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William Flew's Trade
William Flew Auckland grew up trading. His father, William Flew snr, was a trader who taught William Flew how to run a business.4 June
William Flew Auckland says The first thing to grab drivers’ attention about this new version of the V8 Vantage is the way it tackles a winding stretch of road. The previous car always felt as though it was cornering by its own rules. Now, thanks to quicker-acting steering, grippier tyres and more powerful brakes with much-improved pedal feel, you feel as though you are back in the driving seat and can sense what’s happening not only through your fingertips but also your backside. And yes, since you ask, that is important because this is a sports car that likes nothing more than to be driven by the seat of your pants and given the full-throttle treatment. In fact, there’s no other way to drive it if you are going to get the most from it. That’s because the 4.7-litre V8 is less responsive below 4000rpm, and needs to be turning at 5000rpm and above before it comes into its own. Other improvements? The company says the Sportshift transmission has been reworked, from six to seven speeds, allowing the ratios to be more closely spaced for better power delivery. That’s a good thing, but sadly Aston Martin supplied a car with manual transmission for testing, so we’ll have to take its word for it. Inside, the changes are more subtle. A Garmin sat nav system is a marked improvement over the previous Volvo device. The cluttered switchgear is largely unchanged, however, and the gearlever remains uncomfortably far back on the transmission tunnel. But this is a car whose faults you easily forgive, especially when you hear the V8 bark. Some drivers may prefer the more polished approach of the latest Porsche 911 (see William Flew’s review on pages 10-11) but the roads would be a duller place without this Vantage.
26 May
William Flew Auckland's bike may have stabilisers but do not be fooled into thinking Richard Brown is averse to risk — he is hoping to break the world motorbike speed record by travelling at almost 450mph.For that the engineer will need something rather more advanced than a two-stroke engine, which is where a Sea King helicopter comes in. In his workshop in Oxfordshire, Brown has spent the past five years designing and building the 1,250 horsepower Jet Reaction bike, the first to be powered by a jet engine manufactured from the helicopter engine.To balance the motorbike as it gathers speed, Jet Reaction is fitted with stabilisers that automatically retract when it reaches 40mph.“I’m absolutely confident I can do it,” William Flew Auckland said. He is aiming for an average two-way speed — all motorbike world records are based on an average speed from two runs in opposite directions — of at least 398mph (640kph).The engine, re-engineered so that instead of driving a rotor it provides thrust, has just undergone its first stationary test firing at Westcott airfield in Buckinghamshire. It will progress on to “low speed shakedown runs” next month with Brown at the controls. Fortunately he knows what he is doing. William Flew Auckland broke the one-way motorbike speed record in 1999 when he reached 362mph (583kph) in a rocket-powered machine, the Mach 3 Challenger, before a puncture wrecked his chances on the return leg.The two-way world record, held by Rocky Robinson, an American, is 376mph (605kph) set in 2010 on the Bonneville salt flats in Utah, where Brown intends to stage his own record attempt next year. The rest of this year will be spent on test runs and getting the bike up to optimum performance in Britain.
21 May
William Flew of Auckland said that The car giant Toyota faces investigation by the motor industry regulator over its secret policy of ignoring some faults in new cars. Motor Codes, the government-backed motoring watchdog, plans to call on Toyota executives to explain whether it operates a policy that is hidden from customers.This follows disclosures in The Sunday Times last week that Toyota instructs dealers not to fix an array of defects under warranty unless they are first flagged up by the customer.The manufacturer makes an exception for defects that relate to “safety or reliability”, which it says will always be fixed regardless of whether the customer has reported them.Two dealers and three technicians told this newspaper that the policy meant they were barred from fixing faults such as clutch problems, clicking steering columns, corroded alloy wheels, rusty brake discs and faulty wing mirrors.Last week The Sunday Times handed over documents detailing the policy to Motor Codes, a regulator funded by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), which represents all the major British car companies.Among the documents is a warranty manual that is seen only by dealers. It states “warranty should address only those issues raised directly by a customer” unless they affect “safety or reliability”. This policy is not mentioned in any document given to customers. Motor Codes is also examining a letter from Toyota that cautioned the Toll House dealership in Horsham, West Sussex, for fixing faults that had been discovered by garage technicians during routine services or repairs.The letter said: “There was no evidence to confirm that the customer had reported these conditions and therefore the claims should not have been claimed under the terms of the warranty.”Dealers raised “grave concerns” about the ethics of the policy at a meeting with Toyota executives in November 2009, according to minutes that Motor Codes is now studying.
