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I would have expected Tata to have already taken the rules of origin into account when they are alledged to have granted production space to Chery at their factory, and if such a thing ever takes place, it would surprise me that job creation would be minimal, as they are most likely to be built by JLRs own staff alongside their own cars. It will either way, all come out in the wash as my mum used to say. I know what you mean about the video, it certainly was not the most polished production at all, loads of AI imagary and the fact that he kept calling Bedford as Bedfordshire, which is not a town but a county, but hey ho, it is what it is.

'call me Dave' Cameron. The PM back in 2016. This is the stuff you get with films like this. Find pictures any pictures.

Rules of origin are quite involved and if Chery are just screwing a few big bits together the cars will not count as UK origin and not entitled to go to European mainland without paying duty. I was auditing at our Hailwood warehouse as well as Midlands ones that supply Solihull and Wolverhampton and there is lots of non UK and non European major parts going into JLR cars but if this is a virtual whole Chinese kit being put together here in the UK, or in the Slovak JLR factories then the origin to have preferential status or even avoid penalties for being Chinese will be quite a calculation and planning. Did watch most of the video, did have a speculative feel about it. Hope we get some UK jobs from such operations. More interested to see how the £4B Tata battery factory in Somerset gets along. UK needs to be more proactive in customs duty so China, India etc are forced to add at least half the value of these cars in the UK IMO.

Have you confirmed that the sunroof drains are running freely, to outside the car and cabin? As Warrior has said, the door seals were a known issue in early years - my then 2015 vRS was an affected car ( where the door seal prevented the doors from being able to drain properly). Gaz

@lol-lol I take it that you never watched the video then? Nobody mentioned importing these Freelanders; the makers (Chery, 50% owned by Tata, who own JLR) are highly likely, as explained in the video, to be making these cars here in the UK, either at JLR or Nissan, where they already have agreements to make cars in those factories and our government is supposed to be in on the deal. This might well be total BS; only time will tell us which it is, but the Freelander is designed in the UK by staff employed by JLR at their design centre, so again, make of that what you will. I have long said that many of the vloggers are ahead of the game, as they cannot be told what they can and can't report on, unlike the mainstream news channels. As always, there are 2 sides to things, and one will be proven to be right at the end. It never hurts to be aware of the other side of things, does it? With Jaecoo being 50% Tata owned, then they will be still getting income from every Jaecoo sold and not having to build them and there is no denying that their sales are growing in the UK in all traction varients.

Dont think that £37k includes the shipping cost or 10% customs duty on the import value ie item cost plus shipping and 10% of that total. Perhaps EU and UK need to whack Anti Dumping and or Countervailing duty on hybrids as well as EVs from China. Dont think that £37k includes the shipping cost or 10% customs duty on the import value ie item cost plus shipping and 10% of that total. Perhaps EU and UK need to whack Anti Dumping and or Countervailing duty on hybrids as well as EVs from China.

Have you checked both rear doors to confirm they aren't full of rainwater? The drain holes in the lower seal can be prone to blockage, allowing the door cavity to fill, especially the LH rear door. Mine has never got to the point of flooding into the car itself, but there has been quite a lot of water inside the door on several occasions. I think I've seen mentions of there also being rear drains on the sunroof - have you checked for that?

Fancy a Freelander, electric with 818 hp for £37,000, complete with a 46" screen on the dashboard? Then you need to watch this video, and it also helps to explain just why and how the Jaecoo looks like a knock-off Range Rover.

Look for an independent who specialises in VAG motors, there are some out there who can service your vehicle and update the service log just as the dealership would

@MarioVrs your looks different to one which i installed on my previous FWD car

Very nice job there, and a very tempting mod to do to mine at some point too. I also need to find time to strip down my wing mirrors as I have the uprated downlights to fit to them, to replace the not very bright factory ones.

Umm. This statement is the answer. Wrong part number for the car, therefore don't fit!

Sounds as though your Skoda experience has been sustained and good. Hope you don’t turn your wife to drink. Or I you’ll lose that lift (Only joking!)

Howdy ! Octavia mk3 vrs estate w sunroof 2nd day in a row (very heavy rain last night) Found this mess 2 days ago. Rug doctor sucked most of it up,wetter in the back. Thought it would be all dried out today when I went to put the mats back in. Even worse! Things I’ve done the other day - Poured boiling water n fairy down the small sunroof holes,a curtain wire down both too, Removed the glove box and pollen filter is bone dry Lifted the scuttle panel on the windscreen passenger side,poked where the sunroof channel ends inside scuttle panel,no debris I can see. Antifreeze level a bit low but normal. Heavy heavy rain last night, didn’t drive the car for days so it’s a coming from upstairs issue. Now parked up on the kerb with both psssenger wheels on kerb. Another 3 full Rug Doctor wet vac containers of water sucked up again today. Any thoughts please ? Thank you

Well - I concluded that it hadn't come from anywhere... maybe it was just debris lodged in the side of trim somewhere. The trim is now re-fitted and everything is working. I didn't dare lever out that top trim panel to get at the connector as that probably would mean breaking the tabs it has under the trim section below it... so I sort of followed the manual and removed luggage bar, lock cover(tailgate sill), Varioflex seats and the fibre board floor covering under them, and boot floor, lower C-panel trim, then the upper side trim. FInally that let me lever out the trim panel hiding the connector - I didn't remove it from the roof as wasn't sure how easy that would be to push back in.

