So, Why did you buy a Land Rover?
- Thread starter Brian McVickers
- Start date
upcruiser
Perpetual Transient
I had wanted a Rover for years but everytime I was about to pull the trigger on one I got scared off. Now that I have a 5 speed D1 I couldn't be happier. All the old pictures I had seen of Range Rovers and early Discos kitted out in a jungle somewhere got me all into this crazy hobby to begin with. I still have and love my Cruiser but understand the Rover obsession a bit better after having spent a month or so with one.
timmy!!!!!!!
Explorer
I like to drink the LR koolaide.
Have two in the stable and I dont' know what I am thinking for having two.
Have two in the stable and I dont' know what I am thinking for having two.
So, Why did you buy a Land Rover?
I ask myself this everyday. I am on truck 14.
Geesh!
Dendy
I ask myself this everyday. I am on truck 14.
Geesh!
Dendy
michaels
Explorer
one of my buddies in highschool had a 95 RRC. went offroading with him a few times and then was hooked. i love my 04, but i'd get something a little older than i wouldn't be afraid to dent if i could go back. my truck is definitely scratched and has some dents, but it just hurts more knowing that when i got it a year and a half ago that is was only driven on teh weekends, and washed once a week.i can't even remember the last time i gave her a real bath!
to say i'm hooked now is an understatement. i will need another in the next few years to really build up into a real trail rig.
to say i'm hooked now is an understatement. i will need another in the next few years to really build up into a real trail rig.
overlander
Expedition Leader
I'm with Yudda. I blame Marlin and his little monkey friend co-conspirator too.
While I'm at it, I'm going to rat out the other perpetrators of this crime:
- Johnny Quest and Hadji
- Eagle Eye GI Joe
- British Army
- Laura Croft (yeah, that's right)
- Land Rover of Scottsdale (those bastards had to put that dealership right there, didn't they?)
- United Nations (all of them)
- Humphrey Bogart (person of interest at this time)
- and how could I forget the kingpin of this operation...RJ Reynolds :safari-rig:
As far as I'm concerned, this is organized crime, and I was a young boy growing up in Hollywood, when I was robbed of my urbanicity and cast out into the wilderness by these hoodlums.:gunt:
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KMW
New member
I'll see your Corvair and raise you a Renault Dauphine. Yes, my dad had a Dauphine when I was in the third grade...
I think my Rover love has bits and pieces of what everyone has posted, "Wild Kingdom" to "The Gods Must Be Crazy"; the indescribable connection you get with the right truck; personal and family history of odd and abnormal machinery (Bugeye Sprite, too many MGs, etc), the history and dare I say nobility of the trucks.
The point when I finally bought my first Rover, our '87 RRC, was when our first son was on the way and we needed something with a back seat. Now my side yard looks like a Land Rover convention.
JackW
Explorer
My first car (not my choice - my dad bought it for me for $50) was a Renault Dauphine - after that POS - anything - including worn out Land Rovers is an improvement.
My second car - First one I paid for - was a 1965 Corvair Corsa turbocharged convertible which I happily spent several years tweaking until it was a 250 HP - 130 mph rocket.
That was followed by a 1956 Porsche 356A coupe (still have that one) and a year later my first Land Rover - a 1961 SII 88" station wagon.
I fell in love with Land Rovers when I was 13 - thought it was the coolest car I'd ever seen - I've been driving them since 1972.
overlanddisco
Observer
I worked at a J**p dealer for 4 1/2 years...
Saw too much and saw it from too many angles. Engineering going down hill after Daimler let go. Shoddy standards. Designed to go out for the weekend at the most, very hard to do a 3+ week trip in a Wrangler, a little easier in a Cherokee. No head room in a Cherokee, sounds like a tin can, body falls apart after 80k miles. Unibody under a serious fourwheeler???
So of course I had to buy a 98 Disco I, and not thru the dealer I worked for, but from a competing dealer in town. I do enjoy twisting the devils tail...
