jeremy996

Mass consumption is an economic dead end. Unlimited expansion of consumerist policies is the direct cause of global warming, species depletion, loss of habitat etc. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle taken to the logical conclusion, assuming you don't want to go back to the Middle Ages, is buy the best stuff you can afford once and maintain it. Most of the Grenadier specification drift is down to global safety regulations and the marketing requirements so they can sell them across segments. Regulation, economics and marketing drives all manufacturing and everything represents a compromise somewhere. Compared to a FFRR, its a tractor!

Most manufacturers build so that the vehicle will last the warrant period and "devil take the hindmost" for second owners in the later years, that is why long warranties are unusual and noteworthy where they occur. Ford are shockers for this and this is evidenced each time they buy and sell a brand, like LR and Mazda. Their beancounters take a long and hard look at each model and try and squeeze the pennies out of the vehicle build. For Mazda, there is a well documented bit of de-contenting where they replaced the real gauges on the MX5 with basic go/no-go senders and gauges for temperature and oil pressure. I understand the saving was about $5 a car and only the motoring nerds were really bothered, (like me and the MX5OC, you can buy a kit in the after market for the original senders and gauges). For the Disco in Ford's ownership, they changed the alternator for one which was less robust and more sensitive to over-tight belts and higher mileage; the failures were felt by the second and subsequent owners, as the substitution, (usually), lasted the warranty. Different warranty conditions between private buyers and commercial buyers are also common, so Ineos Automotive's warranty is an indication of the design parameters or a massive economic risk! The NSU Ro80 broke NSU/Auto Union and helped build VAG; so Ineos must have confidence in the robustness of the product.

I've been in the FSB for years - it was never that interesting!

The big utility companies buy vehicles in batches of 20-1000, so the cost is usually well discounted. If they are building a special like a Quadtech or access lift, the extra costs are in the £10,000s - £100,000s, so the marginal savings are pretty irrelevant. Most utilities want a decent residual on their special builds, so the 5 year warranty on the Grenadier will hit a sweet spot. I know that Ineos have been romancing the Utility companies; the Quartermaster double cab is now launched and the chassis cab is on the way for special builds.

Yes, or I would not have done it. The vehicle as an assembly is unproven but the components are often off the shelf. The major wear components are massively over-specified compared to rivals, (which is why it is overweight), so a long life is not unreasonable. Look underneath a Grenadier and it looks more like a lorry; Land Rovers look a bit dainty in comparison. I could afford a D5, new Defender, RR Sport or FFRR, but I don't want one; my local Toyota dealer has no stock and no interest in 4x4s, I've seen too many broken L200s, Navarras and Rangers and I'm old enough for a bit of comfort. After 18 years of elderly Defenders and two fraught rebuilds, it was time for something new. Your priorities are not mine; as part of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, I want to buy less "stuff" but fewer items of a higher quality. It will take 20 years to see if I backed the right horse, but I'll be 80 by then and I still won't be able to afford the Mercedes G Wagen, which is probably the only serious alternative. If you think of the Grenadier as a half-price G Wagen, (Sir Jim Radcliffe said as much), you might understand where I'm coming from.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1998/1833/regulation/4 It's not how you manage time, it's how you avoid getting yourself or your employer locked up. If you are really doing 80 hours a week on a sustained basis, there is something badly wrong.

You will certainly be falling foul of the Working Time Directive, unless you were foolish enough to opt out. If you are an owner/director you can work yourself into the ground, but you are not entitled to ask staff to do similar. Don't injure youself or a third party; you will trigger a HSE world of pain and driving while impaired by fatigue is still a traffic offence. Tomororrow I'll be driving my nice comfortable, quiet Grenadier from home to Newcastle and back, 360 miles and roughly 6 hours, delivering son in time for his New Year's do. I would not volunteer in the LR110 or LR90.

Liking it or not is a matter of personal taste; people drink Carling - I just don't understand it. Too expensive for work? I doubt it; business is interested in the lifetime cost, so the up-front cost is not the most important driver. Other than fuel, my day to days costs have been quite modest, my LR110/LR90 were costing a fortune in small spares and labour or my time. I suspect you will be waiting a long time for a Grenadier to be £10k; a 5 year unlimited mileage warranty and the build quality of an old-school Mercedes suggest it will age gracefully. Ineos Automotive still need to sort out the workshop manual and parts for retail, but my vehicle now has no warranty faults and I am very happy with it.

