80 series Cruiser or Range Rover

[86 Bronco]

I am trying to decide between a Land Cruiser or a Range Rover Classic series. I am leaning towards the Cruiser, but can anyone here shed a little more light on the situation. I like the styling of the Rover, but friends are trying to scare me away from it. Has anyone here owned both? Which was better? I work on all my own cars, so I'm not scared to learn a new one...I am just having trouble making up my mind.

Thanks

[Flip Dog]

The only bummer about the 80 is you cant take the top off.




Without a Sawzall.

[speyrod]

You are on a landcruiser site what do you expect. I suggest searching and then searching a LR site. It will become pretty clear.

[ncrockinfj]

Originally Posted by 86 Bronco

I am trying to decide between a Land Cruiser or a Range Rover Classic series. I work on all my own cars, so I'm not scared to learn a new one...I am just having trouble making up my mind.

Thanks

You may work on all your cars but with the 80 there will be a lot less "work" just preventative maintenance. The Range Rover on the other hand you will need to WORK on... they are nice but have their fair share of problems...

[86 Bronco]

The guys on the Rover site wouldn't even answer my silly little question.....maybe they are busy working on their trucks.

[619TOY]

While I have never owned one, I have had quite a few customers over the years talk about how unreliabe and expesive to repair, their Rover's were. It it pretty widely accepted that Toyota is a much more reliable product. That said, I can't think of an off road vehicle that I would much rather have than a yellow Defender 90

[ncrockinfj]

Originally Posted by Flip Dog

The only bummer about the 80 is you cant take the top off.




Without a Sawzall.

the top doesnt come off a Ranger Rover either ...

[fj80toyman]

I did own both for awhile. Actually mine was a Disco I not a classic. Man I hated that thing. I work on my own stuff too, but that almost cured me of it. I bought it for the looks and the suspension, hated it for the engine and the wiring. Bad times. Traded it in at a loss for my '94 pickup.

I'm not sure about fuel economy as that's on everyones mind these days, but I'd bet the RR doesn't do much better than the LC.

Go with the Land Cruiser, you'll have a better rig, and you'll have more fun working on it because you'll be doing mods rather than repairs to keep it on the road.

[AdventureBuddies]

I pondered the same question because the LR is so cool looking and is so classic. In the end, reliability won out and I ended up with the 80. It really boils down to how much time and patience you have. There's nothing wrong with owning a car that needs constant work if you have the time and you love working on your vehicle. If you want it to start every day and run forever with just regular maintenance, the 80 is the way to go.

[mac]

Mu buddy was a Land Rover factory trained mechanic- he drove a Land Cruiser. 'Nough said?

[Vitesse_6]

Just before Cruise Moab a few months ago, I lead a run down in Blanding Utah to Arch canyon and Hotel Rock, It was the overnighter, Well one night after our first trail run, We were sitting around the fire and noticed a few Land Cruisers and a lonely Disco, We thought it was odd that a Disco would be with a group of LC's they drove by a few times before they decided they wanted to camp near us, Well I went and introduced myself and came to find out the LR had a LR mechanic along for the ride...

Funny eh?

BTW, Did you know 9 out of 10 Land Rovers are still on the road?

The last one made it home!



Honestly, A Land Cruiser would be an upgrade to your Bronco as well

[speyrod]

I wasn't looking at the classic I was looking at the 4.0/4.6 and then the 4.4 as I like the bimmer motor. After searching the LR sites for this question the answer was clear. This will be your ride take the time and put some skin in the game and search the web.


I have friend with a 98 4.0 and a 155k miles with no problems other than a couple of air bags which were cheap. I was shocked at how well it wheeled with crap tires.

[Marco7]

Originally Posted by Vitesse_6

BTW, Did you know 9 out of 10 Land Rovers are still on the road?

The last one made it home!

LOL

I too looked at the RR before getting my 80.
Besides the obvious reliability issues, the RR interior just seemed odd to me.
The position of the steering wheel, the very low door glass sill level, the backward(to me) power window switches, etc... all of it seemed wrong. JMO

[NLXTACY]

Never had an LR but I would definitely rock a Defender 90. Its just so damn cool.

That said, there is a saying..."Lucas invented darkness".

I had two coworkers, one with a really old Defender 110 (damn cool) and one with the RR 4.6, rode really nice.

The Def 110 he had in the fam for over 20 years. He had replaced the entire wiring from painless because he was so tired of the troubles. Engine wise he was pretty impressed and he takes it everywhere.

The RR owner HATES the thing. He jokes that he needs two of them. One to drive and one to have at the mechanics to be fixed.

[wileetoyote]

I've wanted an FJ80 ever since they first came out. Swearing I'd never buy a used car, a new 80 was out of the question at $50K. When I started looking around for a new car in 2001/2002, I test drove Sequoia's and newly released Rubicon and the Nissan 350Z

Not satisfied with any of those, I got the itch to look back into an FJ80, test drove some used 97's and didn't like the condition of them as well as having high mileage so I searched for the next 2 or 3 months to no avail. When I couldn't find one in 'like new' condition, I decided to buy an '01 Disco from a dealer. I put a $3k down to hold it whilst I spent the next day at the credit union to get a loan for $30K. That same day, I got a call from a Toyota Dealer who knew I was looking for a newer model factory-locked 80. It just got traded in for an '02 Sequoia that morning so I rushed over and bought it while it was still being detailed. This '96 only had 42K miles on it at the time and they were asking $25K. A bargain in my book and in my opinion, LC reliability was enough to make me make the exception of not ever buying used. No regrets 6 years and 80K miles later.

