You can hire at Britz 4x4 rentals. See www.britz.co.za

Hi Tim,

My wife and I recently hired a landy from this outfit. The vehicle arrived at my hotel on time and the driver immediately drew my attention to the terribly worn tyres. He then asked us to replace the tyres enroute, when we refused he took the vehicle away and returned several hours later having changed one of the spares with an incorrectly sized tyre. As we were already desperately late we reluctantly accepted the vehicle. We later discovered that the handbrake didn't work and that several pieces of equipment were broken. On complaining to the company I was told by Mike Rideout that it was the fault of staff in Joburg who he has since dismissed. I strongly suspect that this is a scam. Tourists are given vehicles in such poor condition that they feel that they must do something for their own safety. The company gets your rental money + free maintenance.

Dave Beresford   davidberesford@dsl.pipex.com

It is quite sad to see all these negative comments about my younger brother, Mike Rideout. Sadly he was killed on Oct 23rd while taking a vehicle from Cape Town to Malawi so that it would be ready for a hire. What you probably do not know is that he had previously been seriously injured in a horse riding accident back in June 2006 when he was thrown onto the road and fractured his skull. Despite four days in a coma he recovered, but was not really quite the same afterwards. He recognised that he could no longer cope with the very stressful and demanding 4x4 business, so it had in fact been up for sale for quite a long time. The recession meant it was a very difficult time to sell a company. However when he died the business was in fact at last getting close to being sold, which would have allowed him to concentrate on his own health and his wife Travis and three young children. Although he did not want to make the trip to Malawi, nobody else was available on the day and as always Mike stepped into the breach. He ran off the road and hit a large tree just outside Windhoek for reasons unknown.

When I say stressful, then that is the way it seemed to me - try getting a call at 6pm on a Saturday from somebody outside Upington who tells you he has just rolled your new LandRover on a straight tarred road with no traffic and who is demanding an immediate replacement!

Timothy Rideout