To be fair to the pompous ASPW, it's not a bad review but I feel he makes a meal of the 'footrest' for clicks and engagement. Certainly the ease of driving when conditions are sub-optimal matches my experience.

I have never towed anything quite so fancy as a Shackleton or even a bit of one. The Grenadier has only towed a 22' fishing boat on a launching trolley, The LR110 did quite a lot of towing, but nothing fancy on camera, usually classic cars, including my two. The little picture is from May 2008. The strangest thing I have moved with the LR110 was a diesel locomotive at Butterley; they wanted it moving about 3 metres along the shed road to get a display in. Someone may have a picture, but I don't.

Just had a check around the auctions I used to frequent and only Newark seems to be open to the public, https://www.newarkmotorauctions.co.uk. There is a stock list on the website. Both BCA and Manheim seem to be aggressively "trade only", Aston Barclay seem to set a more accessable bar for the part time trader, (business account and motor trade policy), https://www.astonbarclay.net/trade-application

I'm up to 13,000 miles in mine and I still love it. Got some glitches with HVAC, (no warm air to the footwell), and dodgy door seals, (three are falling off and the driver's door one is collecting water, so you get a wet surprise when you open the door), but hoping these get sorted, (or at least diagnosed), tomorrow.

As you will know I am into Morgans, MX5s and less fanatically, almost anything with an engine. There is almost no electronic logic in a pre-1990 Morgan, so parts availability and fit of alternatives are the only issues. For the Mk1 and Mk2 MX5 only the engine ECU is an issue, and the usual workaround is a motorsport ECU like Emerald (or MegaSquirt). Where things get really difficult is obscure bits of electronic hardware and the underlying logic of the body systems. Tesla Roadsters and early Tesla Ss are being bricked by the failure of LCD screens with specific characteristics and specific obscure control chips. Although Tesla have open-sourced much of the early patents, they have not been forthcoming with the technical specification of older systems, citing "security" as the main issue. Is there a standard way to collate data on what each widget does, what the dependencies are and the sub-systems design? (You can tell I'm an accountant and not a systems engineer).

Some episodes of Wheeler Dealers they used to quote the hours taken. Multiply that by a suitable hourly rate and you rapidly come to the conclusion that restoring cars is a game for the very rich or the very, very devoted! (Busy self-diagnosing devotion extended to cultism)

I enjoyed the programme, but they seem to have overpaid at each stage of the process. Still, it makes the JLR rebuilt Series 1s look less expensive. What would Julian Shoolheifer have made of the whole thing? The Argocat looked like fun.

Whether it is a van or a car depends on how it is registered, (my Grenadier is technically a van!) If yours is a hard top with extra seats, take the extra seats out - most insurers will have fits with sideways seats and lapbelts. For most intents and purposes, you have a van. (My old 90 was described as a van with windows for a reason). Ring all of the companies in the specialist LR press for quotes, listing every change you have fitted from standard. (Don't worry about the lighter clutch, worry about cosmetics, performance and value). Try Endsleigh, (young driver specialist but no understanding of LRs), try Admiral, A-Plan, NFU etc. I have had OK deals from Lancaster and walk-in brokers; there is no substitute for leg work as the on-line comparison sites only work well with standard risks. As others have said, never lie to an insurance company and make sure you can prove any statements that might appear dodgy to an outsider. If it is usually at one address, use that, if the other one is cheaper move the vehicle permanently! Make sure your social media output matches the statement you gave to the insurance company.

At 17 you are going to struggle; statistically, you are going to have a fault accident in the next 2 years! Defenders make large holes in the scenery and are readily stolen, so all of the bases are loaded against you. Try all of the brokers and see what they can suggest. Add one or more parents to your policy, that will usually reduce the cost. Add a recognised tracker and other anti-theft devices. Keep modifications to a minimum and NO performance enhancements. Agree to having a black box fitted and a low annual mileage. At 21, you will have access to classic car insurance, so you might find it easier to buy a cheap, unfasionable car to collect some no claims bonus - until recently we had a Vauxhall Agila 1.0, (grandparent special, so no street cred), as the young driver car.

