Rovers.
I was afflicted, for many years, with what can only be referred to as Rover Fever.
My 1967 Land Rover series vehicle was the love of my automotive life for many years, though she spent most of her time in the yard acting as an extra garden shed.
There are some things you should know if you have any intention to buy or drive a Land Rover.
Don’t.
No, just don’t. The newer Discos or Freelanders are money pits when used, and not much better when new. The parts are expensive, the engineering is laughable, the breakdown is frequent, the clusterfucks abound. Don’t get me STARTED on the steering.
My 109 series rover was a “real” rover, it had a tire on the bonnet. it had the suspension of a truck. What else? everything leaked, things broke easily, it often had electrical fires, the steering was as useful in guiding the thing down the road as divining, and the noise the straight gears made obviated the need for any kind of radio. I have had more pleseant driving experiences bungee corded to the top of a bus in the rain.
Repairing a broken axle invariably occurred in the mud, the brakes made subtle but poignant efforts at dragging the vehicle to some semblance of “stationary” and the gearshifts- there were five such devices- took some getting used to.
I miss mine. I miss the way hitting a bump felt like having a stevedore hit you in the small of the back with a spade. I miss the smell of the battery lead burning off it’s insulation for the umpteenth time, I miss the smell of the engine baking the tire on the hood right in front of the only vents.
I don’t miss it badly enough to get another one, though.
If you’re looking at a Disco or a Freelander or god forbid a Range Rover, get a damned jeep. The parts are cheaper, and it will last longer and run better. The momentary pleasure you’ll have in pride of ownership will be eclipsed the first time it strands you along the road, which will be on the way home from the dealership.
yes, the Rover is a serious 4wd vehicle, and yes, they do offroad like few other things, but if you’re really serious about 4wd get a G wagon, the cachet is better, and the vehicle is nicer, and might actually run for ten miles without major repairs.
Still, theres something about the romance of a real Land Rover that makes them a hoot to drive.
21 comments Og | Uncategorized
But the new Jeeps now owned by a French company, (Fiat) and I assume that each one will come with it’s own special “white flag”.
I don’t buy “new” vehicles. Let someone else take that depreciation hit.
My doctor has a Cheap jerokee, as does my friend Ed, and the both of the jeeps are relatively inexpensive used vehicles in good shape. I’ve no doubt they’ll run and run and take good care of their owners.
There’s just something about a quirky vehicle that inspires some strange masochistic love affair. Mine was a 280zx. And one day, I will buy another. Although, the next one should be less of a basket case. Thankfully they don’t carry such a reputation. Mine was just special in the short bus kind of way.
yeah, the 280 was quite the car, but did they ever love to rust out and give you grief.
We have our own USA version of the ‘Rover. The International Scout.
Lacking only the off road prowess of the Jeep, and refinement of the ‘Rover, it did however offer an astounding capablity to rust body panels while still on the assembly line.
Still, a fully restored Scout is one of the “grail” vehicles for me. Just something about it’s utterly agrarian, nearly steampunk nature, calls to me.
Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX
My masochistic car fetish was for Saabs. I loved the design quirks (center console ignition, etc.) and the idea that they were built by a company that also built aircraft. I briefly owned a 1995 Saab 900, not realizing before I bought it that Gubmint Motors had acquired the company a few years before. It ran well enough, and could handle a mountain road like it was on rails. However, every part of that car cost at least 5X what the same part on a different vehicle would cost. I think they must have delivered parts from Sweden by kayak or something. The windshield washer system almost never worked. The front end suspension components conveniently self-destructed every 60K miles like clockwork; I found this out from the only Saab mechanic in Tucson, who then charged me the GDP of (insert small country name here) to fix it. The last straw for me was when the local GM dealer tried to charge me $27 for one(!) headlight wiper blade refill (said refill being approximately 5 inches long). I sold it the next week and never looked back.
Yeah, I once explained the vagaries of Saab ownership to a woman who called me a “Condescending douchebag”. She, of course, had never worked on a car in her life.
And jim- I’m right with you on the Scout. Loved those buggers, but man, what a rustbucket.
