Premier Ewart Brown has a new car that is "worthy of his office" Minister of Works and Engineering Derrick Burgess confirmed last night.

Minister Burgess would not reveal what type of car Works and Engineering had purchased for the Premier, however pictures on ZBM news last night showed a BMW 750LI.

According to the BMW America website the manufacture suggested retail price (MRSP) is $79,900.

Last night Minister Burgess explained the purchase of a new car saying that the previous GP1 car, a Peugeot, had been a servicing nightmare.

He said: "It (GP1) is no longer on the road. GP1 has had mechanical problems. Since we have had this car it has cost nearly $80,000 in repairs.

"It hasn't given us good service. He (the Premier) did not order that car (the new car); Works and Engineering did. We are buying one that's worthy of his office."

Asked to confirm what type of car would replace the Peugeot, Minister Burgess said: "They (the public) will know when it's on the road."

This newspaper has spent the past week trying to find out from Government what has happened to the old GP1, which appears to have been off the road for several months, sparking numerous rumours about its whereabouts.

In a telephone call last night, the Minister also confirmed he had now completed a review of the Government's fleet of cars and the associated costs in an attempt to cut back on spending taxpayers' money.

Asked if he was going to release the report, he said: "Depends. I have to discuss it with other people before it goes."

The report was ordered in March by the Premier following a move by Cabinet to "implement several cost saving measures across Government".

In a press release from Cabinet on March 25, they explained that Government travel, newspaper advertising and subscriptions and the Government fleet would all be part of a "belt tightening."

That would mean cutting the Government's subscription to this paper, which amounted to $42,000, as well as $800,000 in advertising spent on all print media.

Premier Brown explained that a move to electronic media was the best way to get the Government's message out because "the whole world is moving towards the Internet".

Just last month the Premier also announced that the Government would be teaming up with American Express in order to cut back on travel expenses.

If fully integrated AmEx would receive $50,000 a year, although a six-month pilot programme would be run first. AmEx reports that clients using its platform see an average of 10 to 15 percent in savings.

Cutting back on the transportation costs was something that the Premier had also explained would be the result of the report by Minister Burgess.

After a news conference, in response to questions from this paper about how much the cost of the fleet was, he said: "I do not have those numbers. (Works) Minister (Derrick) Burgess is compiling those as we speak. It's not just the cost of purchase of the cars, but the maintenance."