Reader Letters: Brexit cars, HGV manners and incomprehensible faults

The worst of British
The Land Rover Defender, reviewed by you last month (“As modern as scurvy but still the coolest”, July 31), is pure Brexit: plodding old Britain, with dullness as a badge of honour and lack of any material comfort as a reassurance to people who don’t like sex or garlic and usually prefer their dogs to other human beings.
Michael Limb, Calonge, Spain

Eighties revival
Like Richard Porter, I own a Land Rover Defender 90. Unlike him, however, I have noticed that it does not date from the 1950s — it dates from the early 1980s. It is the superficially similar “Series” Land Rovers that are true 1950s vehicles; the Defender shares much of the chassis and bolted-together aluminium bodywork, but the steering, suspension, brakes, axles, transmission and engine are quite different.
Matthew Keith, Hatley, Cambridgeshire

Heavy fire
Reading the letter from Alan Porteous on HGV drivers and their use of indicators (“Missing blink”, Letters, July 31), I was reminded of an altercation between my late father, an HGV driver, and a west London mother doing the school run. When he remonstrated with her for having double-parked and then left her Chelsea tractor blocking the road, she opined: “All HGVs should be banned from central London.” He hated driving in the capital and responded: “I couldn’t agree more. But when your house is burning down, do bear in mind that my vehicle is the same width as a fire engine.”
Toni Woodger, Rochester

Browse NEW or USED cars for sale on driving.co.uk

Courtesy call
Alan Porteous is right: we should all be more tolerant of the drivers of heavy lorries using their indicators as a “statement of intent”. That said, wouldn’t it be nice if we then received some thanks as we let HGV drivers pull out into our lane?
Richard Burke, Hardingham, Norfolk

Getting technical
Andrew Buley complains about the terminology used by Volkswagen for an upgrade to his car (“Transparently incomprehensible”, Letters, July 24). An “internal gateway software update” is, I suspect, an attempt to sound technical when all it really means is that the engine control unit has been tweaked. My Passat estate was reprogrammed several weeks ago and the engine has become noticeably quieter and smoother, without the loss of urgency. Fuel consumption has also improved.
Andrew Woodthorpe, Harrogate

Contact us
Email letters for publication to driving@sunday-times.co.uk, or write to Driving, The Sunday Times, 1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF, including your name, address and phone number. Letters may be edited. Send your motoring queries to carclinic@sunday-times.co.uk