Nowadays when car leasing clients contract hire a car, so much is taken for granted; not only can they rely on the fact that their lease car is safe and incredibly reliable but also the wide range of extras that are available. It's a far cry from the early days when safety was hanging on for dear life and heating was a car rug wrapped around your legs. Keeping dry when it rained wasn't an option.

The car wasn't suddenly invented, man had been trying for a very long time to get carriages to take them places without having to rely on horses, that were very high maintenance; they had to be fed, watered, rested and groomed, sometimes they would get ill and die.

The first attempts at using wind power were made by the Chinese and even back in the 1600s the Dutch had invented a wind drawn carriage. It was not enormously successful; firstly you needed wind and secondly it needed to be blowing in the right direction. Sailing boats have the same problem although they can tack; which involves moving the boat in a zig zag fashion. If you try doing that on the road, which was more likely to have been no more than a narrow track, then it becomes clear why this was never going to work.

Also in the 1600s, the Germans invented a vehicle that could drive along the road without wind power or horses, It appeared to be an extraordinary technological advancement, however closer inspection revealed that there were men hidden inside turning handles. Even in those days when labour was cheap and workers rights hadn't been invented this clearly wasn't going to work either.

In the early 1800s steam carriages were invented both in England and America. The English version looked more like a conventional carriage without the horses, the American version more like a boat but with justification, as it could also travel on water.

A few years later a carriage was created in England that was designed to be pulled by a kite. Still not realizing that this was probably one of the silliest inventions ever, there were plans for a more advanced model; this version would have a platform on the back to carry a horse, in case the wind failed them.

A few basic calculations would perhaps have told them that if they were struggling to get enough wind to propel the carriage and its passengers, a heavy horse on a platform on the back, really wasn't going to help.

There were many attempts to run commercial passenger services using steam vehicles but generally they failed; the ride was quite uncomfortable and they were more expensive than horse drawn carriages. There were also practical problems in that a lot of water was required, roughly one gallon per mile. At first the driver had to find a stream and carry buckets of water to the vehicle. Later they introduced a system where the vehicle would draw the water up from a stream through a hose; this saved a lot of time and effort.

In the mid 1800s a German scientist by the name of Nicholas Otto had created a four stroke internal combustion engine, similar to that which is used today, although the steam engine continued throughout most of the Nineteenth century. Others experimented with gas and electricity but both had practical problems; electric cars for example could not go for more than a few miles without being recharged, so they could not really be taken out of a town.

The German engineer Karl Benz built a three wheel car in 1885. Another engineer Gottlieb Daimler who lived approximately 100 Kilometres away was also designing a car and yet neither knew of the others existence; whilst that distance may be a one hour journey today, in those days with poor roads (and of course no cars) it was a very long way.

Within three years of Benz producing his car, there were models on sale. However there was very little interest in the vehicle; many thought it was a fad that would die out, little did they know. When Benz's wife started to drive around in one of the cars, men rather chauvinistically concluded that if a woman could drive one, then it couldn't be that difficult and they started to order them.

In practice there was nothing easy about driving the early cars; they were very difficult to start, the wheels were thin with solid tyres and the roads were very bumpy, added to this the early cars had no front springs. They were cold and uncomfortable and reverse gear hadn't been thought of, so if you wanted to go backwards you would have to push it.

In 1895 two French brothers by the name of Michelin produced a pneumatic tyre, which had the potential to make the ride a lot more comfortable. The problem was that with the condition of the roads, they kept puncturing. It is said that the car manufacturers liked the idea but found it hard to believe that the tyres were filled with air, so part of the brother's sales presentation was to puncture a tyre so that they could see the air escaping.

Motoring in those days was only for the very rich; there was no mass production of vehicles or special offers to attract buyers but those that wanted them bought them regardless, perhaps the same people who would today have a private helicopter and a super yacht. Few people appreciate today how easy things are in comparison with then; many couldn't even afford a bicycle and now with car leasing it is possible to contract hire a luxury car quite inexpensively; you could for example drive a Mercedes Benz C Class lease car for less than 250 Pounds per month.

The early cars were quite a danger to other road users; pedestrians who were more accustomed to the speed of horses, were constantly misjudging the speed of cars. Added to this children started to play chicken and see who could be last to cross in front of a speeding car, there were many fatalities.

The motor car started to become very unpopular with those who weren't rich enough to own one. Poor road conditions and inexperienced driving were the cause of many road accidents, some of them quite spectacular head on crashes. Added to this races were being held on the roads. Following the Paris to Madrid race in 1903, legislation was brought in that made it against the law.

Many died and were seriously injured in the race, which had to be abandoned before it was finished. The roads were littered with animals and pedestrians were crossing what was effectively a race track. The roads of course were not tarmac they were really no more than dust tracks; consequently the participants were driving almost blind because of the dust thrown up by other cars.

As the motor car developed they became more comfortable, not comfortable by today's standards but improvements were being made; lamps to enable them to find there way and be seen at night became more common, some cars even came with a picnic hamper as standard. It was still far from comfortable as cars produced an enormous amount of dust, much to the disgust of horsemen and cyclists.

There were virtually no road signs so motorist used to spend a lot of their time lost. If your car broke down it was a matter of finding a tradesman or farmer to tow you, at a cost, with their horse and cart, which was probably quite embarrassing.

Today contract hire clients order cars with so many options added. The advantage of car leasing is that the cost of an added extra is spread over the contract term, usually three years. If however the extra enhances the residual value of the vehicle, there is sometimes very little or no additional cost.

In the early days of motoring there were also optional extras but they were rather different; one example was a mouth siren, which was strapped to the motorist's wrist to warn pedestrians and animals to get out the way. There was even, believe it or not, an anti theft device which was a collapsible rubber driver; the idea being that you would place it behind the wheel of the car when you left it unattended. The manufacturer's claim was that it would frighten off potential thieves. How things have changed.