[roundbuilder]

That is still verey good going. A Verey succesful business you have grown over 12 years.

[Carl2009]

Soapy - Why Landies - terrain, USP? Can't imaging fuel efficiency would be good...?

[roundbuilder]

Soapy - Why Landies - terrain, USP? Can't imaging fuel efficiency would be good...?

I doubt he cares with a 3000 customer base. Id imagine having defenders is a plus for company image too as its so different.

[formb]

Soapy - Why Landies - terrain, USP? Can't imaging fuel efficiency would be good...?

We went for them initially because we had 5 series 3 land rovers which were easy to fix and much hardier than the merc and escort vans we were using previously. The td5s we use now are not so straightforward but they are solid as a rock.

I doubt he cares with a 3000 customer base. Id imagine having defenders is a plus for company image too as its so different.

Fuel is our second highest outgoing next to wages. I'd like to get the bill down but as you pointed out the Land Rovers are now integral to our branding. No danger I would swap them for vans.

[Carl2009]

Mick - When you say he doubts he worries this type of belief is ill-founded. Assuming that (in this case) because he's got 3000 custies he can afford to wear a high fuel bill, well he can't, as he indicates in his reply to me. If he has 300 or 3000 custies he'd have to watch the pennies just the same - Soapies variable costs will increase exponentially the more custies he has.

In his case, his Land Rover branding is worth the cost of the extra fuel he spends in running them instead of vans. He's a businessman and if he felt he would make an appreciable saving in switching back to vans (when fuel, branding, maintenance was taken into account) i'm guessing he'd switch back. He doesn't because it's worth sticking with the Landies.

I don't mean to speak for you Soapy. Let me know if I have an of this wrong.

[formb]

Mick - When you say he doubts he worries this type of belief is ill-founded. Assuming that (in this case) because he's got 3000 custies he can afford to wear a high fuel bill, well he can't, as he indicates in his reply to me. If he has 300 or 3000 custies he'd have to watch the pennies just the same - Soapies variable costs will increase exponentially the more custies he has.

In his case, his Land Rover branding is worth the cost of the extra fuel he spends in running them instead of vans. He's a businessman and if he felt he would make an appreciable saving in switching back to vans (when fuel, branding, maintenance was taken into account) i'm guessing he'd switch back. He doesn't because it's worth sticking with the Landies.

I don't mean to speak for you Soapy. Let me know if I have an of this wrong.

Not at all, I agree with everything you have said.

As far as the money side of it goes another advantage of the Land Rovers is that they seem to hold their value much better than vans do. I started out on Land Rovers with series 3s. I have sold them all but 1 now (the first and my personal one) and I got at least 2X what I paid for them 3X in 2 cases.

I doubt I'll do quite so well with the td5s but I did pay considerably more for those in the first place.