Almost got me fired for buying a non J**p, then again for giving an honest answer to the question of why a J**p isn't good enough. I said look at the frame on the Disco, the gear driven tcase, the full floating axles, the center of gravity, the headroom, the ability to really seat a 6ft person in the back seat, and all of the room for the dogs in the back.
I'm still driving it today, take it most times over my monster powered Dodge diesel truck. Comfortable all day long no matter where we are- highway, city or trail.
Simple drive train- very similar to the Series w/ fuel injection, with a modern body and conveniences on top. Easy to fix and maintain.
I'll willingly put more money into the axles, trans/tcase and engine than it is worth, as I don't ever intend to sell it.:victory:
Saw too much and saw it from too many angles. Engineering going down hill after Daimler let go. Shoddy standards. Designed to go out for the weekend at the most, very hard to do a 3+ week trip in a Wrangler, a little easier in a Cherokee. No head room in a Cherokee, sounds like a tin can, body falls apart after 80k miles. Unibody under a serious fourwheeler???
So of course I had to buy a 98 Disco I, and not thru the dealer I worked for, but from a competing dealer in town. I do enjoy twisting the devils tail...
Almost got me fired for buying a non J**p, then again for giving an honest answer to the question of why a J**p isn't good enough. I said look at the frame on the Disco, the gear driven tcase, the full floating axles, the center of gravity, the headroom, the ability to really seat a 6ft person in the back seat, and all of the room for the dogs in the back.
I'm still driving it today, take it most times over my monster powered Dodge diesel truck. Comfortable all day long no matter where we are- highway, city or trail.
Simple drive train- very similar to the Series w/ fuel injection, with a modern body and conveniences on top. Easy to fix and maintain.
I'll willingly put more money into the axles, trans/tcase and engine than it is worth, as I don't ever intend to sell it.:victory:
Martyn
Supporting Sponsor, Overland Certified OC0018
Fun movie. Answers the question for people living in Britain and 3rd world countries. I still think of Land Rovers as being farm machinery.
Falls a little flat when you try to answer the question in North America. Owning a Land Rover here in North America does say something about your status. It could be that you are wealthy, or simply that you love the challenge of breaking down in strange places, or you love flat driving caps and are slightly eccentric. It could also be all of the above.
I of course say this with love in my heart, I've had more fun breaking down in remote place around the globe than a person should have in two life times. A good friend of mine is writing a book "Places I have broken down in Africa" for most of the experiences he was accompanied by his trusty green LR "Bruce".
Falls a little flat when you try to answer the question in North America. Owning a Land Rover here in North America does say something about your status. It could be that you are wealthy, or simply that you love the challenge of breaking down in strange places, or you love flat driving caps and are slightly eccentric. It could also be all of the above.
I of course say this with love in my heart, I've had more fun breaking down in remote place around the globe than a person should have in two life times. A good friend of mine is writing a book "Places I have broken down in Africa" for most of the experiences he was accompanied by his trusty green LR "Bruce".
CliffClavin
Observer
For some reason I have a thing for British cars. Owned several Triumphs (TR4a, TR6, TR250) and has always wanted a Series Truck. Excuse to buy my '73 109 Station Wagon came when my wife and I found out we were having twins. Out went the 2 seater convertibles and in with the 12 seater Rover. Now I find myself looking around for a 109 truck and maybe maybe a nice 88 that I can really set up for some good off-roading.....
TeriAnn
Explorer
"A Land Rover is less of a car than a state of mind."
from review of the 1964 Series Land Rover by Car and Driver magazine
from review of the 1964 Series Land Rover by Car and Driver magazine
In the 1950s travel documentaries were very common fillers for non prime time TV. And about all the documentaries of non developed areas were filmed in a Land Rover. As I watched them, it became obvious that if you wanted to venture off the detailed map into the undetailed areas labeled "Here be dragons" the only vehicle to do it in was a Land Rover.
