I think it would be very subjective and everyone will have there own opinions, just like the discussions over 4x4s. Very nice build quality though and that is worth paying for.
firstlys your brother is a bit of a headbanger behind the wheel, he hearly went faster than me once in you Avon 5.4.
Re the hook problem it can be nasty, however there is a real cool technique which takes the problem away without speed reduction. I can't be arsed to explain it here but I'd be delighted to show you!