"It’s meant to be capable of surviving the Serengeti, but mine can’t even get across Surrey.”

So writes a friend from the side of the road, watching his Land Rover Defender depart on a flatbed truck, ruing with quite some fury the £10,000 premium that he paid to a main dealer in September in order to jump the queue to buy one of the world’s most desirable cars.

At this point, I suspect you will be feeling two emotions. One of disbelief that anyone could buy a Land Rover expecting it to be reliable and the other involving a violin and a bleeding heart.