Hi everyone i have a fairly new skoda octavia 2025 tsi 1.5 manual the fault is it cuts out at trafic lights or braking at slow revs sometimes and takes a few goes to restart the dealer says they cant see a fault code has anyone else had this problem ? i usually use auto hold for stopping and disable start stop.

I think I have come across that type of diesel fuel before, is it almost like treacle, black and really thick. The boilers at the bus station where I did my training had 2 boilers which used fuel like that and stank horribly. Each boiler had a preheat chamber (electrical) to heat and thus thin the fuel so that it could be pumped into the burner and ignited. Back in the 60s and 70s, when the UK was experiencing massive power cuts, we had to hire a couple of diesel-powered generators from a showman (mobile fair ground operator). One big one to power strings of 110V lamps we had to string everywhere for public safety, etc., and a smaller one just to mainly operate the boilers and the preheaters in order to provide adequate heating. The fuel tank for the boilers was underground at one level, and the boilers themselves were at an even lower level in order for this treacle-like fuel to exit the road tankers and also to flow from the storage tank to the boilers, where the heaters were laid out on the floor in front of the boilers.

I think we may have fixed the rattle! It seems the metal mount that the rear of the airbox sits on didnt have any damping material on it, mixed with the airbox's grommet being worn down meant that when i was accelerating swiftly, it was pushed onto the metal and the vibrations came onto the cabin, also some part of the intake hose connector was wobbling, perhaps the plastic clip had worn down, so we secured that as well we put some foam on the mount and so far it seems to have worked!

Dusan did you manage to solve the sos problem. I am wondering if all things work. Lane assist, front assist,... Start stop, service indicator, tyre pressure? The chinese seller said to me that parking sensors will not work. I am considering to buy one unit.

Great discussion! The information about compatible VAG steering racks is really helpful.

My 2014 Superb 4x4 3.6 estate makes an odd 'harmonic' type 'veroom' at around 65 - 75 mph (indicated). It's like that sound you get when slowly overtaking a truck and engine revs are almost the same as the truck's. In a previous life I used to often drive boats with two big outboard engines. We'd use this noise to sync the engines, which was more accurate than using the tachometers or just putting the throttle levers in the same place. When the revs were the same on both engines, the noise ceased. I'm getting the same on the car, it's not at all loud or intrusive. The 'veroom veroom' is very low frequency, with a 'veroom' per half second or so. I can't pinpoint it being front or rear or both. It is definitely road speed and not engine speed, as I have held it in 5th and even 4th, and the sound's exactly the same. I even got it up to the higher speed where it happens and put the car in neutral and let it slow down to the lower speed, and it was the same. The car's just passed an MOT with no advisories, but I don't know how much they look at the drive train other than for leaks or things falling off etc. I changed the transmission oil and filter about a year ago and also the Haldex oil/filter and the diff oil both ends (the old oils were old but not horrible) - 6,000 miles since then. There is possibly excessive lash at the rear diff as it is a little bit 'clonky' when taking up the slack at slow speed. Anyone experienced this or have any ideas as to where I should start looking? (Thanks in advance!)

Just reread your OP, sorry Question, why are you using USB when the 2026 has wireless AAuto, mine does. and as Berisford said earlier, you may have Waze quite clear on the centre screen, doing as it should, but the cockpit screen only shows the the Skoda map, which does not get any info from AAuto. When I start Waze the cockpit automatically switches to a map, the Skoda map, you need to press a steering wheel button to hide it.

Maritime is a tough one in that we would sail for a month some times without refuelling and then if somewhere not cheap we would only bunker half fuel to await docking at somewhere with cheap fuel, use to be the Persian Gulf but go in there are you may not be able to get out for months. Whilst the main engine is diesel strictly speaking we are not burning diesel fuel as most know it. We burn Residual fuel in a massive diesel engine with bores of circa 1m and strokes of 2m or so. The fuel is thd crap left when all thd good stuff, kerosene, petrol and normal diesel has been removed. It's thickness is so bad it is closer to water in Specefic Gravity than normal diesel. We have to heat it to 100 C just to pump it and we centrifuge it ourselves to remove some nasties then we feed it to the injectors which are also tens of times bigger than car ones. At least the oil industry has somewhere to send this crap fuel but even the CMA, Maersk, MSC etc are trying to get away from diesel and move to LNG but we will also probably see nuclear powered merchant ships coming along soon in numbers. My apprenticeship in marine engineering covered diesel and steam, including super heated steam we would make from the main diesel engine exhaust stack, most efficient ICE on the planet bar none I understand ie well over 50% thermal efficient abd running on crap that cost $100 a tonne. Did not really expect to see nuclear become mainstream in merchant navies. Around the generator set than ran off the super heated steam from the diesel exhaust were lines or daisy chained paper figures which might indicate a super heated steam leak which you would not see as you can only see steam once it starts to condensate. Also banned was whistling ad that was the other clue to super heated steam leak. That coukd earn you a spanner, large one, whacking you on the nack of your head. Strategic reserves are at an all time low so even if Middle East Gulf resumed output in a few months the reserves need refilling so diesel and petrol prices are not coming down until well into next year at the earliest. I predict that the UK government will reduce the Excise tax from 52.95p per litre by about 4.2 p per litre so it should come down by about 5p a litre but as we know oil companies, and energy companies, just appear to soak up any reductions and add it to their profits !!!

Isn't that perfect storm likely to be one where the planet is awash with these hydrocarbons? Martime uses will never be able to use that amount of diesel, especially when many people/bodies/governments are all pushing for more and more electric transport, which also includes shipping and flights?