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King Charles' electric I-Pace goes to auction next month

Never mind the Bentley State Limousines, the Aston Martin DB6 Volante that Queen Elizabeth II bought him on his 21st birthday, or the Rolls-Royce Phantom VI valued at more than $600,000. The car of the moment, if we’re talking about the garage of King Charles III of England, is a far more ordinary — and all-electric — Jaguar I-Pace purchased in 2018 by His Majesty “for his personal use." The royal Jag is set to be auctioned off March 2 at the famed Ascot Racecourse; estimated selling price is as high as $88,000. If you miss out on the auction of a president's former ride, here's one from a king. The SUV, notable as the first all-electric vehicle to be embraced by the royal family, is the range-topping I-Pace EV400 HSE all-wheel-drive luxury five-seater that the king — prince of Wales at the time — bought in September 2018 for $75,000. According to the auction site, the Jag was "purchased with his own money." Charles had Jaguar install a fast charger at Clarence House, his residence. The vehicle was returned to a Jaguar dealership after two years — itÂ’s not clear if it had been leased — with only 3,000 miles on the clock. Subsequently, the SUV was sold to one Karen French of Oxfordshire. She said in a statement offered by Historics Auctioneers, “This I-Pace was exactly what I was looking for and pretty much on my doorstep. It was only when I agreed to buy it that I discovered its extraordinary history — I was absolutely thrilled. Having driven it over 30,000 miles,” she added, ”I decided in the New Year that it was time for a change.” Noted by the auctioneers in typical British understatement, the high-specification car was uniquely finished in Loire Blue and remains the only I-Pace “to be painted in this colour, whilst those inside the car enjoyed a sumptuous, contrasting leather interior in, fittingly, Light Oyster Windsor.” A revised Jaguar I-Pace is scheduled to arrive next year. Regarding the KingÂ’s affection for automobiles — British automobiles — he reportedly overseas a fleet worth more than $17 million. And while heÂ’s fond of driving conventional vehicles, he told the BBC some years ago that “my old Aston Martin, which I've had for 51 years, runs on — can you believe this — surplus English white wine, and whey from the cheese process.” Essentially the classic had been converted to run on E85 bio-ethanol. "The engineers at Aston said, 'Oh, it'll ruin the whole thing,'" Charles shared with The Telegraph in 2018.

Episode 2 of The Grand Tour will feature knives, explosions, guns, and also cars

Following an immensely successful debut, The Grand Tour will follow up its first episode with exciting, dangerous things. Based on the trailer above, the episode will start peacefully enough with the trio driving up to the tent in South Africa with a convoy of off-road trucks. However, it seems each segment will be much more exciting. Right at the start of the trailer, there are clips of the Aston Martin Vulcan, a 7.0-liter, 820-horsepower V12 supercar, which will likely be the car tested at the "Ebola-drome" this week. Of course the car is communist because it doesn't have a V8. Then things get steadily more dangerous through the trailer. James May is shown as a somewhat unwilling participant at some sort of drifting exhibition. He apparently doesn't like tire smoke in the evenings. We also see that the trio went to Jordan for another segment. This is when we get a glimpse of Richard Hammond playing with large knives. Immediately following are clips of some sort of car chase challenge with large SUVs and luxury sedans, during which James May shoots an assault rifle out the back of an Audi S8. The shooting results in big explosions. It's worth a look yourself, to get in the mood for the next episode which hits Amazon on Friday. Related Video:

Looking for a deal? Check out your nearest Acura dealer

For the fourth time in the last year, an Aston Martin out-discounts all other automakers by offering the largest monetary savings off the retail price of an automobile in America. This time, though, the discount isn't on the aging (though still beautiful) Rapide sedan or range-topping DBS Superleggera, it's for the DB11 sports car. For those keeping track, the DB11 also led this discount list back in May of 2020. This time, though, the price is even lower than before. Right now, buyers of the Aston Martin DB11 are seeing discounts of $24,330. That's a 12.1% cut off the car's average retail price of $201,820 and it means buyers are paying an average transaction price of $177,490. Still expensive, but really not bad for a drop-dead gorgeous machine with as much as 630 horsepower. Next in line is a familiar face, the Acura NSX. As impressive as the Japanese hybrid supercar may be, Acura has been running big rebates on the NSX for as long as we've been running these lists. This month, the NSX buyers are seeing discounts of nearly 14% for an average transaction price of $138,648. The third biggest discount this month shows up on the most expensive vehicle on the list. The Rolls-Royce Phantom carries an average sticker price of $537,500. But buyers are getting about 4% off that for an average transaction price of $516,333. It may not be a massive discount when measured by percentage, but when the asking price is so high, even a small discount equals big bucks. Related Video: