{"id":3924,"date":"2010-10-12T20:09:42","date_gmt":"2010-10-12T20:09:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.diaryofanadi.co.uk\/?p=3924"},"modified":"2010-10-12T20:09:42","modified_gmt":"2010-10-12T20:09:42","slug":"bsm-to-switch-back-to-corsas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/?p=3924","title":{"rendered":"BSM To Switch Back To Corsas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font color=\"#800000\"><strong>EDIT 28\/6\/2012:<\/strong> Note that this story dates from 2010. BSM is now run by The AA, and is owned by The AA\u2019s parent company.<\/font>&#160; <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 219px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 219\/149;margin: 5px 10px 5px 0px; display: inline; float: left\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3925 lazyload\" title=\"FIAT 500: Bye Bye?\" alt=\"FIAT 500: Bye Bye?\" align=\"left\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.diaryofanadi.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/fiat_500a.jpg\" width=\"219\" height=\"149\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" \/>I saw <span style=\"color: #800000\">this story in the press today. BSM is getting rid of its much-maligned fleet of Fiat 500s and switching back to Corsas. The change will take place in March 2011 &#8211; or rather, the change will <em>start<\/em> in March 2011: there is no indication how long it will take to replace all cars.<\/p>\n<p>The original deal with Fiat was made last summer and was supposed to be for 4 years. One can only guess at how much the early cancellation will cost, and what effect it might ultimately have on BSM at a time when all schools are feeling the pinch and when a double-dip recession is feared by many. Fiat won&#8217;t take that lying down.<\/p>\n<p>The story says:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080\">Instructors had complained the three-door Fiat 500 was too small, so BSM decided to make the switch to five-door 1.2- and 1.4-litre Vauxhall Corsas &#8216;in recognition that instructors often use their cars not only as a tool for their trade, but also as their primary family vehicle&#8217;. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Personally, I didn&#8217;t have a big issue with the Fiat &#8211; I thought it was quite cute &#8211; but I didn&#8217;t have to drive one, and I doubt I&#8217;d have been comfortable if I had. Most other instructors (especially those who who were independent, and whose business it wasn\u2019t) <strong>did<\/strong> have an issue, though. But you can&#8217;t help wonder why BSM didn&#8217;t listen to its own instructors in the first place, because those instructors sure as hell weren&#8217;t saying anything different last summer when they first went crazy over the change! They hated the Fiats from Day One.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, there were also problems (well, <em>very<\/em> strong rumours) with the DSA about having examiners sit in the back of such a small car, as well as safety concerns over 3 doors.<\/p>\n<p>I wonder if this will see instructors who left return to BSM&#8217;s ranks?<\/p>\n<p>The source of this story is What Car, and they make the valid comment that a lot of Fiat 500s are likely to appear on the secondhand market &#8211; possibly at bargain prices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>EDIT 28\/6\/2012: Note that this story dates from 2010. BSM is now run by The AA, and is owned by The AA\u2019s parent company.&#160; I saw this story in the press today. BSM is getting rid of its much-maligned fleet of Fiat 500s and switching back to Corsas. The change will take place in March [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[80,87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adi-related","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3924\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}