Bone wrote:

Now if it was my £31000 i was spending what would i have???? A Freelander 2! Why, because nothing beats a Land Rover and thats why we have them even though most of the dealers are rubbish, the customer service is shocking, the product falls apart quite often but its in our blood.

For our sins we were caravanning in Yorkshire last bank holiday. A gentleman in a from a van a couple of pitches down came to ask about the Freelander - fuel economy, reliability, towing capability etc.

I was honest and said as a fanatic I was the wrong person to ask - but turned the question on its head, and asked what was wrong with the 3 year old Toyota he was currently driving.
His response was not much, he just felt considering the state of the economy maybe he sould be buying British for a change - maybe a few more are thinking along the same lines.

I was honest in the end, fuel economy is poor if you use all of the power available all the time, reliability on mine has been outstanding, but others have reported issues, if you find a good dealer they are fantastic, if you don't they can make ownership miserable if things go wrong. In the winter it was amazing, and towing a van of a wet grassy pitch is a breeze. Oh and they are available in other colours

Maybe just maybe, others are realising that if we don't support manufacturing/production in Britain then we will eventually become a third world economy -

Have written this several times and deleted most of it, cause I've had a few and keep falling off my soap box.  Tangiers Orange - gone, missing her
Replaced by Ewok what a mistake - now a happy Disco Sport owner

Blue,
I spent 37 years in the UK motor industry. 10 of which were at Solilull, some at Rover, 11 years at Bentley.
It's a very emotional thing to me; i mentioned Nissen and Honda cos they're not UK owned, but neither is L/R anymore I'm afraid to say.
It's all very sad, but most F1 cars are built in the UK; we have possibly the best engineers in the World in the UK.
I don't know what to say; i'll always buy British, all my Hi Fi is, but cars?
Next one will be;
made in Malvern.

[quote="Pegleg: i'll always buy British, all my Hi Fi is, but cars?
Next one will be; made in Malvern.[/quote]

Without question - the best HiFi (based on a combination of these three essential criteria: sound quality, reliability and value for money) is British designed and built. And thankfully you have lots of manufacturers to choose from

Malvern is a commendable place to procure a fine motorcar

Simply being British built is not, on its own, a good enough reason to buy a product. Nor is there any merit in denouncing a product simply because it is foreign.

Our Land Rover dealer sells also Jaguar and Kia plus Subaru. I once asked him about his experience of those two Asian brands and I found his reply refreshingly balanced and honest: "The driving experience in a LR or Jaguar cannot be matched by the other two, however there exists a much larger market for the products of Kia and Subaru. They represent good motoring value when compared against their segment competitors and provide sales volumes when consumer sentiment wanes for the British marques."

He went on to describe how recently, before the launch of the new XF and XJ models it actually cost him money to have showroom stock of Jaguars as they sold so slowly, and, when for a few years Solihull was delivering poorly finished vehicles niggling warranty claims clogged his large workshop and killed repeat sales. Now he says clients no longer feel slightly "embarrassed" about owning these two brands, rather they are proud and make product recommendations.

Presently he's very happy with LR & J. He ought to be - LR sales in Switzerland for the first six months 2010 are up 242% and top the Swiss car sales charts. (They did start from a very poor position as sales in 2009 dropped by 67% due mainly to the global recession)

Your right, we keep buying them

An interesting debate, I have just come back from 10 days in the USA, I tjhought I would like to drive something
local so ordered a Chevy Impala from Avis (or somrthing similar) of course I got the something similar and was handed the keys to a 2011 hyundai Sonata, Oh dear, I thought. However I have to say the car was stunning, looked fantastic (look on the US website, we still have the old model). 2.4ltr 4 cly engine, petrol direct injection with 200bhp, super smooth 6 speed auto, great ride, fantastic fit and finish and absolutley no rattles. In fact it's just won the best slaoon for under 25,000 dollars, beating the Ford, chevys and models from GM. It is frightening how far, and how fast the the Koreans have come in just a few years. If we cannot find the means to keep up we will end up as the maker of a few niche vehicles like Morgan or Bristol. This is one reason why I am so disapointed at the recent LR2 revamp, yes it has a better engine but the interior is simply out of date, and is slipping far behind the competition, as is the warranty and servicing costs. We seem to be slipping into the old days of produce a world beater then sit by while the competition not only catches up but overtakes us.
Somewhat more encouraging was that the LR Discovery 4 beat the Jeep Grand Cherokee in the Motor Trend road test.

