;REITABLY TER VALUE
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In CM May 17 T Montery states he is fed up with ling about "smart" transport agers who buy foreign ks.
note he lives in the "Gardhomeland" as I once did. I ted my working life at Gard s factory and it breaks my t to see that company dying for me to be buying Volvos ..ad of the home product. never bought a foreign de prior to my present job the combination of price, ice and parts back-up, onable running costs, reliay and 'fitness for purpose' Ites that I buy what is best :he job in hand and neces • to keep my operation cost eaders of CM four or so 's ago would have seen a if written by me extolling virtues of ERF and Gardand making exactly the e points as Mr Mont gomery. My fleet of that time was standardised on these makes.
Sadly, times change and my attitude has altered because of the type of work my present vehicles need to do.
I really would like to buy ERFs. I still think they are underrated in the market place — a fine British truck: and I admire Peter Foden tremendously for flying the flag against all the odds.
I'll always think Gardner are fantastic engines, but they have always been five years behind the times. They've caught up, • but possibly too late.
The many operators who buy foreign can't all be wrong. When buying, for example, a tractor unit, they are free to spend their £35/40,000 of hard-earned cash on what suits their requirements best.
Most are interested in totallife cost — not up-front price only on maintenance and overhaul costs, but everything from day one to the day it is sold, including residual price.
The art is knowing the optimum life of any make of truck, and when it's your own hardearned money you do your best to get it right.
Foreign vehicles are by no means perfect; but some makes, as a total package, quite often represent the best value for money for the financially hard-pressed operators in the UK.
As a tailpiece, all my lighter HGV vehicles are Bedford, Dodge, Leyland and Ford — over 140 of them, but I wish I had a crystal ball to look five years hence.
Bedford, gone? Dodge-Renaults, imported? Leyland, who knows? Ford-Iveco, made in Italy? Just musing, but maybe I'll even be forced to buy foreign in this sector too, and again not by choice.
J Ashmore Chichester West Sussex
MOVE OVER, REVEREND
• I was interested to read of Rev Geoff Stickland's claim to be the first HGV Class I vicar (CM, May 10) and wish him well in the work for Poland.
Can I perhaps claim to be the first C of E priest with a National CPC obtained by examination?
Or perhaps we should both preach a sermon on Proverbs chapter 16, verse 18*?
D C Warne Peterborough ("pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.")
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