Everything is a matter of taste and personal opinion, so there is no right or wrong when it comes to choice. In the 80’s some people used to drive around in Reliant Robins whilst wearing battle fatigues, in fact some still do, which is fine and there is still a Morris Marina owners club. And whilst most of us might find it difficult to imagine proudly standing next to our Morris Marina in a cold damp field, that’s their choice.

Some time back property owners – to the horror of their neighbours – used to stone clad their house, which is not wrong; difficult to understand but not wrong. Nowadays there are people who choose to either buy or lease their car finished in matt paintwork, which is not wrong either although most of us are mystified by this trend.

We have not as yet had a single contract hire client order their lease car in matt finish. Many car leasing companies do not adjust the residual value of a car if say it is a very large car which the client has chosen in manual transmission, or a luxury car without leather seats; the same applies to cars finished in matt paintwork.

It does nevertheless raise the question, if the client chooses to contract hire a Porsche or Aston Martin in matt finish, who is going to buy it from the car leasing company at the end of the lease term? Surely at the moment the market for a used Porsche in a matt finish is extremely limited; that may improve but equally it could get far worse.

Sometimes we have contract hire clients who want to order a vehicle, which by any measure is the wrong colour for the car. We suggest other colours but ultimately the decision is theirs. When they press ahead with their chosen colour and the vehicle is delivered, they will sometimes ring and say the car has been delivered in the wrong colour. They are right in as much as it’s the wrong colour but unfortunately that is the colour they ordered it in.

 They then have to drive around in a car with which they don’t feel comfortable, usually for three years, which is a fairly standard car leasing term. We wonder how many of those who choose matt finish paintwork, are going to feel they have made a mistake once the vehicle is delivered.