Pegleg wrote:

Blue,
I spent 37 years in the UK motor industry. 10 of which were at Solilull, some at Rover, 11 years at Bentley.
It's a very emotional thing to me; i mentioned Nissen and Honda cos they're not UK owned, but neither is L/R anymore I'm afraid to say.
It's all very sad, but most F1 cars are built in the UK; we have possibly the best engineers in the World in the UK.
I don't know what to say; i'll always buy British, all my Hi Fi is, but cars?
Next one will be;
made in Malvern.

My brother used to be a Morgan maker, if you're thinking of going down that route make sure you check the car over fully as build quality is/was not that great a couple of years ago, might have changed now but thought I would warn you before you part with your hard earned cash  ______________________
2011 Full Fat RR 4.4 TDV8
2012 FL2 SD4 Auto HSE
2013 Kawasaki Versys 650

I,ve had a look at the U.S. website for the Hyundia's and I wiil ask the queston again WHY ?????

All the vehicles on that site look crap....cheap and nasty.

I think some of you on here need a visit from Jezza Clarkson

Why do so many people on this site slag Land Rover's of but still buy them ?

We have a Freelander 2 GS and an Audi Avant RS6 and both cars are very well made
with quality materials. The land Rover dealer I use is excellent, the Audi dealer could
do better, but what the hell.

The only problem I have is the freelander could do with a bigger boot and the Audi
drink less

iain cooper wrote:

through experience most of them favour the Kia and Hyundai and swear by them over the Landrover, indeed I was advised on numerous occasions not to go for the Landrover by these caravanning experts.
Iain

But unfortunately the caravanning expert you asked was Chickengeorge who would never want to see a LR towing a white box!

To me buying British paramount. Keeps our lads in jobs and helps our economy. God knows we need it.

Pegleg wrote:

Blue,
I spent 37 years in the UK motor industry. 10 of which were at Solilull, some at Rover, 11 years at Bentley.
It's a very emotional thing to me; i mentioned Nissen and Honda cos they're not UK owned, but neither is L/R anymore I'm afraid to say.
It's all very sad, but most F1 cars are built in the UK; we have possibly the best engineers in the World in the UK.
I don't know what to say; i'll always buy British, all my Hi Fi is, but cars?
Next one will be;
made in Malvern.

Ah, that explains a bit, I can certainly see the emotional connection, unfortunately I've been struggling to think of any mass market British owned manufacturers and hence was wondering what you've been buying lol.

JLR - Indian, and before that, American for a good while. Rover was German for a long while before becoming British again and failing spectacularly. I'm struggling to think of any more mass market British marques that haven't been dead for years. Even some of the more exclusive brands are no longer Britis, Rolls Royce and Bentley are foreign, even Aston Martin aren't totally British. Still at least they're all making world class cars now!

Obviously there are niche products like Morgan which retain British status, but sadly they aren't really making anything that will appeal to many buyers.

Ultimately, if you're after something British made nowadays my personal opinion is that it would be silly to exclude foreign owned firms as (to use your examples) Nissan and Honda invest millions into the UK economy and keep entire regions gainfully employed in proper jobs making things that get exported. They also keep our hand in with the engineering, innovation and technology sectors. Although I live in Sunderland I have no connection to Nissan or it's supply chain companies but can safely say it would be a crippling blow if they shut up shop! Blue

Dave,
Thanks for your tip! I suppose it's to be expected unfortunately.

Blue,
Nice reply with sense. Yes, i understand what you are saying particulary with reference to the supply chain; I was once part of it!!!
But my heart rules my head, i'm sure you can understand that. Love is blind!
I do wonder if one day; when some of the cheap labour throughout the World has been exhausted, we might be able to start again. Not in my lifetime but i hope it happens one day.

I'm 26 and feel that by the time I'm planning to retire I won't live in a G8 country anymore...

A return to world class manufacturing would be great as it would help drive our economy in the same way that Germany keeps their (and some of their neighbours!) economy going. Sadly, I don't think either of us will see it in our lifetime unless something knocks China off their stride, but I can't really imagine what that could be! (perhaps a pensions crisis due to the one child policy and lack of females?) Blue

Japan was once cheap labour. I can remember it being so. And now it outsources.
Like to the UK. For building cars for example. Like Honda and Nissen.
China has many strikes recently due to wage demands. It's government is also concerned about growth rate.
They will catch up.
Not in my lifetime.
But possibly in yours.
We hope.