11-08-2007, 06:10 AM
Sorry to hear about your experience. Every Land Rover owner I have ever known has been crazy in love with the feel, drivability, and off-road performance. They have also invariably described horrific problems with mechanical reliability, cost of parts and labor, and customer service that makes the Soviet Union look like a consumer paradise. Consumer Reports does not like them, and Ford is trying very hard to sell the whole operation, but running into EU regulations that may require them to fund a really big pension liability unless they can con the new owners into taking it on. (Like Ford didn't have enough problems, they had to buy Land Rover.)
Bear and I have spent a lot of time in the UK, and it's not uncommon for farmers to have three Land Rovers of the exact same model . . . one that runs (most of the time) and two others cannibalized for parts. We encountered one guy on Dartmoor who had four! He told us it was cheaper to buy a junker than to get major parts new. In areas where environmental regs don't allow junkers to be kept, people have come up with clever ways to camouflage their dead Land Rovers such as covering them with tarps and then putting a haystack on top.
My advice is sell it if you can. Things will only get worse as it ages, and you probably won't be able to find any appropriate junkers around here.
Sympathetic cheers,
Jerry
Bear and I have spent a lot of time in the UK, and it's not uncommon for farmers to have three Land Rovers of the exact same model . . . one that runs (most of the time) and two others cannibalized for parts. We encountered one guy on Dartmoor who had four! He told us it was cheaper to buy a junker than to get major parts new. In areas where environmental regs don't allow junkers to be kept, people have come up with clever ways to camouflage their dead Land Rovers such as covering them with tarps and then putting a haystack on top.
My advice is sell it if you can. Things will only get worse as it ages, and you probably won't be able to find any appropriate junkers around here.
Sympathetic cheers,
Jerry