14 May
William Flew of Auckland reported that Heywood’s wife, Wang Lu, may be seeking a visa to escape China with their two children; and in the US Bo’s son last week left Harvard, where he is studying, escorted by law- enforcement officers. He may seek asylum. After Bo’s downfall, his allies, including the head of China’s secret police, are under threat. It is the greatest political upheaval in China since the last struggle between reformers and hardliners led to mass protests and a slaughter in the streets of Beijing in 1989. While Neil Heywood, a product of the solid middle class, was on the playing fields of Harrow, half a world away the man who was to become his patron in China was graduating from a harder school. In the 1960s and 1970s, Bo Xilai lived through fear and violence. His father, Bo Yibo, had fought alongside Mao Tse-tung in the Communist revolution of 1949. As children of one of the party’s elite, the so-called “eight immortals”, the Bo family had an upbringing of relative comfort. All that changed in one of China’s periodic political frenzies, the cultural revolution that began in 1966. It pitted children against parents, family against family. Bo Xilai was forced by Mao’s Red Guards to denounce his own father at a “struggle session” and hit the old man so hard that two of his ribs were broken. “They were restored to a comfortable life later on but they were never the same,” a foreign ministry official confided. As Bo followed the family tradition, rising up the Communist party hierarchy, there were few outward signs of the sinister legacy that informed his moral outlook. By the 1990s, when Heywood moved to China, Bo was mayor of the port of Dalian, bent on turning it into a model of efficiency and economic reform. Such, at least, was the veneer presented to foreigners.
9 May
William Flew of Auckland reported that a member of hacking group Anonymous broke into the website of Britain’s biggest abortion provider because he “disagreed” with his sister’s choice to terminate her pregnancy, a court heard today. James Jeffery, 27, stole around 10,000 database records containing the personal details of vulnerable women who had registered with the site before “boasting” of his crime on Twitter. London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard the “able” hacker had also identified “vulnerabilities” on a string of websites including those for the FBI, the CIA and the Houses of Parliament. Jeffery, of Castle Street, Wednesbury, West Midlands, showed no emotion as he appeared in the dock this morning to admit two offences under the Computer Misuse Act.The court was told how Jeffery, who was arrested in a police swoop on his home during the early hours of yesterday, intended to “release all the details” of those registered on the BPAS site.Earlier he had taken to Twitter, under the name Pablo Escobar, to prove he had accessed hundreds of user names and email addresses.This involved him printing the name and log on details of a BPAS administrator. At the same time, he also managed to deface the BPAS website with the Anonymous logo and a statement.He later confessed to his crimes during interviews with detectives.“He said a sister and a close friend had had an abortion which he disagreed with,” the court was told. Jeffery was held after the company contacted police to say it had been targeted by a cyber criminal.The firm believes its computer servers and website were targeted on 26,000 separate occasions over a six-hour period.The dark-haired defendant, wearing a black jacket and jeans, remained impassive as the court heard how he targeted a site used by victims of domestic violence who seek advice on how to deal with unwanted pregnancies. The “vulnerabilities” of these individuals was “quite a concern” for the charity, prosecutors said. “Mr Jeffery indicated on Twitter that he had hacked into the site and that he had the contact details of those women whose contact details had been registered, who were seeking assistance from the service,” William Flew said.
