blah blah
 

yadda yadda mine's shinier than yours etc etc....

My two penn'orth - Ive used both, Im LR out of choice, TLC if there's no Solihull. Thats after a lot of miles in E and W ends of the Sahara (incl living there for a good while, 10,000+ offroad miles a year when I did) and a fair bit further south and east.

BUT (and its a big but) I think Solihull's lost the plot. If they scrapped their designs as far back as 1991 and stuck with V8/200Tdi rather than enough electronics to play PSP games on, they'd have a winning formula. These days they are marketting cars that trade on their reputation as the "car that built Africa" but sell cars that cant be fixed without major computers and widgets. Stupid. Self-defeating - and for a company that prides itself on 70 years of top-end 4x4s to ignore the fact that this reputation will disintegrate in the next few decades... madness.

My tired 110 is wearing out. Ill replace her with - herself. A rebuild. I want the Luddite lack of electronics combined with the reliability and ability of the basic LR platform. And in twenty years time Ill still be using her hard in the Sahara. Probably with some hydrogen fuelcell engine cos the EU has outlawed diesels.....
(presuming the Sahara isnt all tarmac and burger kings by then)

Ollie - stick with your 110. She is a good truck.

One needs to separate LR from Defender. It strikes me LR know exactly what they're doing and judging by sales figures, until the recent global crash were more successful than ever. It's just that their world-class SUVs are widely considered unsuitable for the minority pursuit of serious overland travel for the reasons we know well. The long-neglected Defender does not sell well enough to feature in LR's big plans and their reputation won't get an better or worse than it is.

As pre-CRD/CAN bus cars get marginalised, the future of overlanding will be in learning to hack around error codes or dodgy sensors in the field. Don't ask me if that is even possible!

... a lot of people in the UK are under the impression that LR is the best "4x4 x far", so I honestly feel that they should really be given the whole story before jumping in a Landy...

That is really the crux of this thread isn't it. Educated yourself, make your mind up and enjoy the ride.

Ch

I'm about 1/3rd way thought this book right now. great reading (typical dry humour from Mr Sheppard)

G-Wagon seems to be pretty reliable, although according to the book, he had some teething troubles when he first got it, needed a new engine or dash loom i think it was.

Be careful Runner, I rebuilt my 1983 110 on a galvanised chassis with a 200tdi engine years ago and now I'm probably stuck with it untill I can't get up into it (50years hopefully).
I know when I was working in the Okavango I pined for it (used landcruisers and 300tdi 90s).
Both brands needed plenty of fixing with the hammer we were giving them, but not nearly as much as the Independant front suspension Nissan.

Definitely, and then apply the same thinking to the cruisers. I don't think a Hj 45 has much to do with an LC200.

The badge war is a red herring surely. More interesting to compare some cars.

Hi there, I have overlooked this classic and everlasting thread. I am the owner of a non-ECU Def 300tdi. This March I spent 3 weeks with friends in Murzug and Ubari, with LC Fj60, LC 100, Disco 1 and my Def. Results were the following:

• Disco 1 – busted diff in rear axle (replaced with spare one in the dunes)
• FJ60 – impressive in the dunes but eventually busted crankshaft, engine replaced in Ghadames
• LC100 – went well until started to choke on the way back in Ubari. It made to the ferry in Tunis but injector pump died on highway in Austria
• Defender – always behind the rest on tarmac but made it home in one piece. Two moths later, fuel lift pump shot. Replaced in 1 hour but it pissed me off, it was Easter afternoon

I guess that choosing Def is going against the statistics but you can trust no brand. I stick to my def despite 20+ kg of spares carried in the trunk. Next one will be LC 7 with perhaps only 10+ kg spares in the trunk.

Cheers,

Jarek

Slightly off topic in that it’s not LR vs Toyota but I thought I would share my recent experience in Morocco. As you may expect I was out numbered, surrounded by LR’s. All of which performed well, virtually no issues. They were un molested, pretty standard and well maintained.
But the humiliation of it all. My G Wagen needed a front wheel bearing. Easily fixed, didn’t even need to dip in to my own spares box.
In hind sight I came out with a slightly odd comment though, along the lines of “front wheel bearings are a known weakness on G Wagens”.
It had only lasted 16 years and 220k miles:(


Russ:thumbup1: