Land Rovers?

Knifein said:
Well I came to my decision... I'm buying a Toyota Land Cruiser!

Now the question is what year is best for a Land Cruiser.
Click to expand...

great choice! they are awesome vehicles. i want one myself. there are some toyota 4x4 forums floating around ( i dont think i am allowed to post the links here) but with a google you should be good to go. or mail me and ill tell you
 
Knifein said:
Well I came to my decision... I'm buying a Toyota Land Cruiser!

Now the question is what year is best for a Land Cruiser.
Click to expand...
Good choice.
They're very good trucks.
I'm using 80 series LC axles in my Range Rover desert racer.
 
What year land Cruiser? 2010

http://www.icon4x4.com/overview/fj/models

fj_overview_1.jpg
 
A fellow in our area loves Discoveries. He owns three so that he always has one on the road.

Don't do it!!!! Consider yourself warned....
 
I usually never post, but I will for your sake! I love Land Rover; always have as we use a Defender in Kenya when on expedition (I am an archaeologist)..... That was a good truck as there were no computer/electrical parts or anything else that could go wrong. It was indestructible and was only four wheels and a steering wheel and the windows were hand cranks.

That is where the fun stops!

I had a Discovery... Beautiful vehicle to look at and drive but not fun to repair!! I finally got rid of it two weeks ago and had it since 2004. I am relieved to get rid of it as it has cost me thousands to repair... I was too proud (read stupid, stubborn and pig headed) to let it sink in because, well because it was my dream vehicle... Not anymore!

Here is a list of things that went wrong.... All the time!

1. THE BRAKES: Every 10 to 15 thousand miles they had to be changed until I had American kevlar brakes installed. The British brakes were too soft and wore out very easily!

2. THE WINDOWS: All of the computerized windows have broken and I had to order parts from Atlantic British to repair them myself… The gears for the windows are all cheap plastic.

3. THE DOORS: This was truly my favorite! The rear cargo door would not unlock, we tried various things and finally used a silicone spray, which worked. One day the passenger door decided not to unlock, so I had to open the driver side and get in, lean over and open it from the inside for my wife… I was going to order the part for the door to repair myself, but needed to get the funds.. While waiting for the funds, I was coming out of a store and went to unlock the driver side… You guessed it, it would not unlock! Now I had two doors that would not unlock. Sooooo while waiting for more funds to now repair two doors, I had to tie a string to the drivers door handle on the interior and feed it to the back drivers side door.. I had to the unlock the vehicle, open the drivers side, back passengers door and pull the string to open the drivers door.

4. LEAKS: From what I was told on the first day of owning this piece of crap, I was told that all British vehicles leak various fluids and get seepage. I did not think of it until the first car wash….. I ran it through after only owning it for a few days and when I got home I wanted to vacuum it out. The carpet was soaked on the passenger side with water leaking from somewhere under the dash board and behind the glove compartment. I took it to the dealers who were perplexed and could not find and signs of a leak. Apparently I was told about some stupid cowl that is supposed to stop this, but never tried it… By and by I did not care anymore.. This vehicle was a huge let down.

5. THE THREE AMIGOS: Here is a link to a forum where you can read about it -http://www.roversnorth.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1209

This is where you are driving and all of a sudden you hear three chimes – ding! ding! ding! You look at your dashboard and you no longer have antilock brakes, down hill descent and traction control…. Hence the term, three amigos… This still happens to my three other friends who still have their Discoveries.

6. HEADLIGHTS: They went dim and finally died for no reason at all! The bulb were brand new, the fuses were fine.. After investigating the hell out of it, it was discovered that the connectors were corroded. Seriously, this is supposed to be a bush vehicle!

7. MORE LEAKS: It not only leaks oil, but antifreeze to! Again, while waiting for funds to repair the antifreeze leak which was a very slow leak, all hell broke loose… Literally! I had to pop the hood every day and top off the anti freeze.. One evening in a parking lot of a store, a friend comes up to me and says that you vehicle is pissing everywhere…. I look under the truck and the antifreeze is spilling out, emptying completely.

That’s not all, it leaks steering fluid as well! To the point where I had to get that whole thing replaced because it made horrid noises when steering.

