My, this little multi-tool spoof certainly grew legs. But I believe a thoughtful discussion along these lines is a good thing. Too many LR owner websites shrug off or even deny the company's problems, and too many Toyota (and other brand) sites dismiss the entire Land Rover line as garbage.
Rob, I believe I can speak objectively as a long-time Land Cruiser owner and long-time Land Rover fan (and recent owner), and competent amateur mechanic who has worked on both.
It is incontrovertible that Land Rover's more cosmopolitan models (Disco, Range Rover, Freelander) suffer from numerous faults that relegate the company to the basement of reliability surveys both in the U.S. and in England. Five minutes on the web will confirm this beyond argument. Yet loyalty among owners of those vehicles is surprisingly high, which I believe must be put down to engineering and design - when they work, they work really, really well at their goal of combining luxury with serious off-road ability.
The 1993 (?) to 1997 (?) Defender in the U.S. (a different beast than the turbodiesel models sold elsewhere) experienced fewer minor defects, but still suffered more major component failures than it should have. Look at ads for Defender 90s with 50,000 to 60,000 miles on them and you'll note a high percentage of replaced transmissions (Graham will know the bad one) and even engines - the aluminum V8 seemed inclined to either run forever or detonate early, depending on the luck of the draw. And when Land Rover stopped galvanising the body trim and instead simply painted over it, they began experiencing early rust in those areas. East Coast Rovers makes boatloads of money correcting this problem.
However, the ROW (rest of world) Defender fares much better. Yes, assembly can often be described as haphazard, but the vehicle is so basic that there’s a lot of leeway for haphazard assembly. And the turbodiesels seem to run much longer than the petrol engines. This explains why plenty of people in Africa still use Defenders for both private trips and safari company use.
The best thing about the Series/Defender is the mechano aspect of the thing. I could turn my 1974 Series III into a Defender simply by replacing components one at a time – coil-spring chassis, turbodiesel engine, five-speed transmission, even bodywork. The crossover in parts from year to year is unmatched by any other utility 4x4. That has to be a real advantage for third-world users.
In the end, I think the famous PR line for Jeeps, “It’s a Jeep thing, you wouldn’t understand,” could better have been adopted by Land Rover. You either understand it or you don’t.
eepwall: 