Whenever I see someone driving a Saab, it takes me back to NAS Rota, Spain and all lower level @sshole officers who bought one and thought their chit didn’t stink.
They also filled their Saabs with the (on base housing) heating oil we were constantly refilling during the summer.
Ah, the 280ZX: A heart of steel with a body of tissue paper…
The iron-block L28 was practically bulletproof and backed with a solid driveline; they’d go a quarter million miles or more with ease. Too bad the body’d rust off in 25k.
(My roommate once drove mine, a ’79 2+2, halfway across metro Atlanta on the freeway with the starter engaged the whole way. It got within a block of her destination before it ground to a halt. A friend drove a new starter over, put it on, and drove it back.)
Ah. Well then. Thanks for that Og.
I will try to reframe the past couple Cherokees I’ve owned for their good points (size, 4×4, 4.0 straight six, solid axles) instead of their bad (rust, oil leaks, radiators, rear doors that barely qualify, handling, mileage).
Oh, you want to swap car pain stories? I had a Scout II, a 1974 with the 345 CID school bus engine. It sucked down more gas than a big-block, and when I had to delve into it’s top end to replace lifters, I found out that they were monster lifters from some military engine that cost 3X as much as any others. But it PULLED, gawd how it could pull, and for such a heavy bugger, it could TURN on a dime. It was a TRUE 4X4. BTW, mine didn’t rust, it rattled. It must have had 50 open body spot-welds.
Then there were my Peugeot days. I bought a new 504D in ’77. Fantastic diesel mileage, 30 mpg+, most comfortable seats ever put in a car, but the body rusted, the electrics failed regularly (usually the engine, being diesel and NOT D-DEC, kept running (but you couldn’t switch it off!). It was slow, only about 68 hp, was maxxed at 78mph, but would pull any mountain pass in 4th. It had a cooling failure and the aluminum head (over a cast-iron block) turned into a banana-shape at 180K, so I scrapped the car. Loved it to death though. BTW, my wife survived a 35-mph rear-ender from a US pickup in it, and there was enough of the car left to rebuild! Try THAT nowadays!
Well, the scout was built by a tractor company. If you liked the scout you would love a travel all. The original SUV. Still built by a tractor company. When the hieght of tactor add one was a padded seat.
Brother in law has 4 Scouts in various stages right now. I sold him the 800A that is getting restored right now. Father in law has a Travel all sitting next to the house. I suspect for the right money he would fire it up and let you drive it away.
On the Sub-Continent the Rover was a staple of the up-country retreats the Colonial gentry built during The Raj. But as much as any of that, you’d more often find a leftover WWII Dodge Power Wagon undergoing an overhaul of some kind in a tiny shed, while a mechanic/machinist bent over a fiewy hot brazier to beat out a piece of metal into a useful shape. Despite the wrong-side drive, the Dodge was more valuable since it carried more and was more powerful – and less frequently in need of assistance even forty years later.
I want an International Scout.
You want a tractor-truck? Try to find a grey-market Mahindra 4X4 pickup. Hell for stout.
If Mahindra ever sells a dealership vehicle here in the US, I’ll sure look at buying it. I’ve got about 250K on a Suzuki Sidekick that has amazed me since I bought it. I figure the Mahindra can’t be any less comfortable but just as stout. A 6 speed auto and a real diesel 4 cylinder? I could afford to suffer a new one, simply because there aren’t many original FJ40’s around.
I never could get used to the engine being backwards in a Saab. Worked on a few and it just did not seem right. Riverdog, on those Peugeot diesels there was a fuel cutoff solenoid under the hood that you could unplug to get it to quit. If you did not know about that, well….
My thing was MGBs. Owned 2 and worked on hundreds.
Riverdog,
I just read my comment and the “you” in the sentence was not specifically referring to you. I was using it in a general way. I read your blog and I imagine that you did know about that solenoid.
I really should learn to proofread.
You, Sir, are most defamatory to the mighty Land Rover.
Ask a Serf Efrican.
Henry: This is not conjecture on my part, but personal experience. I cannot prevent someone from acquiring Rover Fever, but I can damned sure discourage them.
The truth of the matter is far worse than anything I could say.