8. THE DRAG ROD: My steering was unaffected, however while checking under the vehicle, the drag rod was so loose I had to take it in the very next day! My mechanic friends as well as the mechanic who was going to repair it said that I was lucky because it could come off anytime. This was repaired the same time as the antifreeze leak.

9. THE CD CHANGER: It holds six cd’s…. Heaven forbid you can listen to your music because when you switch between cd’s it will display a cd error message and with this – no more music.. You need to open the area under the passenger seat and press a button to get the cd holder out… Easy huh? No! You can press it once twice and up to 20 times before it decides to pop out… Then you put it back in again to cycle through the cd’s only to hear it stop the cycling process and get stuck again… Repeat again and pray!

10. THE BUMPER: I have owned many vehicles in my life and I have never gone through bumpers as I have with this vehicle! When driving it is inevitable to hit a pothole at any speed, depend on where you are driving. In a Chicago winter, anyone can tell you that our streets suck! Going at a normal speed and hitting the occasional pothole never bothered any of my previous vehicles… But not the famous Land Rover! Nope!!!! Upon reaching my destination I would check the bumper to not only find that some screws had fallen out, but some were even cracked…. Four bumpers later!!! This all happened on potholes that should not have done any damage to a vehicle while going the speed limit!

11. THE CONSOLE: Would not lock shut anymore and just rested above it’s clamp.

12. THE COIN HOLDER: Would not slide in or out anymore and was a bitch to open.

13. THE CUP HOLDER: In the back passenger seat the middle armrest has a cup holder. A friend lowered it to put his drink in. You need to push I n order for it to pop out on it’s own. It shot out and went to pieces.

14. THE COFFEE MUG: Really? Even this is crap, the base keeps falling off… Seriously whoever they pay to make these can’t even make these work the way that they are supposed to!!

15. THE SIDE MIRRORS: The mechanism that allowed you to adjust it stopped working, and the pivot that they are on broke… Both of them! Thank God for duct tape!

The last few things may sound like I am nit picking, but even these small things have not happened on my old vehicles. I owned this truck since 2004 intending to use it for my archaeological work here, off roading if necessary! It has only been off road four times between 2004 – 2010, for the simple fact that I just did not trust it!!!

Some repairs were done by myself and mechanic friends, others by paid mechanics as the dealer is way expensive. And it only runs on premium gas!


Hardcore Land Rover owners call these things quirks and for some reason love torturing themselves and their wallets with these high maintenance pieces of crap! I had that thought process in the beginning until the magic wore off! It is sad that when you enter your vehicle and going somewhere quite a distance from home, that you have to worry if you will actually get there or get home!

These things started happening literally since day three or four and was still under warrantee, so I was able to bring it to the dealer back then.

When one of my paid mechanics, who was recommended by another of my Land Rover owning friends went under the hood, he found that the spark plugs were all put in haphazardly and this was not to long after it had come back from the actual dealer.


Again, I thought that I would get it and use it off road for my work. It IS great off road, but not worth it! I am glad that it is gone and wouldn’t piss on one to see which side it rolled off of…. Except for that old Defender back in Kenya that we use… That is one hell of a vehicle! Unfortunately as many have said here on this thread, they decided to make it a luxury vehicle which they never should have done.. Kind of like making a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.
 
DMelone said:
I usually never post, but I will for your sake! I love Land Rover; always have as we use a Defender in Kenya when on expedition (I am an archaeologist)..... That was a good truck as there were no computer/electrical parts or anything else that could go wrong. It was indestructible and was only four wheels and a steering wheel and the windows were hand cranks.

That is where the fun stops!

I had a Discovery... Beautiful vehicle to look at and drive but not fun to repair!! I finally got rid of it two weeks ago and had it since 2004. I am relieved to get rid of it as it has cost me thousands to repair... I was too proud (read stupid, stubborn and pig headed) to let it sink in because, well because it was my dream vehicle... Not anymore!

Here is a list of things that went wrong.... All the time!

1. THE BRAKES: Every 10 to 15 thousand miles they had to be changed until I had American kevlar brakes installed. The British brakes were too soft and wore out very easily!

