Prestige car insurer experiences the ultimate listening machine.

Prestigecarinsurance.com like to champion the cause of those that dare to be different, to stand out, that innovate. In the same manner Prestigecarinsurance.com do with reference to our prestige car insurance. Prestigecarinsurance.com are at the pinnacle of their insurance market, offering people like you, with style, taste and intelligence, the best motor insurance deals money can buy, if you happen to own a prestige car that is. One of our writers looks at a prestige manufacturer's latest foray into new markets..

I've been not reading books since roughly the age of 11. I've strayed a little in recent years by leafing through periodicals with images of cars on the leading pages I admit, but by and large, I'm clean. Through Re-Hab. And determined to stay off them once and for all. It was difficult at first, my fix was all consuming, and at one stage in my infancy I was feeding a habit of at least 3 books a day. It was an addiction back then, with no cure. No sooner had I put down one literary masterpiece, then I'd be reaching for 'Nicholas And The Gang Again'. It was a never-ending rollercoaster-ride of paperback pleasure that had to stop before it spiralled out of control.

And it did. Or rather it had. Until now.

Those close to me blame the Germans, those of Bavarian blood, who have tempted me from my path of righteousness, and into the fast-moving road to destruction. Somewhere in the Midlands I believe.

You see BMW have jumped into bed with the first publisher to come along, in this instance, Random House, to form (in those of literary circles estimation) an uneasy relationship, that's inevitably led to pro-creation. However, far from being unwanted, this immaculate concept, a first in odd-bedfellow motoring terms, (unless you count the Welsh Language Board's weird experiment with Ivor and his engine in 1970 something) is following in the distinguished tread marks of another BMW marketing success, and the first chapter in the German manufacturers entertainment strategy.

You have to cast your mind back six years to recall BMW's fine series of online films, entitled 'The Hire', and what many media analysists critically acclaimed as their finest hour, hailed at the launch as the reinvention of branded content, and which ultimately led 100 million people to watch. Rather less ambitious, when noticing the omission of such contributers and luminaries as John Woo, Guy Ritchie and David Fincher, aswell as the deprivation of Clive Owen, Mickey Rourke, Gary Oldman or even Madonna, loitering with the intent of adding their acting talents to the project, (as all the aforementioned directors and actors did in the short downloadable films); yet tailored to the same audience of what BMW like to refer to as a 'difficult to reach, but cultured audience'.

Yet BMW insist that the quality of the storylines (which coincidentally they stipulated had to involve a BMW in its plotline, albeit subtly) authors, and evident production values have not been left to chance, which, when running the rule over the smorgasbord of contemporary writers who've been commissioned to pen this series of motoring related shorts, is indeed not a mere sound bite for critics to mock.

The four books are either thrillers or crime stories, and offer a cornucopia of writing style to choose from. If it's the heady mix of crime and BMW's that floats your boat, then look no further than best selling American crime novelist - Karin Slaughter (Cold, Cold Heart), or perhaps California-based author cum private investigator- Don Winslow (Beautiful Ride) who can tell a good tale about BMW's. If its gritty London-based fiction you're after, (involving BMW's) then Simon Kernick's (The Debt) is your man. And if it's just a good yarn you crave, about BMW's and stuff, then James Flint (Master Of The Storm), another British writer (and occasional short-film maker himself) could be your cup of tea.

Summed up by detractors as low-rent versions of BMW's famed films, it's left very much up to the listener to decide, either by downloading them as podcasts, or to your MP3 player, they are ideally played in the car, and designed to last the duration of an average journey.

Andy Lear isn't impressed though, the Planning Director at Campbell Doyle Dye, another publisher of repute, scoffs; "The films worked because they had star appeal, novelty value, were easily digestible at around three minutes long and showed the cars doing some very cool stuff. In that sense the audio books are just a pale imitation, scoring only on the slight novelty value."

Mr. Lear works on the Mercedes-Benz account at said Publishing House.

Novelty not being a word we're overtly familiar with at Prestigecarinsurance.com, the only online presence that offers our clients a bespoke standard of insurance service.