Rodney and Joan Doel from Salisbury recently celebrated their golden wedding anniversary. Married at the Minister Church of St Denys on December 16th, 1961, they marked the occasion by taking a limousine tour around Wilton.

The trip was arranged by their son, Shaun, who joined them, along with his family.

Joan said:

“We had a brilliant day out. It was really unexpected and none of us had ever been in a limo before.”

Wedding anniversaries are the perfect reason for hiring a chauffeur driven car. You can do as the Doels did and take a tour of a local area, perhaps revisiting memorable locations from your past, or you can simply enjoy the ride on the way to dinner or a show. It very much depends on the couple in question and what they would like to do.

The Doels also took a holiday as part of their celebrations. Although they didn’t hire a limo to take them to the airport, this is another option. Travelling can seem like a hassle, but in this way, you can make it part of the experience and start your celebrations earlier as a consequence.

A five-year-old girl visiting 10 Downing Street for a party was rushed to hospital in David Cameron’s limo after collapsing and suffering shortness of breath.

Savannah Nicholls was there for a children’s charity event when she suddenly felt ill. Born on Christmas Day in 2005, she was found to have a rare form of leukaemia and only survived after her mother campaigned for a bone marrow donor. Since then, she has suffered related conditions, including meningitis, pneumonia and epilepsy before being diagnosed with cerebral palsy this year.

Her mother, Lisa, called for a taxi to take them to hospital, but prime ministerial aides offered the use of one of Cameron’s limos. Savannah ended up spending three days in hospital being treated for a severe chest infection.

Lisa said:

“David Cameron was great and has passed on his number to call him and let him know Savannah was OK. We’ve been told we can go back next year. We were desperate to get home so we can send a thank you card for all his help and his staff.

“They kept ringing to check up on Savannah, which was really touching. It was just a case of unfortunate timing. Savannah did get to briefly meet the Prime Minister, but I think she was more interested in her hero Mr Tumble.”

One of the most popular uses of limos is for airport runs. Whether you’re going away on business yourself or you’re arranging to have colleagues collected from the airport, a limo is the right choice, providing comfort at either end of what could be a tiring journey.

There is now further good news for such business travellers in the form of Emirates’ ‘limo lounge’ at Heathrow’s Terminal 3. Here, business and first class travellers can stop in before being collected by their respective chauffeurs.

It is essentially a mini arrivals lounge, but one that is just 15m from where Emirates’ chauffeured cars arrive and leave. It features seating for up to 30 people, tea, coffee and other refreshments and free Wi-Fi so that travellers can get on with whatever they’re doing. There is also a porter to help people with their luggage.

The airline expects the room to be used by around 200 people a day and hope that it will help people enjoy what they describe as a ‘seamless journey’. After all, a person’s travelling doesn’t start and end with the flight. It’s just as important that your journey to and from the airport is a pleasure.

A group of schools in the Dorchester area recently arranged for the Olympic spirit to be chauffeured between them. It might be a little difficult to comprehend the transportation of a concept in this way, but it was represented by a relay flame.

A spokesman for St Osmund’s Middle School said:

“The relay went really well. The children were dressed in the colours of the five Olympic rings and went in the limo to Dorchester Middle School. It was a really good day.”

An Olympic torch is passing through all the schools that feed Thomas Hardye School. Dorchester Middle School will take it there next. Before then, they are going to get the whole school involved. Each year group is going to wear one of the colours of the Olympic rings and they are going to form the Olympic rings in the playground.

Dorchester Middle School will however be spurning limos for their leg of the relay. Instead, there will be a Mexican wave type relay taking the torch to Thomas Hardye School.

Rolls Royce is seemingly paying ever greater attention to the Indian market. With the economy there booming and dollar millionaires proliferating, the luxury car firm is suddenly finding its cars are in great demand.

The latest Rolls Royce showroom is opening in the southern city of Hyderabad. Hyderabad is the capital city of the state of Andhra Pradesh and has a population of almost 8m. It is quite fitting that the company has chosen here for a dealership as it has something of a history in the area. Back when Hyderabad was a princely state, the last of the Nizams (the sovereigns) had no fewer than 50 Rolls Royce cars. In fact, between 1907 and 1947, 1,000 of the 3,600 cars produced by the firm were exported to India.

Hyderabad is the third city in India to get a Rolls Royce dealership, after Delhi and Mumbai. It is thought two more showrooms could follow in March – one in the north and another in the centre or south of the country. The current best seller in the region is the Phantom, followed by the Ghost.