In 1974 I purchased a new Toyota Cilica. I was very unhappy with it for many reasons and sold it six months after purchase and looked for a car that I thought would better fit my needs and personality. I saw an ad in the Seattle paper for a 1968 Land Rover 88. The ad immediately lit my imagination and I had to go see it.
At first glance I was hooked. Here was a truck dripping in pure charisma. The one vehicle that my girlhood told me could safely take me away from the walls and ruts of my narrow day to day routine existence into the wild unknown reaches; that would allow me to explore life anew and safely get me back again. It stood before me like a great mythological beast of magic that could free me from the mundane life I was living and open my mind to alternate realities.
So I bought the truck, loaded my back packing gear in the back and went camping. The truck suited me well and I slipped into a Series Land Rover reality that expanded my sense of possibilities. The Car and Driver reviewers got it right, a Series Land Rover is a state of mind that sheds the light of its own reality on to the rest of your world. And it became a pivotal point in how I viewed life and possibilities.
In late 1977 I got into dairy goats and was dismayed to discover that an 88 with hard top could only fit 2 bales of hay. I needed a truck that could carry more but could not afford two vehicles. In March 1978 I found the answer. It was a sunny day after a week or so of rain and I was feeling a little nostalgic as I drove past an area where I used to live. I decided to take the road to house I used to live in and there, sitting outside my old house as a very tired worn out 1960 land Rover 109 pickup. It was broken down and had been sitting under the redwood trees for a couple years slowly settling into the forest humus. $350 changed hands and I towed my new green truck home. The rest is history. Over a decade as a farm truck, half a decade as a dual purpose truck almost a decade and a half as a full on expedition capable motor caravan.
After almost 31 years with The Green Rover, I still get this silly grin whenever I glance at the truck and this big grin when she fires into life and starts to move. I still see the charisma. I've learned for a fact that she is indeed a great mythological beast of magic who has freed me from mental and physical mundane ruts. She continues to show me what's around the next hill and open up new vistas of possibilities. She has changed my reality, grew it and made it a more magical place.
Yes a Series Land Rover is a state of mind, at least as much as it is a vehicle and I now know that reality is what you make of it and not just that narrow path set forth in front of you by others. The dragons have proven to be friendly.
Rovertrader
Supporting Sponsor
Mark- we gotta get you home- sooon!!
Teri Ann- always love your responses.
the list goes on. It's not just the Rovers- you adopt the whole clan. It's not a Jeep thing(and I don't mean that in a bad way- Will
, it is so much more. And then there is the addiction. But for me, as an engineer- it is the endless combinations, and the big errector set mentality. I was never a mechanic, but have come to be a decent Rover mechanic- partly out of need, but mostly out of the being consumed by how basic to the application they (Rovers) are. No real revelation here I suppose, but every time I consider another marque, I get nervous. I have driven Rovers for the last 15 years, and gone to great lengths to get particular models, only to pursue another. And been in severely remote locales with no major mishaps- and always gotten home. I am smitten I suppose....
And Wild Kingdom sure didn't help- especially the monkey :-()
Teri Ann- always love your responses.
the list goes on. It's not just the Rovers- you adopt the whole clan. It's not a Jeep thing(and I don't mean that in a bad way- Will
, it is so much more. And then there is the addiction. But for me, as an engineer- it is the endless combinations, and the big errector set mentality. I was never a mechanic, but have come to be a decent Rover mechanic- partly out of need, but mostly out of the being consumed by how basic to the application they (Rovers) are. No real revelation here I suppose, but every time I consider another marque, I get nervous. I have driven Rovers for the last 15 years, and gone to great lengths to get particular models, only to pursue another. And been in severely remote locales with no major mishaps- and always gotten home. I am smitten I suppose....And Wild Kingdom sure didn't help- especially the monkey :-()
