Stupid Question: Land Cruiser or Land Rover? (1 Viewer)

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That'd explain why every single Defender imported into the U.S. has an external roll cage by Safety Devices :eek:


Bongani said:
2. LR: Well they fall over quickly. Below pics is of my LR Defender. Was driving 100km/h and had a blow out. Only had 8000km on the clock. Thank goodness I am now converted. QUOTE]


Becky,

You made the right choice. I am still trying to clean out my basement of old RR parts that I've collected over the course of seven years. I think my biggest issue was predictability. Hell, I can fix anything as long as I know it's gonna break. I didn't buy a LR because of it's reliablity :D I knew their history going in but at the time (back in '96), I simply couldn't touch a FZJ80 :eek: However, try as I might, I just couldn't get her to be a predictable machine. I converted lots of things to American counterparts and tried to improve the designs of other things. But in the end, like someone stated above, it sucked to always worry about what *might* act up on a long haul.

Despite all of this, I've managed to traverse the country at least eight times, gone through Moab, Colorado, Fordyce Creek trail in California, Tillamook in Oregon, wheeling in Washington, Nevada and California and some Baja stuff. I've never broken anything mechanical on trails, even with ARBs. But, I did carry a set of rear axles and one birf in the spare parts box.

The LR vehicles (RR, Defender 90, 110, Discos) are essentially very similarly suspended as the FJ/FZJ80s. Everything in the LC is just bigger and way more beefy. I've attached a diff comparison pic for your amusement (destroyed diff on the right). Also, the fit and finish of the Toyota is superb as we all know.

As far as getting to the top of the hill that's not much of an ability to compare. You can get an Yugo to go to the top of the hill given enough mods and crap.

Would I recommend a LR? Sure, as long as you know what you're getting into. If you aren't a good mechanic now, you sure will be while owning a LR ;)

Just my .02 cents worth :flipoff2:

Ali
LR vs FJ80 carrier_smaller.jpg
 
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1. *MOST* people buy a Range Rover for the name, the same could probably be said about most Land Cruisers as well though.

2. I have friends with Range Rovers, and every single one of them has had major problems.

3. Land Rover = Ford.

4. Range Rover is British, it is a well known fact that the British never have been able to build decent/reliable vehicles.

5. How differentials work and the different types:
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/differential.htm
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/differential10.htm
 
Critter said:
3. Land Rover = Ford.

4. Range Rover is British, it is a well known fact that the British never have been able to build decent/reliable vehicles.

QUOTE]


Range Rover = Ford
Discovery = Ford
Freelander = Ford
Future Defender = Ford
Jaguar = Ford
Volvo = Ford ??
 
All I know and have experienced with my budd's disco is that if there's no black oil puddle under the truck? That means your are out of oil :D
 
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Ford owns Volvo cars, Volvo still owns the heavy truck division. You did leave off Aston Martin though.

I was unaware that Range Rover and Land Rover were both owned by Ford though. I knew Land Rover was for sure. I thought they had split them up.
 
Of those I've known to buy Land /Range Rover

I'll give 4 examples.

1... A buddy buys a new 2003 Range Rover, about 7,000 miles later the transfer case rips in half or something as he described on the way home from work; no 4wheelin ever involved. It was under warranty and the Land Rover dealership gave him a Ford Escape to drive until his Range Rover was repaired, so he was kind pissed.

2...A buddy buys a Defender 90 several years ago, used but under warranty. Transfercase goes, transmission goes, clutch goes ultimately the dealership voids warranty and blames driver after driver saws front diff in half with winch cable winching backwards under the vehicle? Very intelligent buddy, no common sense though. Driver pissed, but still has it because he's rich and has plenty of other vehicles to drive.

3...Another buddy buys a new 2002 Discovery, around 20,000 miles later the engine had to be rebuilt for whatever reasons. Never offroad except outerbanks, always got stuck there.


4...Me, bought my 80 series with like 60,000 miles on it. Now over 180,000 mostly on 315/75/16's with light wheelin so far, need to be able to drive clients around in her still. Anyway, I've only had to replace the EGR VSV, oil, trans fluid , plugs and gear oil. Oh and the air filter too. Still runs strong.
 
I bought my Cruiser as a third vehicle because our Rover was in the shop so much.

Over the last 2+ years that we have owned it, we have had multtiple suspension failures, that after completely renewing the whole system, $$$$$$$ I was able to finally convince my wife to convert it to springs and sell all the air parts on Ebay.

The alternator=$1000 (for the part)
Heater core o-rings=$500
Other misc. cooling mishaps. I think the water pump was reasonable.
There still is an issue with the A/C motor servos, but luckily it's stuck in A/C mode on the passenger side, so it doesn't affect anything in the winter. That repair is another $1000+ because of the location inside the dash.

