Midlands and Cars

"Transport will always be apart of our future"

Here are some of the things you should consider doing if you love cars or simply want to learn more about them.

1. Check out Coventry University’s Degree Show

Get in contact with young designers and get a glimpse of their work, you might just come across the next Enzo Ferrari. These individuals are the ones who bring a breath of fresh air to companies and may reshape our futures. Every year Coventry University hosts a transport design exhibition, where students get to expose future concepts for different transport vehicles. They will design concepts of future cars, planes, bikes, helicopters, boat etc....

The students put a lot of effort into their final projects and every year different automotive companies travel to Coventry to view their concepts and hire them based on their work. The degree show is open to all members of the public and it’s one of the most interesting shows Coventry University gets to host.

Courses like Architecture, Interior Design, Product Design, Fashion, Media, Illustration, Photography, Modern art and etc are also a part of the degree show.

Automotive Design is a very specific course however there are a few universities in the world that get to teach this course. It;s worth searching if there are universities like this in your local area and checking out their student's work.

CHECK OUT THIS LINK : http://formtrends.com/coventry-university-transport-design-degree-show-2016/

2. Check out out companies like Aston Martin..... If you have their car

Aston Martin is one of the most luxurious car company located in Gaydon, right next to Jaguar Land Rover. If you are lucky enough to own a Aston Martin, you are privileged to get a private viewing of the company and see how the cars are manufactured/ painted. Most the cars are hand build and assembled, making this as their most USP. Beautiful cars are parked outside the building, for example the polished Vantage sitting above the rocks.

The security in AM is very strict and it may be difficult to just show up and just be let in. I had the opportunity to visit the site as a Coventry Student and was invited by a host, however if you an owner of an Aston Martin or a potential buyer try not to miss out on this opportunity.

This post might motivate you to work hard in the future and actually own your own Aston Martin car. Why not? Anything is possible.

3. Visit a Motor Museum

There are a number of automotive museums but the one I've recently visited was the Motor Museum as shown in the pictures below. All museums tend to have a variety of cars that represent evolution. This allows you as a customer to travel through time and to notice all the different designs. There is a number of old cars which will always be iconic to me, such as the Jaguar E Type, Mini, Bugatti Atlantic etc.

Places like this are also awesome to spend with your family and teach your children about history. The British Motor Museum is based in the Midlands; its location is slightly difficult to navigate to but if you can drive its worth visiting this place as you get to witness some of the rarest prototypes.

This is all about me me me...

I am going to tell you a little bit about myself and I am not sure whether you me believe it or not, but it's all true.

Like most young girls I didn't grow up with a passion for cars, let alone notice them drive by the street. To be completely honest with you, my knowledge in regards to the automotive industry was pretty bad. If someone asked me to name a car passing by, I would not be able to recognize the brand.

Four years ago the only brand names I knew where Ferrari, Mercedes and BMW and that was it !!

I know this may be impossible to believe but it’s true. I think the reason why I knew Mercedes is because around 90% of Albanians tend to drive them and talk about them like they are God. These strange human beings are probably one of the most loyal customers of the brand and they all believe that Mercedes are one of the best and one of the strongest cars in the world. Hopefully I do not become like them in the future.

Look at this article for instance: http://jalopnik.com/you-can-sell-anything-in-albania-as-long-as-its-a-merce-1633024754

Its ridiculous right ?

My dad drove a car for a couple of years and then he decided to sell it as it was way too expensive to maintain in London. If you were wondering what it was; I actually don't really know what he bought. But I'm pretty sure it was not a Mercedes Benz.

Other family members also have their own cars but they’re not crazy about their vehicles and do not look after them very well, therefore cars meant nothing to me.

I literally had no idea a brand named Lamborghini actually existed, which I'm completely in love with right now. It’s crazy right? I lived in London. What was I thinking ? I guess I never paid much attention to the road.

Someone found this very funny, and one day they asked me to tell them what the round thing in the middle of the car is called. Steering wheel !! But no, that was not my answer, I actually replied ‘ a sweel’. They found it funny how I managed to merge to words into one and they burst out laughing.

See, I told you I was bad at this.

Then one day I made it to university whereby I had to move from London to Coventry. The university expanded my horizon in regards to cars. A lot of my lectures used automotive examples in relation to business scenarios. Gradually I began to understand all the background stuff of the automotive industry, such as the operation, logistics and manufacturing of these companies. Coventry is a city which has always been known for their transport, as it is the place where the British motor Industry was first created. They are the heart of Jaguar, Rover, Triumph, Riley, Healey, Armstrong Siddeley, and more. My university is one of the very few universities in the world that provides their students the opportunity to study the course of ‘Automotive and Transport Design’.

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) was a name that was always highly discussed amongst the students. Coventry University had always established proximate relationships with JLR. It was that company everyone loved to work for and during employment fairs, they were always the firm with the longest queues. JLR always seeks to encourage young student to study engineering and apply for their multiple graduate schemes. The company recently won ‘Responsible Business of the Year Award’, which is something they tend to take great pride in.

As years went by I finally managed to learn all the car brands. This was probably one of the MOST difficult things I've had to learn. The names of each company were tricky to remember because I could not relate the words to anything that sounded similar. I then wanted to challenge myself even further by basing my dissertation on Toyota. I struggled a lot but overall I got a really good mark for it. My dissertation overviews knowledge and the way its management is now embedded in technology. I further examine the way this helped Toyota create a competitive advantage through Green Technology. If you are interested, you can read my dissertation on the ‘About Me’ section on the Wix website.

Other things that I did which really helped was being able to customize my own cars online and this helped be get a better understanding of interior and design. London is one of the best places to spot the supercars, as they all tend to park in specific locations, such as Harrods and Dorchester Hotel. I started visiting them and remembered seeing Pagani for the first time and this beautiful black velvet Ferrari.

At 2014 I also managed to see The Gumball 3000, which was pretty awesome. The cars took over central London and they were honestly very breath-taking; they had travelled from Miami and where heading to Ibiza. A lot of them were very modified, which makes the show very interesting and unpredictable.

After I finished my undergraduate degree I decided to do a Masters, which has given me the opportunity to work for Jaguar Land Rover. It all led to this moment right here. I was someone who knew nothing about cars and now I'm doing a marketing internship for one of the biggest car companies in the UK. Out of all other applicants, it was me they chose, just couldn’t believe my luck. I do believe some things in life were just meant to be.

Right now I'm trying to learn all the car model for all companies but I'm starting with JLR cars first. What I am doing is not even apart of my internship but I want to do it.

Its so difficult to distinguish the XJ from XF and XE. Don't get me started about the different types of XF's. I know the XF R Sport is slightly more aggressive but I'm still trying to distinguish them in the road.

I like all Range Rovers but my favourite Jaguar cars are probably the F-type and E-type. Comment below and tell me more about your favourite car.