Baby, you can drive my Aurus Senat

Legacy can be such a lousy thing - it lingers. Take the Russian luxury car model, Aurus Senat. This Rolls-Royce-inspired machine with oligarchic characteristics exudes power. Its Porsche-developed 4.4 litre V8 engine is coupled by an electric motor to deliver a combined 590 bhp grrr. Clocking 0-60 mph in 5.6 seconds, it's a lovely beast, even if a tad overpriced (for mere mortals). And Putin owns one.

And, yet, the Aurus Senat was in the news this week for the wrong reason. Once again, the guilty party comes from the land of Tesla and Cadillac. And all because Vlad Putin gifted his North Korean opposite and jigri dost Kim Jong-un a Senat when the latter came visiting Moscow. In response to that rather sweet gesture between two luxury-appreciating autocrats, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller yuk-yuked about the Russian car, saying, 'I actually, frankly, didn't know there was such a thing as a Russian luxury car,' adding the additional putdown, 'I hope [Kim] got the extended warranty.' Yes, hear 'Russian car' and you get visions of the Cold War-era Soviet Lada (known as Zhiguli within the USSR). That's if you haven't stopped stereotyping everything from the 1980s, India as the 'land of cows and fakirs' included. Reliable reviews have the Senat as an alpha lux-car. Miller, you can drive home in your 2016 Honda Civic.