I saw a Hummer today!

[billyskank]

In England!!

:freak:

[mdmc]

1. do people gawk?

is it tacky?

[billyskank]

5. I don't know whether they gawk because

it's so rare I've only ever seen two. I was driving myself and it was out on a country road.

It just sticks out like a sore thumb. Our cars are WAY smaller than yours - cars don't generally come any bigger than a Volvo, and we don't have any of those fucked-up pickup trucks that you have. Pickup trucks on our roads come no bigger than a Mitsubishi Warrior.

There are a number of roads in my town where you couldn't get two Hummers down side by side.

[MissHoneychurch]

2. It must tough driving in a normal car in all that rural England

:rofl:

And imagine how hard it is to get around in *GASP* Scotland!!!

[billyskank]

6. Fortunately the government has been foresighted

and they have covered the country in a network of smooth tarmac strips. Consequently, getting about in cars is quite easy. :7

[In_The_Wind]

3. Was it a beautiful hummingbird or an ugly hum-v?

Why would anyone need 4WD in England?

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

4. Even if someone needs 4WD, they still don't need a hummer.

There is no legitimate reason for them. Hell, except for the military ones, they're not even good for off-roading.

[In_The_Wind]

11. I love my little 4 cylinder 4WD Chevy Tracker.

[billyskank]

7. There was nothing beautiful about it

The only people who need 4x4s are farmers. And then a nice sensible Land Rover would be a better choice.

[In_The_Wind]

13. I drove a Land Rover many years ago while I was learning about NYC.

It was a no frills ride that was easy for me to repair myself back when I was still getting grease under my nails.

[billyskank]

14. They've got flashier since then, of course

I'm not sure if you can get anything like the plain old Land Rover Discovery workhorse any more. Shame. The Range Rover is, if anything, the Hummer of Britain's roads. Often driven by maniacs on the motorways, too. The Land Rover Freelander is nice, though.

[In_The_Wind]

15. I remember a dock strike when my fuel pump broke. So ... I sat on

the engine block while we were replacing the diaphragm gasket. I was covered in oil by the time we were done. It was almost as funny as my black freckles the time I was laying under the car changing its starter.

[ForrestGump]

22. The old Land Rovers were/are workhorses

that're basically indestructible. I've been in plenty that were held together by bits of baling wire and the like and still would drive through anything. The new ones, though, seem like pieces of crap. I drove a relative's Discovery (the newfangled one that became trendy and overpriced here in the US a while ago -- this relative lived in Beverly Hills and there was no earthly reason why she needed a 4WD vehicle) and hated it -- total dead loss as a car, very uncomfortable, handled terribly, and generally seemed like a piece of junk (it was...she ended up hating the thing, too).

A few years earlier I'd used a similarly new Land Rover in one of my tropical research sites and it proved itself unable to handle even a badly rutted mud track, let alone the sorts of things that the old Land Rovers used to handle without even wincing. It was a beautiful, new vehicle but it was all style and no substance -- a poseur of a 4WD vehicle, nothing like the old Land Rovers. It was a gift from the European Union, so the facility I was with appreciated the gesture but never used the thing for any rough work...used it to go to town along a paved road, because that's about all it was good for. The one time we took it out we not only almost fell off a mountan because the thing couldn't grip the ground right (and what a sloooowwww trip that was) but various pieces of the plushly-appointed interor fell off. We ended up ditching it in favor of the ubiquitous Land Cruisers (this facility had several, as did the UN and other missions in the area...Landcruisers and little Subarus were the usual 4WD vehicles thereabouts), for my money the only real Land Rover-y kind of vehicle out there these days. The Land Cruiser has been the favored mount of farmers and explorers/scientists for decades now. I'm talking about the utilitarian Toyota Land Cruiser, a beast that I wonder is perhaps only still sold new in countries where they're used for their intended purpose. There seem to be parallel product lines of Land Cruisers available around the world: today's American Land Cruisers are undoubtedly excellent cars, but they're very luxurious and obviously sold to the same market of people who really do not need a 4WD vehicle (I think they're larger, too, and their lines are less angular -- they're luxury cars, all the way, leather interior and all).

LandCruisers rule! The real ones, I mean...

[Writer]

8. Billyskank...

Are you English or American, living over there?

[billyskank]

9. I'm native English

:hi:

[Writer]

10. Okay... hello, there!

Wish I were living there, frankly. :)

[billyskank]

12. You should come over for a visit

:)

[Writer]

18. You know, I just might someday...

I'll need to drug myself for the plane trip over, but maybe someday soon.

[billyskank]

19. Like B.A. Baracas?

Ain't gettin' in no plane, Hannibal! :D

[Debi]

16. How much did it cost?

:blush:

Is this a sex thread?

[billyskank]

17. Not a sex thread

A stupid car thread. :)

[Neoma]

20. Did you flip them off?

I do.

[billyskank]

21. No, I was too busy calling him a wanker

:rofl:

[Deja Q]

23. Hmmm, a wanking hummer...

Or is it a humming wanker?

:spray: