SCARY ONE TODAY!

Well you know we see those "Highways guys" floating around the motorways...well today I have reason to be very thankful to them and their service.

Was on the way to see relatives in Cambridge this morning, when while moving rather slowly on the M3 (due to a big accident further up), the flippin van decided to die....IN THE MIDDLE LANE and it was jam packed too!!

Well we made the call, and although it seemd like hours, it was in fact only a few minutes before they got to us and moved us to the hard shoulder. They then had to hurry off to help the Police etc with accident.

The AA were amazingly quick too and recovered us home as the fuel pump had decided not to play anymore.

So basically I want to say THANKS TO THE HIGHWAYS AGENCY....could have been very nasty without them!!!!

"Highways guys" - 'Just doing their job' some would say. Well, as a nation we're quick to complain if they get it wrong, so fair play maadmaan10 for praising them when they are efficient.

BUT, and this isn't having a pop at the crews themselves but the management, why the hell do they insist on purchasing Mitsos, Isuzus and the like when they have a perfectly good vehicle in the Land Rover Discovery?

Yes they have some Discos on the fleet, but government agencies such as this should be made to buy British - or as British as possible in this global marketplace we find ourselves! We as a country should be supporting workers at Lode Lane, Solihull, not bleeding Block 789 in Tokyo!!!

Tom Mc wrote:

"Highways guys" - 'Just doing their job' some would say. Well, as a nation we're quick to complain if they get it wrong, so fair play maadmaan10 for praising them when they are efficient.

BUT, and this isn't having a pop at the crews themselves but the management, why the hell do they insist on purchasing Mitsos, Isuzus and the like when they have a perfectly good vehicle in the Land Rover Discovery?

Yes they have some Discos on the fleet, but government agencies such as this should be made to buy British - or as British as possible in this global marketplace we find ourselves! We as a country should be supporting workers at Lode Lane, Solihull, not bleeding Block 789 in Tokyo!!!

Tom, there is a very simple reason why they use these vehicles and why over the next two years you will see them ALL replaced by Mitsubishi and Toyota.
They spent 3 years evaluating vehicles "fit for the job";
MUST be able to tow 3 tons
MUST have enough space for all their gear
MUST have load carrying capacity for all their gear.
MUST, and this is the cruncher, BE RELIABLE!!!
MUST be economical over 3 year life cycle.

Their comprehensive evaluations covered many more facets, but those were the main ones. The current fleet of Land Rovers that they run have proved to be far too unreliable FOR THE PURPOSE.

The Toyota Landcruiser, while expensive to buy has proved extremely relaible and over the 3 years, fairly cheap to run.
The Mitsubishi Shogun won out with the best reliablity and cheapest running costs of all the vehicles tested and will, over the next 2 to 3 years, comprise 2/3rds of the fleet. The other 1/3 will be Toyota and the LR products will all be phased out.

Tom, I am NOT having a go here, the facts spoke for themselves; The LR's actually worked out MORE expensive to run because of the amount of times they were at the dealers because they broke/broke down/had major warranty issues. They also found that LR dealers were, let's just say, not the fastest at getting them back on the road.And that is the crux of the matter, these guys can't do that job without total reliability.

As for buying British, well Tom, WHAT THE HELL IS BRITISH ANYMORE ANYWAY?? ( there may be some built here but none of them are British owned anymore, so in my eyes they don't count anyway!

British????????????????????????????????????????

Land Rover Jaguar are owned by Tata, the last time I looked they were Indian.

If you wan't a British car you need to buy Japanese!!!!! Toyota Avensis and Auris are built in Derbyshire, various Nissan in Sunderland, and Honda in Swindon.

? is the Morgan still British Also is the Bristle still in production.
Can anyone else think of a British car. ?

The Morgan is still British owned, as is TVR, but both these use predominantly foreign components.

ooooh what have I started??!!??

I know LR aren't 100% British, but I did say - "British - or as British as possible in this global marketplace we find ourselves!"

Fair enough, statistically the Mitsos and Toyotas may have been more reliable, but it isn't as simple as that. Thousands of workers in Britain still look to Land Rover for a livelihood (both at Lode Lane and all the suppliers) so this has to be taken into consideration when govenment agencies purchase vehicles.

So too is image. Would we be happy if government officials and the Royal Family ran around in BMWs, Jeeps or Alphas - or course not.

I realise that, in the case of the Army for instance, Land Rover can't provide the correct vehicle so the Pinzgauer had to be purchased, but it at all possible, surely we have to support our own? In the case of the Highways Agency, a little unreliability of the Discovery should be outweighed by other considerations. Life isn't black & white, so can't be simply about stats and nothing else.

I don't disagree Tom. In the ideal world we would be totally nationalistic (is that a word?).

When Land Rover (Tata) can produce a TOTALLY RELIABLE vehicle range with minimal warranty issues..........until then we will run our royals around in BentleyMW's

Unfortunately Tom, you have hit the nail on the head, the supply chain, and the Toyota Avensis is the most British car you can buy as most of it is supplied from British suppliers, this is followed by the Honda Civic as this is predominantly British suppliers, and Land Rover Jaguar still import many more components then the Avensis or Civic in their production.

But then again it could all change again next year and another vehicle could become the most British vehicle due to world supply chains.