that currently dodder around Nottingham are well past their sell-by date.
Never mind their appalling fuel consumption, vehicles which, in the words of the internal council report, ‘are too unreliable to be used on business outside the city’ should clearly have been sent to the knacker’s yard years ago.
As it stands, the Jaguar 2.7 TDi is not a bad choice as a replacement. The reknowned JD Power cutomer satisfaction surveys show them to be some of the best-made, most reliable luxury cars in the world, and the diesel motor in the council’s preferred choice is far from being a gas guzzler.
But why a long-wheelbase version? The ordinary Jaguar XJ has more than enough legroom to stop the Mayor’s ermine robes looking like a crumpled ferret, and limited production, low-demand models (which the LWB version of the Jag is) tend to lose their value faster than mainstream cars.
And why keep the car for 10 years? No business would do that, and for two reasons: just like those poor old Bentleys, they will be threadbare hulks in a decade’s time, so it doesn’t make sense to keep spending good money on a car past its sell-by-date (and the very same argument has signed the death warrant for the existing nags).
Secondly, at a time when the motor industry is racing to produce new technologies that will help overcome our dependence on diminishing, high-priced oil, why is Nottingham committing itself to hanging on to a fading technology for a decade?
I suspect the answer lies in this sentence from that same council report: ‘running costs [for the Jaguars] can be contained within the current civic cars budget’. In other words, let's make sure we spend what we've been given. In an age of innovation and efficiency, shouldn’t a leading city be aiming to spend less?
Let’s go back to the start: what is a status symbol appropriate to a big city? Right now, it may well be a Jaguar diesel. It probably won’t be in a few years’ time, though. So why not show the kind of visionary leadership Nottingham purports to possess and try something radically different?
Not one of those fashionable electro-hybrids (which aren’t quite as green as some would have you believe), but something genuinely environmentally friendly that has Nottingham stamped all over it.
What else but a Raleigh Rickshaw.
One final thought. If you regard the whole eco-thing as a meaningless fig leaf and believe Nottingham should indulge its status in the grandest sense, here's another idea.
A couple of years from now, the British Grand Prix arrives on Nottingham's doorstep when Donington Park starts hosting the Formula One power-fest. And when Lewis Hamilton isn't winning, it's usually a red Italian car which takes the chequered flag.
It just so happens that we have the largest Ferrari dealership in Britain right here in Nottingham in the shape of Graypaul at Lenton. Think about it: the Lord Mayor rolling up to functions in a soft-top Ferrari Spyder!
Might ruffle the robes a bit, but what a statement...