2. THE WINDOWS: All of the computerized windows have broken and I had to order parts from Atlantic British to repair them myself… The gears for the windows are all cheap plastic.

3. THE DOORS: This was truly my favorite! The rear cargo door would not unlock, we tried various things and finally used a silicone spray, which worked. One day the passenger door decided not to unlock, so I had to open the driver side and get in, lean over and open it from the inside for my wife… I was going to order the part for the door to repair myself, but needed to get the funds.. While waiting for the funds, I was coming out of a store and went to unlock the driver side… You guessed it, it would not unlock! Now I had two doors that would not unlock. Sooooo while waiting for more funds to now repair two doors, I had to tie a string to the drivers door handle on the interior and feed it to the back drivers side door.. I had to the unlock the vehicle, open the drivers side, back passengers door and pull the string to open the drivers door.

4. LEAKS: From what I was told on the first day of owning this piece of crap, I was told that all British vehicles leak various fluids and get seepage. I did not think of it until the first car wash….. I ran it through after only owning it for a few days and when I got home I wanted to vacuum it out. The carpet was soaked on the passenger side with water leaking from somewhere under the dash board and behind the glove compartment. I took it to the dealers who were perplexed and could not find and signs of a leak. Apparently I was told about some stupid cowl that is supposed to stop this, but never tried it… By and by I did not care anymore.. This vehicle was a huge let down.

5. THE THREE AMIGOS: Here is a link to a forum where you can read about it -http://www.roversnorth.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1209

This is where you are driving and all of a sudden you hear three chimes – ding! ding! ding! You look at your dashboard and you no longer have antilock brakes, down hill descent and traction control…. Hence the term, three amigos… This still happens to my three other friends who still have their Discoveries.

6. HEADLIGHTS: They went dim and finally died for no reason at all! The bulb were brand new, the fuses were fine.. After investigating the hell out of it, it was discovered that the connectors were corroded. Seriously, this is supposed to be a bush vehicle!

7. MORE LEAKS: It not only leaks oil, but antifreeze to! Again, while waiting for funds to repair the antifreeze leak which was a very slow leak, all hell broke loose… Literally! I had to pop the hood every day and top off the anti freeze.. One evening in a parking lot of a store, a friend comes up to me and says that you vehicle is pissing everywhere…. I look under the truck and the antifreeze is spilling out, emptying completely.

That’s not all, it leaks steering fluid as well! To the point where I had to get that whole thing replaced because it made horrid noises when steering.

8. THE DRAG ROD: My steering was unaffected, however while checking under the vehicle, the drag rod was so loose I had to take it in the very next day! My mechanic friends as well as the mechanic who was going to repair it said that I was lucky because it could come off anytime. This was repaired the same time as the antifreeze leak.

9. THE CD CHANGER: It holds six cd’s…. Heaven forbid you can listen to your music because when you switch between cd’s it will display a cd error message and with this – no more music.. You need to open the area under the passenger seat and press a button to get the cd holder out… Easy huh? No! You can press it once twice and up to 20 times before it decides to pop out… Then you put it back in again to cycle through the cd’s only to hear it stop the cycling process and get stuck again… Repeat again and pray!

10. THE BUMPER: I have owned many vehicles in my life and I have never gone through bumpers as I have with this vehicle! When driving it is inevitable to hit a pothole at any speed, depend on where you are driving. In a Chicago winter, anyone can tell you that our streets suck! Going at a normal speed and hitting the occasional pothole never bothered any of my previous vehicles… But not the famous Land Rover! Nope!!!! Upon reaching my destination I would check the bumper to not only find that some screws had fallen out, but some were even cracked…. Four bumpers later!!! This all happened on potholes that should not have done any damage to a vehicle while going the speed limit!

11. THE CONSOLE: Would not lock shut anymore and just rested above it’s clamp.

12. THE COIN HOLDER: Would not slide in or out anymore and was a bitch to open.

13. THE CUP HOLDER: In the back passenger seat the middle armrest has a cup holder. A friend lowered it to put his drink in. You need to push I n order for it to pop out on it’s own. It shot out and went to pieces.

