Recently, my espresso machine extracted a little bit of maintenance budget from me. The pressurestat (like a thermostat, but runs off boiler steam pressure rather than temperature) had developed a slow leak, resulting in a periodic puff-of-steam sound as a drip of water hit a steam filled pipe.

To be fair, this was the first repair of the year for 2018 (except for things like group head gasket replacements which one expects every six months or so like clockwork), so $110 for a new pressurestat, and while I've got it apart why not drop another $12 or so for a boiler water tap rebuild kit? Hardly expensive for an annual repair bill.

In the wake of this exercise Tan posed the question "If your espresso machine was a used car, what would it be?"

My initial response was that it was an old air cooled VW, but that didn't quite match up.

Upon reflection, I realized the answer is clearly "a Series Land Rover".

• The parts are readily available in the US, albeit from a relatively small number of vendors who will go out of their way to help you.

• None of the aforementioned vendors are located anywhere near you, so brace yourself for shipping charges if you want it fast.

• Many of the fittings on it are stuff that is uncommon in the US.

• Online forums are often your best source of advice.

• It generally works and gets the job done even when it's ailing in some way or overdue for maintenance.

• Literally every problem that I've had with it has been related to things that are supposed to seal tightly dripping.