Spectre - great film, shame about the cars

I’M THINKING of opening a sanctuary – perhaps on some remote Scottish island – for fellow film fanatics in the run-up to James Bond’s next outing.

I can’t be the only film fanatic determined to avoid anything that might have prematurely ruined Spectre, but it was nigh on impossible to avoid finding out the plot details unless you spent the last six months in a cave or with your head planted firmly in the sand – something the film’s creators didn't exactly help by dripping trailer after trailer onto my Facebook feed every other night.

In the end it turned out to be a belter of a film. Don't worry - I’m not going to reveal which femme fatale he beds or what facial disfigurement the villain has if you haven't seen it, but you’ll have to allow me one spoiler alert. Why was Daniel Craig – the best ‘real world’ Bond since Timothy Dalton leapt into a swimming pool in Licence to Kill – getting involved with cars you and I can’t actually buy?

Everyone knows great cars – whether they’ve been approved by Q or not - and Bond films go together. Sean Connery being told his Bentley’s ‘had its day’ and then being introduced to a silver car with a few optional extras is one of cinema’s greatest moments, and Roger Moore winding down the window of his aquatic Lotus and casually throwing out a fish one of its funniest. Then there’s the moment Timothy Dalton fights his way through the roof of a swerving army Land Rover in the opening moments of The Living Daylights, and that glorious moment when Daniel Craig flicks on the lights to reveal a gleaming DB5 in Skyfall.

All of these vehicles have one glorious thing in common – you can, even if you might need to be a millionaire in some cases, buy all these cars in real life. Yet you can’t with Spectre’s automotive stars.

For starters there’s Bond’s car – an Aston Martin of course, but unlike the DBS or DB5 the DB10 Daniel Craig uses is not actually a production model. The closest you’ll be able to get is next year’s DB11. Close, but not exactly the MI6-spec the Bond fantasists who propel Aston’s fortunes will be wishing for this Christmas.

It’s the same story with the baddies’ choice bit of kit – a Jaguar C-X75, which was mooted as an XJ220 successor at the Paris motor show five years ago. It wasn’t a production car then and it still isn’t now – and I reckon using one in Spectre is giving today’s kids false hope.

It's a top-notch 007 outing – but I just thought the cars (except the one at the very end) were a bit of a letdown.