14. THE COFFEE MUG: Really? Even this is crap, the base keeps falling off… Seriously whoever they pay to make these can’t even make these work the way that they are supposed to!!

15. THE SIDE MIRRORS: The mechanism that allowed you to adjust it stopped working, and the pivot that they are on broke… Both of them! Thank God for duct tape!

The last few things may sound like I am nit picking, but even these small things have not happened on my old vehicles. I owned this truck since 2004 intending to use it for my archaeological work here, off roading if necessary! It has only been off road four times between 2004 – 2010, for the simple fact that I just did not trust it!!!

Some repairs were done by myself and mechanic friends, others by paid mechanics as the dealer is way expensive. And it only runs on premium gas!


Hardcore Land Rover owners call these things quirks and for some reason love torturing themselves and their wallets with these high maintenance pieces of crap! I had that thought process in the beginning until the magic wore off! It is sad that when you enter your vehicle and going somewhere quite a distance from home, that you have to worry if you will actually get there or get home!

These things started happening literally since day three or four and was still under warrantee, so I was able to bring it to the dealer back then.

When one of my paid mechanics, who was recommended by another of my Land Rover owning friends went under the hood, he found that the spark plugs were all put in haphazardly and this was not to long after it had come back from the actual dealer.


Again, I thought that I would get it and use it off road for my work. It IS great off road, but not worth it! I am glad that it is gone and wouldn’t piss on one to see which side it rolled off of…. Except for that old Defender back in Kenya that we use… That is one hell of a vehicle! Unfortunately as many have said here on this thread, they decided to make it a luxury vehicle which they never should have done.. Kind of like making a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.
Click to expand...

The problem with yours is that it was built after BMW sold the company to Ford. And you know what "Ford" means: "Fix it again, Tony."
 
JohnTheTexican said:
The problem with yours is that it was built after BMW sold the company to Ford. And you know what "Ford" means: "Fix it again, Tony."
Click to expand...

Uh... lets see. Fix It Again Tony... I'm pretty sure that doesn't spell Ford. The proper backronym is Fix Or Repair Daily. My dad LOVES to go over all the backronyms for unreliable cars. :D

Zero
 
Zero_Time said:
Uh... lets see. Fix It Again Tony... I'm pretty sure that doesn't spell Ford. The proper backronym is Fix Or Repair Daily. My dad LOVES to go over all the backronyms for unreliable cars. :D

Zero
Click to expand...

That's a joke, son, a flag-waver! You're built too low! The fast one go over your head! You got a hole in your glove! I keep pitchin' 'em and you keep missin' 'em! You gotta keep your eye on the ball! Eye! Ball! Eyeball! I almost had a gag, son--joke, that is.
 
I have had plenty of Rovers and own a 57' Series pickup , Defenders, Range Rovers etc.

Just sold a 95 Rover with 250,000 miles on it, have another about to hit 300,000. Yes they are like girlfriends. love em, hate em, love em, hate em. Having driven them under the most extreme conditions created. There is nothing better than a Land Rover. Period. If you are going to do battle at the mall or just snow or dirt then a mid 90's Land Cruiser/Lexus LX450 (which I also own in Afghanistan) is my suggestion. Land Rovers are like single malt scotches or a favorite sweater. Others will mock you but they can't replace that special satisfaction from that special bond.

Everything you have heard about both brands is true. If you are a common sense person then you probably want a Subaru :)) Hope that helps
 
Had a discovery about a decade ago...was many miles from a dealer when I blew a waterpump....2 weeks to get one/get it fixed...yeah, I sold it. Went back to jeeps.

Have had a woody for a Defender for most of my adult life. Maybe one day.

Had a '68 Cruiser - still hate the bastard that caught me in a low place knowing I needed cash and robbed me of it. That thing was awesome. It was also 19 years ago and I'm still mad at him, if that tells ya anything.
 
ivan51 said:
did i read this right? they want $100k for one?:eek:
Click to expand...

Funny thing is when you build a car one at a time by hand the labor costs go through the roof.;) Not to mention the profit margin you need to stay alive. But in Cali where people have more $$$ than brains I guess the guy can make a living.


Paul
 
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