The vehicle drives great when it's running, but if I compared the blue books on the 97 LC 130,000 mi vs 00 RR 83,000 mi they are going to be fairly close. Plus maitenence issues are clearly in the Cruisers favor.
 
alia176 said:
Critter said:
3. Land Rover = Ford.4. Range Rover is British, it is a well known fact that the British never have been able to build decent/reliable vehicles.

For those who know me you know that I have had a bunch of Cruisers and would own nothing else. However, I think there is a lot of stereotyping going on in this thread about Land Rover/Range Rover. You'll get no disagreement from me about the inferior design and poor manufacturing quality inherent to Rover products. But Ford has done an incredible job with Rover as I can attest first hand. I get a brand new vehicle from my company every 3 months. Because we sell Land Rover, I thought I'd try a Rover LR3 back in January. I am now on my third one and I simply love it, though most of the time my SO drives it and I drive my 140K mile Cruiser. I wouldn't count on it much for offroad just because of limited ground clearance, but it is one hell of a vehicle as far as quality and overall design innovation. I might add that I am especially fond of them today after being slammed into from behind while sitting still in mine this past Monday by a 2000 Ford Taurus at 25 mph (pics below).

Africa and Europe are littered with 50 years of Land and Range Rovers. They have a cult status just like the Cruiser. In my opinion, Rovers cannot compare to the serviceability and reliability of a Toyota Land Cruiser, end of story. But you have to give Rover their due; a large part of this globe has been conquered by folks driving Rovers (though the AC wasn't cold and they were probably leaking at the time :D ).
taurus.jpg
lr3.jpg
 
Wow fella's! All those pics are great. I especially like the diff comparisons.

:princess: Becky,

I've been a Toyota fan all my life (I even grew up with Toyota's as a child). The one time I deviated and bought a POS Jeep Cherokee, I traded it in a year later due to being in the shop every other month :mad: . I currently have 3 buddy's with LR/RR (2 Disco's and a RR). All are fairly new, low mileage, and both Disco's have been in and out of the shop on a fairly regular basis. Only the RR dude would buy another one but his other car is a Volvo. I believe there is still that mystique about European vehicles being superior to Japanese cars mainly due to their unique styling and European flair. What you are seeing/reading here is the other side of the demographic...backyard mechanics (and some Pros) who love to work on their vehicles and use them for what they were intended for, not just drive them around town and say "hey, look at me! :bounce: ". Weeeell, actually they do that but mainly only on the trails and amongst themselves. When a Toyota breaks down, its usually our own fault, not the Mfr.

When I was ready to purchase an off-road safari vehicle that can tow (my heavily modified 4Runner wasn't cutting it), I searched for months for a '96/'97 LC w/lockers. I almost gave up and actually put $3k down on a '97 Disco when before I was able to pick it up, a Toy dealer called me and said he had located one for me with only 45K miles. Whew, that was close! I picked up my $3k check from one pissed off LR Sales guy :mad: , and its been LC nirvana ever since :cool: . My one and only beef with the '96 LC is that the AC is inadequate here in Phx, AZ :censor: .

Hope this helps.

I'll not make any mention of you posting a pic of yourself (just your rig) seeing that it looks like we scared off Lindsay....unless you want to :D


Oh yeah, welcome :princess: newbie :flipoff2:
 
hks3sgte said:
A better comparison would be betweeen a Land Cruiser and a Land Rover Defender 110 or an older Series 109...

JTFinal.jpg

Really? Those leaked too. :D
 
But you have to give Rover their due; a large part of this globe has been conquered by folks driving Rovers (though the AC wasn't cold and they were probably leaking at the time :D ).

True but, most of those places were British colonies at the time, their choices were a rover or a cow pulling a cart, some chose the rover! :D
 
Bongani said:


Holy crap! That passenger compartment did not hold up very well at all!! I cannot believe the over all damages, the collapse of the roof and the fact that the roof structure at nearly every pillar collapsed and folded over so much during the wreck.

Glad you were able to make it out of that wreck - that's pretty bad.
 
Consumer reports consistantly ranks Land Rover as the least reliable vehicles on the market. Toyota and subsidiaries are consistantly ranked most reliable, and the LC is always praised for reliability.

Land Rover would be lucky if their products become as reliable as a Ford.

Ford would be lucky if their products become as reliable as Toyotas :D

Regardless of a Rovers offroad prowess, reliability is my #1 priority, so it is Toyota for me. :cheers:

And the European mystique is just that. BMWs are about average in reliability withiin the industry, the rest of the the Euros fall below. Just comparing each car making region, Japanese are most reliable, Americans are about average, Europeans are below average.
 
Haha... yeah... well, at least I found a leaky Land Cruiser! :) Anyway, Just as some Land Cruisers leak, there are some Land Rovers that don't leak.

Funny think is that I saw an H3 being raffled at the Glendale Galleria and they had to put an oil pan under the engine to catch the oil spill...
 
The other day someone here claimed that 90% of Rovers manufactured are still on the road.































And the other 10% made it home.............:D






By the way, thanks for reminding me about my three days under the hood....:flipoff2:
 

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