Share your tales of snow

Is it snowing in your part of the world today? If so, share your pictures and tell us how your Land Rover made your life easier while the two-wheel-drive world ground to a halt!
There's four ways to share, quickly and easily.

• Post a comment below (click on 'comments' and just type in your story - it'll be there for all to read)
  
• Send a picture by email. Use the following address and it'll be published direct on to this blog as a post: hold58steps2blog@photos.flickr.com What ever you add in the body of your email will be published with the picture - so tell us a bit about who took the picture and what it is showing. If you camera phone has an email function you can send it direct to this blog from your mobile. nb There may be data transfer charges by your network provider for this. Keep the image small and the cost will be low.



• If you find it easier to simply send an MMS (a picture on a text message) send it to 07736353590. This is the slowest option because it does not publish direct to the blog.


• Or just send an email to david.cushman@emap.com with your image attached. less than 512kb a pic please.

Land Rover Owner reserves the right to edit or remove contributions.

Land Rover is doing it's bit. The company said yesterday: "Land Rover is on standby to offer the services of up to 100 vehicles and their off-road experts, following extreme weather warnings for central and north-west areas of the UK.

"As in previous years, all 10 Land Rover Experience centres in the UK will be available tomorrow (Thursday) to assist the local emergency services - including highway patrols, fire services and local police forces – helping people get home safely. They will also help to recover vehicles broken down in the bad weather and vehicles involved in road traffic accidents.

"John Edwards, Land Rover UK managing director commented: "Year after year Land Rover has assisted local authorities in severe weather and emergency situations. With such an extreme forecast for the next few days, we've assured them that our vehicles will once again be available should they need them."

"Land Rover UK has also this afternoon (Wednesday) dispatched a fleet of vehicles from their head office in Warwickshire, to support police forces in the West Midlands, Warwickshire, Northamptonshire and West Mercia areas.

"Land Rovers have a towing capability of up to 3.5 tonnes, permanent four-wheel drive and advanced off-road technology such as Terrain Response™. This includes a snow setting to utilise the vehicle's electronic controls and traction aids in slippery and treacherous conditions.
Land Rover Experience Centres offer a variety of courses and training to teach safe and responsible off-road driving skills."

Anti 4x4 brigade issue fake parking tickets

Land Rover owners in the west country are returning to their vehicles to find mock parking tickets plastered with a, 'Poor Vehicle Choice' anti-4x4 message.
The mock tickets are being planted by a new pressure group The Bristol Alliance Against Urban 4x4s. According to the BBC (here for the full story ) the campaigners say 4x4s are 'polluting and dangerous' in cities.
The group says it is targeting 4x4s because it claims they are often greater in both weight and height.

Land Rover reliability takes a knock

Land Rover's reputation for reliability has taken another knock with the publishing of a survey by Warranty Direct. It says that 44.21% of Land Rovers in their survey had some form of break down in a 12 month period.
That compares with just over 8% for the best-rated manufacturer Mazda.
Audi has nothing to shout about either with a 36.74% break-down rate.
Jeep did worse than Land Rover with 46.36% running into trouble within a year.
Warranty Direct say the figures refer to vehicles between three and nine years old and for which theyve sold warranties. There is no information on whether or not more of the Land Rovers in the survey were closer to nine years old compared to the Mazdas!

Land Rover maps out quicker, cheaper navigation

Land Rover's New Year resolution is to make it easier for owners to get 2007 off to a fresh start with the latest satellite maps.
Drivers can now order navigation system map updates through a new online facility and by selling direct to customers, many disks can be offered at less than half the original price.
Traditionally, update CDs and DVDs have been sold through Land Rover dealers, however, Phil Popham, Land Rover MD, says, "As a company we embrace the use of technology to develop the ownership experience and this is clearly demonstrated with this new facility. The ability to obtain the latest map information on-line gives our customers a simple, cost effective method of keeping their navigation systems updated."
The new page for ordering map updates is now online at www.navigation.com/landrover
The new system, which replaces existing sources, is easy to use. Once the car model and year of manufacture have been entered, the right disk or package of disks for that system will automatically be identified map disks and navigation systems are not standard across all Land Rover models.
There are three different navigation systems currently in use in Land Rover vehicles and NAVTEQ maps are available for all of them. For example, depending on the system, there is a four CD pack covering over 20 countries in Western Europe and some major roads in Eastern Europe which covers around 5.9 million kilometres of road and features over 490,000 points of interest. It also includes Traffic Message Channel codes on motorways in Austria, Denmark, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland.
Again depending on the vehicle model, there are also CDs for individual countries and a pan-European DVD which features around four million kilometres of road and enough maps on one disk to guide drivers from the wilderness of Scotland to the French Riviera and from the fjords of Norway to the tip of Italy.Visitors to the site will also be able to access a range of information on mapping including the details on how much new information has been added to the disks for example NAVTEQ has added nearly 200,000 kilometres and over 50,000 points of interest to the pan-European DVD since the last Land Rover release