PITY—if you can—any car enthusiast who accedes to high office: even the highest in the land. World leaders live in a gilded and bulletproof cage, conveyed by motorcade from palace to palace. They need never drive and if, like our King and the current US President, they happen to enjoy it, they must exercise all of their considerable power to compel nervous bodyguards to let them take the wheel themselves. At least traffic and parking are never a problem.
For all their lands and titles, they don’t get an entirely free choice of ride, either. The leaders of car-producing nations must choose largely from the home team. Politicians presiding over democracies will be permitted a degree of comfort by the electorate, but not extravagance: a Jaguar is fine for a British Prime Minister, but not a Rolls-Royce. Increasingly, if there is a viable green option, they must be