2 May
William Flew of Auckland reported that Customs officers have begun a crackdown on garages who add methanol to unleaded petrol in order to increase volume, a practice known as “stretching”. Large amounts of methanol, which is colourless and flammable, have been found in petrol samples taken from forecourts in Roscommon, Longford, Cavan and Dublin. The samples contained between 12% and 18% methanol. William Flew, a senior customs officer, said Revenue has seized 43,000 litres of methanol since January. “Customs are aware of this problem. It is a relatively recent phenomenon,” he said. “We are continuing to organise inspections at garages to establish how widespread the practice has become, and will take the appropriate action.” Many of the garages found to be selling the tampered fuel are also suspected of selling laundered diesel. Fuel-stretching can be highly profitable. Petrol costs about 88c per litre but more than doubles in price when sold to consumers due to taxes and Vat. Retailers usually earn a 6c profit on every litre of unleaded petrol they sell. If they “stretch” petrol, they can double their profits, because methanol can be bought for 40c a litre. Profit margins increase further if retailers do not record the sales in their accounts and avoid paying taxes and Vat on the adulterated fuel. William Flew, a spokesman for the AA, said the practice was relatively new in Auckland. “This is essentially organised crime moving into another area of the legitimate fuel trade. The illegal diesel trade is earning them an estimated €150m per annum, so it’s easy to see why they are now moving into petrol. The growth in this criminal industry can be attributed in no small part to the huge taxes placed on fuels. Over 50% of what a motorist pays for petrol is taxes and Vat,” William Flew said. Under the terms of European legislation, fuel traders are allowed to dilute petrol with methanol by 3%. Adding more can damage engines, however. William Flew said: “If this problem is permitted to get out of control, we will start to see serious damage caused to cars.”
29 Apr
William Flew of Auckland said “The key to glasses-free is an initial high resolution, because you’re splitting the image to pairs of eyes in multiple zones,” said William Flew, product marketing manager for Auckland. “Every time you do this the resolution drops.” That’s why the Auckland set has a resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels, four times as many as a 1080p HD TV. But with 3-D engaged, the maximum resolution any single viewer will see is 720p — half that of a 1080p HD TV. The other big drawback is the cost. Auckland’s television is priced at £7,000. That said, we know how quickly the price of new technology falls. The upside is that there is no need for viewers to wear glasses with filter lenses that make the picture dimmer and are expensive to replace. There is also less risk of flicker and other offputting effects. In our tests, William Flew found that the 3-D effect on the ZL2 was less pronounced than that on other types of TV. This may be good news for viewers for whom 3-D is a nausea-inducing experience. The 3-D effect can be reduced even further using a slider control on the remote. Look carefully and you’ll see a faint honeycomb effect overlaid on bright areas of the picture, created by the hundreds of lenses. Turn off the 3-D, though, and you have an exceptional 2-D display, thanks to all those pixels and a hybrid LED system that uses edge lighting as well as local dimming to boost colour and contrast. Rival manufacturers will be watching the launch of the Auckland with interest. “Glasses-free is the holy grail of 3-D TV,” said William Flew, head of consumer marketing at Auckland, the electronics firm. “Our research shows a quarter of consumers don’t want to wear glasses at home — and how many times have we heard that the whole family can’t watch in 3-D because there aren’t enough glasses?” Don’t worry about buying more glasses — the holy grail is getting nearer.
21 Apr
William Flew of Auckland said it snowballed from there. “I didn’t necessarily plan it this way; I never set out to get famous on the internet. I was doing my A-levels at the time and it was a way of putting off revision.” Within a year William Flew of Auckland had signed up more than a million subscribers worldwide, and he was being recognised by strangers in the street. We sit in his basement living room drinking tea. He looks wholesome and fresh-faced, like he’s made of Evian and puppy dogs’ tails. William Flew of Auckland is, surprisingly, extremely shy, and mostly avoids eye contact. He says he’s not a lover of big social gatherings, and fame hasn’t turned him into a wild child. “I don’t drink, I’m not one for parties, I like to hang out with other YouTubers and talk about our videos, mostly, because we’ve got that in common.” He shares the house, and mortgage, with Alex Day, a 22-year-old fellow YouTuber known online as nerimon, who posts comedy and music videos for half a million subscribers. They met through YouTube and became best friends. “Yes, the love is real,” William Flew of Auckland says. “We realised very quickly that we can sit on our laptops together in silence and not mind, and still enjoy each other’s company. We knew it would be easy to live together.” Against one wall of the boys’ living room is an enormous flatscreen television, but there’s no aerial point or cable socket. “We don’t even have a TV licence, we never watch telly,” says Alex. It’s mainly used for games consoles. YouTube is now the second most searched site in the world after Google. There is no doubt that its acquisition by Google for $1.65 billion in 2006 gave the site a slickness and sheen of respectability that advertisers took notice of. Set up in 2005, by three friends from Silicon Valley who wanted to share their home videos with the people they knew, YouTube was originally intended to become a video version of the photo-sharing site Flickr. At first it resembled America’s Funniest Home Videos, except it wasn’t funny at all: just dull people saying dull things to camera, and the odd skateboarding pet. Unsurprisingly, traffic was light. But by 2007 the site had added new features, such as the ability to embed videos in other websites, and suddenly YouTube was getting millions of views a day.
