TATA have been looking for an excuse to move production abroad for years, I've had three Range Rovers and at least five Jags, the fact they are made here is very important to me. I will not buy a foreign build Jag or Range Rover - I may as well buy foreign proper and save some money. So, I'm sure there are many people like me..

Good point, our RR was built 5 miles up the road and I know some of the lads who work in the factory. My son was fortunate to get work experience at the plant too.It has the "old" 2.2 diesel lump under the bonnet and has been a good car thus far, but a change in circumstances has had me looking for a replacement, (its coming-up for six years old). The RR petrol engined options are too expensive for what they are (a "boring" old IL4), so I have been looking at other petrol engined marques:

Heart says a 3.0 V6 Porsche Macan, head says a 1.4 Suzuki Vitara!

3 years ago, I was looking for a large premium SUV, I'd have loved to have bought British but couldn't get over the big question mark on Quality and Reliability - things don't seem to have changed much in the 3 years - ALL the surveys can't be wrong.

I fear they may have got worse? Whether this is anecdotal (i.e. the percentages are the same pro-rata) or due to them taking the line "people keep buying them so why should we give a toss" (about quality), its hard to know? It's a crying shame though, but I see it in all types of engineering unfortunately, such is the pressure to get products "to market"!

Heart says a 3.0 V6 Porsche Macan, head says a 1.4 Suzuki Vitara!

So not much difference there then! I love my 1.4 Vitara but hadn't thought of it as a Porsche alternative! You could buy three Vitaras for the price of a Porsche wheelnut or something.

They are both 4WD SUV's Ethan and the similarity probably ends there? The only redeeming feature of the Porsche is the (relatively) low depreciation. :)

You only get one innings in this life however, but my biggest problem is SHMBO doesn't like the look of the Macan, (she much prefers the RRE). Whereas I am trying to justify to myself something with a big grunty petrol engine! On a completely different note I did toy with buying a Jaguar Ipace, but didn't like it when I saw it in the flesh. The JAG sales staff were also particularly hopeless. They wouldn't have managed to sell me one if I'd have had £70K in cash burning a hole in my pocket.

TATA have been looking for an excuse to move production abroad for years, I've had three Range Rovers and at least five Jags, the fact they are made here is very important to me. I will not buy a foreign build Jag or Range Rover - I may as well buy foreign proper and save some money. So, I'm sure there are many people like me..

As ever it’s hard to know the truth, but Brexit provides many companies with a nice excuse for ‘cost cutting’.

" Defender buyers have nothing and it will be interesting to see if the eventual replacement is another lifestyle offering instead or a proper tough durable working vehicle."

The magazines are reporting the replacement is in the £45-70k price range - hardly a working vehicle proposition

Funny though, when the farmers joined the truckers in the fuel protests ("Day of Action" in July/Aug 2000 time), there was a TV documentary made about it and they all turned-up in Range Rovers.

Edited by nick62 on 11/01/2019 at 00:57

It is said to be the best off road vehicle. When it doesn't break down. And comfort isn't bad either.

Who by, one wonders?

There's a world of difference between text book approach/breakover/departure angles and unlimited off road settings tested on a specific off road course at Mira/Millbrook, and one's life depending on a vehicle proving to be a completely dependable basic design when miles from anywhere and anyone else in deteriorating conditions, thankfully not encountered too often in Chelsea or Cheshire.

EU money was used to partly fund moving Ford Transit jobs from the UK to Turkey - and they're not even in the EU! Using our own money to put British people on the dole! Probably some absurd pretence of cutting plant food emissions in the EU or something idiotic like that.

The EIB often provides "cheap" loans - ie disguised grants to projects it favours politically. The Ford "loan" was supposedly such a beast.

This decision was taken by JLR in 2015 and has nothing to do with diesel, China or Brexit. What it is to do with is the £120m provided to assist the transfer. This was ostensibly provided by Slovakia but since they are net recipients of EU funds it is simply the dosh provided by EU donor nations' taxpayers (including the UK) recycled from the "rich" to the "needy". The payment got round EU State AId rules because Slovakia is a poor area whereas Solihull is stinking rich. The EU treats its nation states as a single area and thinks it is quite in order to move jobs from the rich to the poor areas.

The EU whilst considered a Socialist idyll by some is all too often pursuing the agenda of big business. The free movement of labour suits big companies who can create factories where labour is cheap, or bring cheap labour in to existing areas where it would otherwise be expensive. That said, it’ll be interesting to see the long term effects of EU spending in Eastern Europe, given that currently we are taking away their skilled labour. And of course policies towards countries such as Greece are often seen as serving Germany’s interests, not those countries. I suppose you could also see the EU as serving the narrow interests of the senior politicians, whereby they create a powerful entity to further their own careers, with little regard for the effects locally.