Land Rover Defender

[johnboy]

Production ceases today, end of an era:

http://news.sky.com/story/1631947/land- ... f-the-road

[GHOSTHUNTER]

Yet more heritage being disposed of because of Health and safety in the motor industry as they find it difficult to comply with ever changing safety laws.

Anyone who has never driven a Land Rover of any series...DO SO, you won't be disappointed!

Ghosthunter.

[nearlymint]

For me a big loss as I have customers making parts, the whole thing has
A knock on effect on a lot of areas.
J

[Miller]

nearlymint, i guess, these guys will survive easily, because popularity and worth of the Landy will grow and there will be enough people worldwide to feed costumizers and part suppliers.

I wonder, how long the G-wagon will continue under these circumstances - but there's life in the old dog yet

[daz28]

Sad news . but the old ones will be going long after I am gone I have a few that will keep me going . The new ones don't impress me anyway. not been right since Britain flogged it . Britain needs to pull out of the EU and start making things again. The Great went with all the industry back in the 80s .

[Squid]

Anyone who has never driven a Land Rover of any series...DO SO, you won't be disappointed!

A Landy is on my Powerball lottery win list. They sell for good money, and parts can be hard to come by here in the States. Meanwhile, my 12C will suffice.

Britain needs to pull out of the EU and start making things again. The Great went with all the industry back in the 80s .

And here I thought the original Prince of Darkness (Lucas) was responsible...

[Idris]

Britain needs to pull out of the EU and start making things again.

Britain's membership of the EU has absolutely nothing to do with the weakness of her manufacturing sector. That was destroyed in the 1980s by Thatcher. It is well documented that the 'leave' movement have no real answers when it comes to answering what life would be like outside the EU. The best they can come up with is the Finland model (which is basically still paying lots of money to Brussels but having zero influence).

[daz28]

I never said the EU was the cause its just not helping.
The EU are dictating what we can and cant do. I could be wrong as I don't pay that much attention and probably read to much rubbish . but they said we can't have bent bananas, tried to ban the British sausage, restricting the size of vacuum cleaners we can use, and we have to use them stupid light bulbs that take 3hours to brighten up. and there trying to ban Diesel engines & restrict petrol engines. why is there no ban on Aircraft.
My LWB defender station wagon is now a bus due to stupid regulations and I had a right battle to import my series 3 as vintage
they tried to stop turf cutting in Ireland in some areas.
lucky for the Chinese they don't have to follow the eu rules and make nearly everything even our dicast cars.

[Idris]

...and what is the alternative?
We turned our back on the Commonwealth (absolutely scandalously if you ask me) when we joined the then EEC, so there's no solace there. The Finland option is the same as what we have now but minus any influence on the decision-making process.
That leaves two alternatives:
1) a third-rate country all alone in the cold, grey North Atlantic, or
2) the 51st state of the Union. (After all, we were Ronny Ray Gun's Unsinkable aircraft carrier off the coast of Europe during the Cold War).
It's all well and good complaining about the EU, and I would be the first to agree that it's far from perfect. I lived in The Netherlands for 17 years and witnessed the introduction of the Euro - great for private individuals but, as a concept (monetary union without full fiscal union) regrettably fundamentally flawed. I also have issues with the 'mission creep' we have witnessed over the years, with what started off simply as a trading block (aimed at locking France and Germany together in such a tight economic embrace they would never, ever be able to go to war with each other again) trying to turn itself into a single political entity. (We never voted for that in any referendum.)
It's always easy to find fault with an existing situation. What is harder is to come up with viable alternatives. Cameron would do a lot better to campaign for a wholesale overhaul and rethink of the wider European project (something which would be supported by a number of other countries), than simply tinkering with the minutiae of the nature of the UK's relationship with the EU.
'In' isn't ideal, but it's better than any of the alternatives. (The 'out' camp has yet to give any clear picture of what 'out' would look like.) We can change the EU for the better from within. From without, we'll have no say and will simply pay through the nose for continued access to the European Single Market.

[Idris]

Quite aside from the in/out aspect of the referendum, there are also consequences for the United kingdom as we know it. Have a read of this. (I know it's a longish article, but it is well worth making the effort to get through it.) There is much, much more at stake.
What was that ancient Chinese curse? Oh yes, "May you live in interesting times".