As we have discussed many times, there is a strong tradition of naming your Land Rover. Every Land Rover I have ever owned has had a name. Some, I selected by myself, others by the family but when it comes to Eeyore my 100” pick up the name came with the Landy. He was called Eeyore due to his grey paint work, which in turn was selected as this was the colour of the Land Rover, he was built to be a homage of.

Now for those who are familiar with Winne the Pooh tales, Eeyore is the name of a particular grumpy Donkey. And there, I believe, is the start of my problem. In the same way that people say pets start to become like their owners, do Land Rovers start to take on the persona of their name?

Eeyore has always been a temperamental old hector. He has been taken to many different garages to try to sort him out over the years for example, but my recent experience has convinced me he has become an Eeyore, and by that, I mean a grumpy Donkey.

He has always had an issue starting, but on the last greenlaning trip he refused to start when hot. Full stop. Nothing. You may have read about it in a previous edition of the e-Zine. So, in my frustration I took him to a garage to finally get him sorted, and a short time later I had a phone call saying he was all fixed. He had been tested, having been started both hot and cold.

I went with the trailer to collect him, and sure enough he fired straight up when I went to load him onto the trailer. Good stuff I thought. He then fired straight up when I came to unload him from the trailer. Excellent. But then when I came to start him to shuffle the cars around, he refused to start again. And I mean totally refused to start. Almost flattening the battery by cranking refused to start. I put the battery on charged and tinkered in my garage and had another go. Eventually he coughed into life but wasn’t sounding so happy. Popping and banging he went. He was having a right old strop, then a couple of loud backfires later, he started to run properly. I turned him off, waited a minute then started him up again. I then waiting for the engine to get warm, turned him off, then tried to start him up again. First turn of the key and the 8 cylinders roared in good health. Go figure.

Now the more logically minded may suggest a bit of crap had got into the fuel system during his transit and after it had cleared all was well, but to me no. He was reminding me that he needs to be loved, cared for and driven. He’s a grumpy Donkey and needs TLC. Fingers crossed he keeps behaving himself, as I have plans to get him out and about this year. You never know, you may see him on a Land Rover Life club stand! So, there you have it. Be warned. When naming your Land Rover be wary. It may take on the persona of that name so choose wisely!