The Rolls Royce Phantom is a timeless vehicle. Many notable names have been chauffeur driven in one at one time or another. Marlene Dietrich owned a Phantom at one point and the car is due to go up for auction where it is expected to sell for around £350,000.

The Phantom I sedan was given to Dietrich in 1930 by her bosses at Paramount Pictures on her arrival from Germany. She was often spotted being driven around Los Angeles in it and it even appeared in Morocco, her first Hollywood film.

She sold the car in 1945, but it has now become available again. Built in 1929, it has a 7.7 litre engine and was turned into a convertible at Paramount’s request. It has now been extensively restored and should command a high price, not only for its association with a screen icon, but also because it is a unique car – one of the most expensive in the world at the time it was built.

Whoever outbids the competition will also get a few little bonuses. Dietrich’s compact mirror, make-up and two bottles of perfume are housed in a small shelf in the back. The auction is being held by Bonhams in Scottsdale, Arizona on the 19th of January.

There are many reasons why you might want to hire a chauffeur driven limo. Maybe you have a birthday or anniversary to celebrate. Maybe you have a special night planned with a loved one. Or maybe you want to see some Christmas lights.

The last of those sounds rather unusual, but it is an increasingly popular reason for hiring a limo in the US. At this time of year, when many homeowners create Christmas displays more elaborate than Blackpool illuminations, it makes a certain amount of sense that people would want to see them to get themselves in the Christmas spirit.

Overly decorated houses are often seen as something of a joke, but they do get our attention. Some limo companies are now taking people round the local town, showing them the most striking and shameless displays.

One homeowner in Phoenix, Arizona, has a display featuring 32,000 lights. His yard is decorated with a manger, a Ferris wheel and an inflated snowman sitting on top of a basketball hoop. Unsurprisingly, this house is frequently a stop on limo tours of Christmas lights in that area, as passengers gawp at the effort that has been made.

Daimler has announced that it is to cease producing the Maybach in 2013. The luxury car, considered a Rolls Royce competitor, has long suffered from poor sales and the firm has concluded that it would be wise to abandon it.

The car has failed to meet sales expectations and has been making a loss. Daimler CEO, Dr Dieter Zetsche, said:

“We held extensive discussions internally about which way would promise the greatest success in the luxury segment and we came to the conclusion that the sales chances for the Mercedes brand were better than that of Maybach. It would not be sensible to develop a successor model for the current Maybach.”

Relaunched in 2002, there were initially two turbocharged V12 models available. More versions have followed, but only 63 cars were sold in 2010.

According to one Daimler insider, the gap will be filled by further versions of the Mercedes S-Class. It is suggested that as of 2013, the car will be available in six body styles and with multiple different wheelbases.

One reason why the car was not successful may have been that it was not so well-known outside Germany at the time it was relaunched, whereas competitors Rolls Royce and Bentley have international reputations.

Many people are chauffeur driven in a Mercedes van, but it is usually the luxurious Viano, not the commercial Sprinter. However, a new trend is developing in New York where many are opting to be driven around in customised versions of the latter.

It seems that people are having Sprinters fitted out like mobile offices, so that they can work and travel at the same time. Apparently some owners go so far as to add leather sofas and Persian rugs. Others install massage chairs and sofabeds. Bars and flat screen TVs are common and Wi-Fi is virtually standard.

Mercedes offer the customisation service themselves after noting that many owners were employing people to modify their vehicles. By taking control of the work themselves, the firm can guarantee quality and attract a different kind of customer as well. They sold 8,000 in 2010 and have already sold 13,000 this year.

The interesting thing about this is that the vans generally look fairly plain from the outside. It is only once you get inside that you realise the extent of the work and get some idea of the probably cost.

A custom made 1912 limousine is to go up for auction at Bonhams’ December sale. The auction, taking place at Mercedes-Benz World, Weybridge, will see a Lanchester State Limousine made specifically for the Maharajah of Rewa go under the hammer.

The car features a removable limousine top and driver canopy, meaning the car could be open-topped as well. Estimates value the car at somewhere between £80,000 and £100,000.

Cars such as this were popular with the Indian nobility and it is said that a sizeable proportion of Lanchester’s products made their way to the subcontinent. The Maharajah of Rewa was so satisfied with this particular limo, that he then ordered a 40hp Lanchester later on.

This car made its way back to the UK in the Sixties and was initially purchased by a Douglas Thompson of Teesside. It has since remained with the same owners for 27 years, serving as the focal point of a Lanchester car collection. Fully restored, it features maroon livery and red linking in the interior.