Love them, I have been driving different series and Defender Land Rovers, since 1986. All of them have worked hard with no serious mechanical issues, cheap to run with plentiful aftermarket parts suppliers and I have made a profit on the ones that I have sold.
Ha! the LandRover: It had its good points - e.g., no rust. Good gearbox. Handling was very good for a high ground-clearance bush-basher 4-wheel drive. When it came out it pretty much had the market for itself. But when the Toyota Landcruiser came out with a four-speed gearbox, it was clearly very much better and LandRover sales dropped way down. We have a lot of sand in Australia. The LandRover didn't have enough power for sand, even with the larger engine, so you had to go in first gear, wasting too much time. There was a six-cylinder option, but it didn't seem to have any more power than the 4-cyl engine. A company I once worked for did a lot of remote work and had a fleet of LandRovers. Typical of British products, the quality was none too good. I remember going to pick up a brand new Rover from the dealer, and it had about a 15 degree lean, because the factory had fitted incorrect or defective springs on one side. The aluminium body was not strong enough for seat belts, so Rover anchored the sash upper mount on a steel member below shoulder height, rendering it useless. Noise and vibration at highway speeds was terrific. Rover engines when hot would keep going after you turned the ignition off. Company policy was to select top gear, apply brakes, and let out the clutch, thereby stalling the engine. However I discovered that you could stall it just by suddenly flooring the accelerator. Broken differentials were not unusual. I remember having to drive a company LandRover 600 km back to civilisation on the highway on the front diff because the rear diff had failed. There was no air choke on the carby. Instead, pulling out the "Cold Start" control activated an extra jet. The engine would always start, but in temperatures at or below freezing it could take a while. You needed to always be sure to have a healthy battery before going out in the desert. In theory you could start it with crank handle, but without a choke, you would not succeed in low temperatures. When the Rover engines wore out, they were way too expensive to rebuild, so a popular option was to buy a rebuilt Holden Red motor (6 cylinder) and fit that instead. A couple of companies made adapters so you could attach the Rover gearbox to the Holden engine. The Holden engine gave greater power AND better fuel consumption! Those Rover engines sure were inefficient and thirsty! After some driver complaints about the seatbelts and a few other things, the company wrote to Rover in England suggesting some improvements. The reply from Rover essentially said "if you don't like our LandRover, buy something else." So we switched to Toyotas. The early Toyota Land cruiser had only a 3-speed transmission. We told Toyota that wasn't good enough. They switched to 4-speed. And you could travel in second gear in sand where the Rover needed first gear, so you got to where you wanted about three times as fast..
Love them, I have been driving different series and Defender Land Rovers, since 1986. All of them have worked hard with no serious mechanical issues, cheap to run with plentiful aftermarket parts suppliers and I have made a profit on the ones that I have sold.
Good for you sir 😊😊
Well said
I wish I had not sold mine😮
@@RobertGott-c3f All good. Do yourself a favour and buy another one ............. after all, we're all a long time dead!😉
Ha! the LandRover: It had its good points - e.g., no rust. Good gearbox. Handling was very good for a high ground-clearance bush-basher 4-wheel drive. When it came out it pretty much had the market for itself. But when the Toyota Landcruiser came out with a four-speed gearbox, it was clearly very much better and LandRover sales dropped way down.
We have a lot of sand in Australia. The LandRover didn't have enough power for sand, even with the larger engine, so you had to go in first gear, wasting too much time. There was a six-cylinder option, but it didn't seem to have any more power than the 4-cyl engine.
A company I once worked for did a lot of remote work and had a fleet of LandRovers. Typical of British products, the quality was none too good. I remember going to pick up a brand new Rover from the dealer, and it had about a 15 degree lean, because the factory had fitted incorrect or defective springs on one side. The aluminium body was not strong enough for seat belts, so Rover anchored the sash upper mount on a steel member below shoulder height, rendering it useless. Noise and vibration at highway speeds was terrific.
Rover engines when hot would keep going after you turned the ignition off. Company policy was to select top gear, apply brakes, and let out the clutch, thereby stalling the engine. However I discovered that you could stall it just by suddenly flooring the accelerator.
Broken differentials were not unusual. I remember having to drive a company LandRover 600 km back to civilisation on the highway on the front diff because the rear diff had failed.
There was no air choke on the carby. Instead, pulling out the "Cold Start" control activated an extra jet. The engine would always start, but in temperatures at or below freezing it could take a while. You needed to always be sure to have a healthy battery before going out in the desert. In theory you could start it with crank handle, but without a choke, you would not succeed in low temperatures.
When the Rover engines wore out, they were way too expensive to rebuild, so a popular option was to buy a rebuilt Holden Red motor (6 cylinder) and fit that instead. A couple of companies made adapters so you could attach the Rover gearbox to the Holden engine. The Holden engine gave greater power AND better fuel consumption! Those Rover engines sure were inefficient and thirsty!
After some driver complaints about the seatbelts and a few other things, the company wrote to Rover in England suggesting some improvements. The reply from Rover essentially said "if you don't like our LandRover, buy something else." So we switched to Toyotas.
The early Toyota Land cruiser had only a 3-speed transmission. We told Toyota that wasn't good enough. They switched to 4-speed. And you could travel in second gear in sand where the Rover needed first gear, so you got to where you wanted about three times as fast..
How far England has fallen.
How could Britain sell a company like Land Rover
All the top companies sold off like a car boot sale
And for about the same prices😮😮😮😂
The narrator sounds like Quentin Wilson from old Top Gear.