Even when the car chases are tame James Bond hardly represents the typical government official abroad. But he achieves what high-risk executives want: an escape when needed in a car that acts as a co-star.
Still some diplomats find it difficult to lead everyday lives and minimising risk, at least while on the road, is behind the growing market for high security cars. The Pope Mobile and the US presidential limo are probably the better-known. But the further away from democracy you travel, the greater the wealth and power, or the higher the scale of paranoia, the more high-security cars are evident.
In places such as Moscow and Mexico City it's thought that up to 2,000 bullet-proof cars are on the streets. Georgia's President Shevardnadze has entered folklore having luckily survived an assassination attempt involving grenade launchers which left his motorcade looking like an omnibus edition of Formula 1. He gave credit for his survival to his driver, his bodyguard, and the armed Mercedes Benz given to him by the German government for his role in German reunification, after his Volga was destroyed in a previous nail bomb attack.
High security cars are the norm for senior members of Britain's royal family, high-ranking US and British diplomats abroad, as well as for politicians from hot-spots such as the Basque region.
They are also the choice of footballers' wives. The Beckhams' fleet includes armoured 5, 7 series and X5 BMWs, as well as a recently-acquired armoured Mercedes S500 - and, if the current chess-game with Real Madrid results in a transfer, their need for security is unlikely to diminish.
Growing demand has enticed major car builders into the high security market with companies such as BMW and Mercedes using special assembly lines to turn out armoured versions of some of their cars through a whole host of independent companies.
Customers choose from a menu of security levels governed by European standards. These range from the basic B1 which protects against things such as light-armed forced entry to the highest, B7, which aims to protect against assassination.
The Geneva Motor Show in March was the showcase for an armoured version of BMW's long-wheel base 7 Series, the 760Li. Among other things, the high security version has integrated steel armouring, bullet-proof glass and run-flat tyres which can travel some 50 miles at 50 miles per hour without air.
To the naked eye the high security car looks the same as the €169,000 standard 12-cylinder 760Li and this is used as a selling point over cars retrofitted in the aftermarket.
The armouring and heavier glass adds nearly a tonne to the weight of the already near-two tonne car. BMW says the car is tweaked during build to take account of the extra weight so that it will have a similar drive to the standard 760Li, the only trade-off being the reduction in the top-speed to 130 mph!
The target market includes representatives of state, celebrities and high-ranking industrialists in the west, the Middle East and the former Soviet Union. It's thought that production is of the order of 500 a year. Cars come with a buy-back option to ensure they don't find their way into the wrong hands.
BMW offers a lower level of bullet-proofing (B4) in its 330i security model to protect against car theft and carjacking. This car is bought for private use in Latin America and South America at an estimated £20,000 more than the regular car.
Not to be outdone, Mercedes Benz also has a high security range called Guard which is available in the E Class, S Class and the G Class. Prices are on application and, as with BMW, applicants are interviewed about their needs. David Beckham's recently acquired S500 reputedly cost £150,000, £90,000 more than the standard model.
Ford and GM are the latest car-makers to consider the high security car market with plans to unveil a bullet-proof Lincoln saloon and a Cadillac De Ville in the US later this year. The V8 Lincoln Town Car BPS is reported to weigh about 7,500 lbs and will cost $140,000, about 1,800 lbs and $100,000 more than the un-armoured version.
But it's specialist armouring firms which adapt cars after production that are widening the range of armoured cars available. One of the major players is O'Gara-Hess which has held the contract for most of the US presidential limos since the end of the World War II as well as for the cars of 60 international heads of state.
Headquartered in Ohio, it also has plants in Mexico, Sao Paolo, Bogotá, Rio de Janeiro and Caracas, while its plants in Bremen, Germany, and Lambal, France, serve Europe and North Africa. O'Gara-Hess France retrofits some 150 passenger cars or 4X4s annually for the French market and works closely with Peugeot, Renault, Landrover and Jaguar.
During retrofit, engines are not changed but depending on the level of protection needed, the chassis and braking system may need to be reinforced to take anything up to 1,900 lbs extra weight. Changes to meet European standards can include the use of Kevlar for bullet-proofing, heavy-duty wheels with self-sealing tyres, self-sealing petrol tanks, hermitic sealing with oxygen supply in case of tear gas, remote starting to foil booby traps as well as floor pans to deflect explosions from below.
According to Darren Flynn, North American sales manager, B1 retrofitted protection costs about $30,000, B4 would set you back $65,000 and may take 10 weeks. B7 costs from $80,000 to $100,000 and may take four months.
"While BMW can offer an armoured vehicle as long as it's a BMW, we can fit more types of vehicles and can customise more special accessories," says Flynn. O'Gara-Hess options list includes PA sirens, smoke and oil sprays and head-rest mounted DVD players which can link to Sony Play stations for the children being ferried to school.
One of the largest but crudest markets for locally-retrofitted cars is northern India where it seems to have taken on Bollywood proportions. Customers range from politicians to pop stars and TV personalities fearing the downside of fame, as well as those for whom obviously-retrofitted cars are status symbols, flying in the face of discretion which is the first line of defence.
Naturally, statistics on the high security car market are hard to come. Ford USA - using anecdotal figures from glass makers - estimates that annual sales rose by 20 per cent in the past few years and reached 18,000 last year. Despite this, growth is from a tiny base and thankfully the number of countries not needing them far exceeds the number that do.
Like Formula 1 where engineering developments eventually trickle down to road cars, some very low-level protections will probably make their way, albeit slowly, into everyday cars. After wrestling with the nuts on a 320d in the rain recently, run-flat tyres have to be on the wish-list.
Still, heaven help us if high security cars become a common feature of the landscape. And still more help may be needed if a Mercedes S500 is no longer a status symbol unless it is bullet-proofed.