My CAR magazine for December 2023 turned up yesterday containing a Giant test comparing the current LR Defender, Ineos Grenadier and the Ford Ranger. They preferred the LR Defender - the most expensive vehicle, as the test vehicle is quoted at over £91k. CAR December 2023 P40-P51.pdf

Economic theory makes a big song and dance about comparative advantages. The UK is considered a high wage economy, so generally manual and low added value tasks would tend to go overseas. In the long term that can starve the local economy of skills, (and capital), and if free-marketeers are given free-reign, you lose strategic capabilities, like making steel from ore, designing avionics software or shipbuilding, making data chips or processers. The loss of lower level jobs also has social implications, which could lead to riots, revolution and anarchy. The green ''revolution'' has not helped here; relying on imported coal may make the CO2 stats look better for the UK, but makes damn-all difference to the world, exporting pollution is not a solution!

Most recycling of traction batteries is as packs of cells into home batteries, where the loss of performance is nowhere near as critical. (Or to power EV conversions). The bit of battery recycling that is not happening at scale is the teardown and chemical recovery of dead and non-viable individual cells. There are a number of small scale trials of chemical recovery, but to say there is no recycling is incorrect. Renault's attempt to join the home battery market was placed on hold when some smart arse worked out that there were not enough depleted traction batteries to justify the investment at this stage, (the traction batteries were holding up better than expected).

This has made me feel old; I remember seeing the remains of Reliant Scimitars along the trunk roads and motorways in the late '70s. ICEs burn quite well, especially if they are GRP bodied. One of the job I remember doing as an apprentice in the motor trade was drilling and pinning the brass petrol pipes into the cards on Ford V6 engines, as the pipes were supposed to be an interference fit and fell out if they got hot. Hybrids tend to have crowded and complex engine bays, so issues with heat soak, poor installation and indifferent maintenance seem quite plausible. Following the last Emergency Services Show, as a 4x4 responder, I was given the electric vehicle safety protocol training which was quite sobering.

I replied on X/Twitter, suggesting that Sir Jim had run off with his significant other. He is a well known auto journalist, currently editing EVO. Evo's usual coverage is supercars and fast saloons; I cannot think of anything more NOT a supercar or fast saloon than a Grenadier. To expect it to drive the same way is delusional. To dislike it is fine, we don't all like the same things, but to claim it is dangerous suggests someone in need of a reality adjustment. I don't buy Evo, I find it dull and too niche for me.

I own a copy of that film - my son thinks it's weird! (he has a 2.1 in Film)

Best wishes for a full recovery. Was the sepsis automotive related or something else entirely? My friendly local paramedic keeps reminding me that old cars, cuts and poor workshop practise are not good for health. I tidied the garage as a H&S measure and cannot find a thing.

The general view of 4x4 Response UK and most of the local groups is no responder will do "recovery"; we are not insured for it and the risk is not worth the candle. We will do "traction assistance" where the general test is "could what I am about to suggest with my vehicle be done by a rugby front five?". A simple short, straight pull onto firmer ground is not particularly risky, but explain the risk to the OP and tell them you are accepting no liability. (These days I video the responses as well, a suggestion from this forum!) I always do an attitude check and a personal risk assessment; saying no is easy. If they want to ring a motoring organisation, I'll help or give them the callout number for a local recovery firm. I've taken the occupants of cars to a place of safety a few times, (the most surreal being a vicar, his mother and his girlfriend, after they had drowned their Fiat Duplo in the underpass under the A46 in Leicestershire). We have business cards that solicit a donation after the event; no payment solicited, no contract you can sue on - good samaritans are not held to the same standards as a recovery contractor. We also keep records of "frequent flyers", who will, after abusing our charity, will be given the number for one of the local recovery firms. As a volunteer, I have no problem with telling the "entitled" to make their own arrangements; it's usually BMWs and Audis these days. (One of my colleagues had an interesting encounter with a Porsche once .