Boy was that LR dealer pissed when I asked for my $3K back The whole Camel Trophy Race history give LR's a certain mystique thingy but in the end, I beleive LC's are the way to go if given the choice. As LC's get older, there's no doubt they have their fair share of issues but as most of us tend to work on our own rigs, they all seem to be minor in comparison to the stories we hear about.

My $0.02

BTW - that '01 Disco with the 4.2L (?) V8 had a sticker that showed something like 15/17 mpg city/hwy IIRC. slightly more horsies than the LC but less torque I believe.

WET

[bpenn1980]

A guy I work with has a Disco II, not sure the year, maybe '01?

Anyway, he doesnt wrench at all, but his mechanic sure does! Dude POURS money into it. I mean he pays a lot to have a RR mechanic do the work instead of have someone learn on his ride.

I know that will less than 50,000 miles he completely blew his transmission. Then at around 120,000 miles he blew a head gasket. Those are the two big ones I know of, but he spent around $2-3k a couple months ago on water pump, radiator and some other random stuff. Pretty gnarly.

I know you said you'll do all the work yourself, so maybe this isnt a big deal.

[fjfar80]

I've owned both, if you search some of my posts you can read my "report" on my LR experience. I had a classic RR SWB and I did a ton of work on it...suspension, brakes, transfer case, transmission, engine, interior, electrical, etc. Anyway...I have a LC now and don't have the RR...so you can take from that what you want. Albeit, I do plan on buying a 2004 Range Rover - solely because you are buying a BMW 4.4 engine and the wiring was greatly improved...as an SUV for my wife. 2004 is the only year I would buy...period. If you want a classic go for it...they are awesome rigs but you are going to spend a cool US$15,000 getting it reliable and capable...just my experience.

[NoMoreFires!]

I was doing some research before I bought my 80 and I read a post from a guy wanting to buy a 100K mile LR and the guys said something like " Yeah of course you want to buy a 100k mile Land Rover, you just want to replace the Rover part with Cruiser"

Ive seen many Land Rovers in different shops over the years, EVERYTHING is expensive. Think about how many Land Rovers you see for sale used at other manufacturer dealers lots (they're not trading them back in on Land Rovers). The owner of my companys wife was driving a Land Rover, just traded it in on a Benz GL. Look at Land Cruiser owners, most of them buy another Land Cruiser. Nuff said

[Doc]

Alia176 on here used to drive rovers, he has a healthy respect for them, but now owns 2 cruisers.

[jerseyfzj80]

I work on Land rovers @ my shop and I own a Land cruiser 'nuff said

[LOfi]

If you're not looking at defender's then I would stick with a cruiser..

[davnic6]

My co worker waited a month for a door lock for his Disco its in the shop all the time.

[FZJ80DM]

There's just so many problems with the land rover and range rover. I'm not sure what the companies were thinking but they have electrical gremlins. Most of the problems on the range rover and land rover are just plain headaches that you would have to take back to the stealership and waste even more money. Bottom line, toyota makes reliable vehicles for a reason, stick with the cruiser with no headaches. My 2 cents

[maybe_a_80...]

If reliability and the cost of maintenance/repair wasn't so expensive, I'd have a Land Rover instead of a Land Cruiser. But I just can't afford that and I know from past experience with Audis that having a vehicle that starts up everyday is really priceless.

The Land Rovers ARE sweet, look great, have amazing engines when they run, there's no downside other than the cost of repair! Oh well.

[bowyer2002]

We had a Disco II and it went into the shop more than any other car I have ever owned AND I do my own wrenching!!

I liked the windows, it was like driving a fish bowl, really no blind spots...

However, having the CE light on almost constantly made me question the reliability. Thankfully our mechanic would turn it off, but it always came on a few days or weeks later, and he wouldnt charge to turn it off since everyting was in order - he did say that the sensors are VERY picky so the CEL comes on for minor things...

Just my .02 now we have 2 Toyotas and aren't looking back...

[Volunteer]

Well its good that you like to work on them because you'll spend alot of unwanted time working on a LR. There is alot of folks here that work regular on their cruisers buts it more for wants than needs. I was a mechanic for a living for a period of time and came to hate Jags and LR's lets just say they were regulars in the repair shop. I've met some LR lovers that will steer you away as well. If you do routine maintenance on the cruiser it'll likely out live you

[1shot1kill]

Good ahead and pull the trigger on the Rover - you will have to get your parts from India!

[WarDamnEagle]

I've had both. No question I would go with the LC.

An interesting side note for those even remotely interested....1983 was the first year of the Defender (replaced the Series III). You can now import these diesel engine 90 Defenders into the US as they are 25 years old (but only the 1983 models).

[ncrockinfj]

Originally Posted by NLXTACY

Never had an LR but I would definitely rock a Defender 90. Its just so damn cool.

That said, there is a saying..."Lucas invented darkness".

.

And... "The English drink warm beer bec