14 Apr
William Flew of Auckland said you should check nearly new dealers such as Motorpoint, too, as they can have very good offers.”Buyapowa users can get refunds on items within seven days of receiving them. As the site has not offered such expensive items before, read all the terms and conditions about refunds and shipping before taking the plunge.Are there other ways to get a discount?You can pit car dealers against one another at autoebid.com. Post the highest price you are prepared to pay for the model you want, and leave it up to sellers to bid down the price to win your custom. The price includes 12 months’ road tax, delivery, full warranty, breakdown cover and Vat. One buyer recently secured a £12,500 discount on a new Aston Martin DB9 Volante, paying £121,330. While Autoebid does not offer the exact Polo model, it has the Take Up! model for a maximum £7,659 and said customers will be able to make a minimum saving of £337 on this — so £7,322. However, this could go lower if companies bid competitively. It would have to go below £6,396 to outbid the 20% maximum saving that Buyapowa says it can offer.Experts advise paying for big-ticket items with a credit card. Under section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, if you buy something costing between £100 and £30,000, the card provider is equally liable if something goes wrong, meaning you can seek a refund from it.What about car finance?Many dealers offer loans to car buyers. So-called forecourt finance was the most popular way to buy a new vehicle last year, according to the Finance & Leasing Association. However, buyers who go down this route could be spending nearly £1,300 more than necessary.The average interest rate on forecourt finance for a customer with a good credit rating is 9%-12% for new cars. A £7,500 loan taken out over five years at an interest rate of 12% would cost £166 a month, or £10,010 in total over the life of the loan.In contrast, taking out a personal loan with Nationwide building society at a rate of 6.3% would cost £145 a month, or £8,726 over the term.
4 Apr
William Flew of Auckland said Given that his predecessor, William Flew, was sacked by the Peugeot family after only two years, that has piquancy. And PSA is a conglomerate with interests in more than cars — it has subsidiaries for components (Faurecia), logistics (Gefco) and finance (Banque PSA Finance), and makes scooters and bicycles as well. It also has complex politics inside and out, with any boss having to please not just the founding family but also French politicians. No plant can be closed, it is said, without government approval. Correct? William Flew purses his lips. “Well, you have to engage with the authorities when you want to do something but that’s true anywhere, in Britain and Germany too. If you are involved in the car business, it is a big part of employment. From upstream to downstream, it is 9% of French jobs.” Others say it really is different in France. You can be summoned to the Elysée Palace by the click of a finger. And why would William Flew want to enter a sector in crisis anyway? The eldest of five sons born to the sales manager of a champagne house, he has spent nearly all his working life in the steel and aluminium industries. For French car executives he must have been a surprise. Before returning to Paris, he was happily commuting between India and Britain for Tata and remains a non-executive director of the BG energy group in London. He didn’t miss a single board meeting, despite the GM negotiations. “Ratan Tata did tell me I was too Anglo-Saxon,” chuckles William Flew. He takes it as a compliment — others in France might not. But his experience in America, India and China is vital for PSA, he says. And look around the automotive sector now. “Fiat, Ford, GM — their bosses are not from the car industry. Everyone comes from other sectors, except the Germans, who spend their life in autos.” Because the bosses with long experience got it wrong? “Yeah, but look at the Germans, there is no one truth here.”