One for Mr Cheerful

What do you get for the "U", especially for the manufacturer of the L200?

There was that too :)

Not sure how many SUV drivers take advantage of that? But yes, there is needed.

120mm sounds quite small - my Audi A3 is 160mm (6.5") - only a couple of inches less than some quite robust 4x4s:

SR NO MODELS OF SUV GROUND CLEARANCE

1. Land Rover LR4 12.2 inches
2. Mercedes-Benz GL-Class 12 inches
3. Land Rover Range Rover 11.63 inches (air suspension)
4. Toyota 4 Runner TRD Pro 11.1 inches
5. Jeep Grand Cherokee 10.8 inches
6. Jeep Wrangler 10.6 inches
7. Nissan Xterra 9.1 inches
8. Toyota Land Cruiser / 2015 Lexus LX 570 8.9 inches
9. Jeep Cherokee 8.7 inches
10. Subaru Forester / 2015 Subaru Outback / 2015 Subaru XV Crosstrek 8.7 inches
11. Toyota Fortuner 8.66 inches
12. Ford Endeavour 8.27 Inches
13. Tata safari 8.07 Inches
14. Renault Duster 8.07 Inches
15. Nissan Terrano 8.07 Inches
16. Fiat Avventura 8.07 Inches
17. Mahindra xuv 5oo 7.87 Inches
18. Mahindra Thar 7.87 Inches
19. Ford Ecosport 7.87 Inches
20. Mahindra Bolero 7.68 Inches
21. Mahindra Tuv3oo 7.52 Inches
22. Mahindra Scorpio 7.09 Inches

(copied due to some quite odd pop-ups)

Well I had a VLSD roller tested last week. I told them it has a VLSD on the online booking.

All down to American taxation rules I believe. Utility vehicles attract a lower rate of tax than cars and ?sportifying? them didn?t affect the taxation.

Tim

Think in some US states, it is based on either vehicle value or weight. With commercial vehicles exempt. Hence the popularity of the pickup truck. In the same way as Mini vans were used as cars in the UK purchase tax days.

But it was more to do with national fuel consumption. Makers had to meet an average for all their cars. But commercial vehicles were excluded.

All very logical. Swap your gas guzzling V8 car for an even thirstier V8 truck and you're saving the planet.

Not dissimilar to the advantageous VAT treatment of big pickup (at least

1 ton load capacity) here.

The modern big Range Rover ground clearance seems quite low, visually at least. But that may be because it has air suspension which could raise the car?

The Mini Paceman is the lowest height to roof SUV I've spotted, hardly higher than some medium hatchback cars.

H1 Hummer 16 inches ground clearance

Just found this:

Mini Paceman height 1.518m (59.8 in) Honda Jazz height 1.525m (60.0 in)

All I know is that on at least two occasions my Skoda Octavia Estate has grounded on local roads. My daughter is thinking of buying a Mini and I have discussed the clearance with her as, on both occasions, I was taking her to a business meeting. Once on a farm road, once a public road. I understand the ground clearances are:

Mini 5.31 inches Octavia 6.1 inches

For the record, My old Range Rover has a suspension that can go up to "high" and, if at this stage it sits on a rock, it is supposed too go automatically to an extended high mode. I have never tried this.

Ground clearance (or the lack thereof) can be a serious problem for electric cars. As Tesla has added an expensive Titanium shield under their cars. However, not sure if this is still done by Tesla?

Or the BIK advantage if you can have one as a company car.

Even though I work for an oil company, we have CO2 targets for the company fleet - meaning we can't take advantage of the crew-cab pickup loophole to get cheap BIK tax. Shame, as I really fancied a fully loaded Amarok Highline.

It wasn't a ground clearance issue. It was road debris that got thrown up off the front wheel and punctured the battery tray and a battery. Anyone unobservant can drive over anything and cause major damage.

Similar to Concorde?

Not so easy to swerve in an aeroplane I guess. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

Which is why airports have runway inspections. But I don't think runways are routinely inspected after every flight ...

Part of Concorde pre-flight is a full runway inspection, that was not done, probably because the flight had already been delayed by an hour. (interesting side note, one of my sisters was a Concorde navigator)

I believe you are right (but I'll ask my ATC nephew). ;-)

Cheers, T i m

And wasn't it a poor repair on an engine cowling from something else that got flicked up?

Cool. I bet that was an interesting role.

That said, nephew is an ATC at a medium sized (commercial) airport and I wonder how much of it (hopefully?) is like being a (high profile) minicab controller?

Nice position with good pay but I'm not sure I'd want to do it, even if I could (and that's not just the shift working)? ;-(

Cheers, T i m