Premier Ewart Brown will get a second new car as Peugeot GP2 is replaced with a Toyota Camry, according to the Minister of Works and Engineering.

In June this year, GP1 — which was a Peugeot — was replaced by a BMW 750Li costing the taxpayers about $90,000 after Bermuda Motors offered Government a deal.

The vehicle would normally have cost about $188,000 with shipping and duty.

While the Premier was waiting for his replacement car, after GP1 was taken off the road because of mechanical problems, Minister Burgess said he had been using GP2 or GP4.

Last night Works Minister Derrick Burgess confirmed that GP2, GP4 and GP8 were all being replaced because they were the oldest in the fleet.

He said: "They were the oldest in the fleet. They were almost 10 years old. We were having problems with them. It was nothing out of the ordinary as they come of age we have to replace them.

"We purchased three more cars (Toyota Camry). We purchased those size of cars because we have dignitaries come from overseas.

"When that happens those cars are taken from the Ministers to drive them around. The others had come to the end of their life.

"They are not any bigger then the cars they replaced. The three Peugeots they had were bigger then the regular Bermuda car and they (the Toyotas) are no bigger than that."

Asked for comment last night the Premier, through his press secretary Glenn Jones, said: "If you have spoken to the Works and Engineering Minister you have spoken to the best possible person.

"His Ministry is also responsible for the fleet review the Cabinet Office has previously referenced."

The new cars were brought onto the Island in July and will be used by the Premier, the Minister of Education Randy Horton and Minister of the Environment Elvin James, according to a report on ZBM news last night.

Asked how much these new cars will cost, Minister Burgess said: "To the tax payers they were no more than $40,000, in that area, in that range."