Thread: What did you do with or to your Disco today

Originally Posted by DeepBarney

My time with this Land Rover has taught me that the design was exemplary. The implementation of that design and follow through, is a bit wanting.

Jeremy Clarkson said it best in the Top Gear Bolivian Special. I now truly know what he meant.

Still, I love this car. It's got character. Even if it is a character I want to drive out into the outback and set on fire half the time.

Well, Jeremy did buy, online, a 3.9 FI RR, and wound up with a 3.5 carby version....
But yes, it was a stunning piece of design ( the British were so good at that ), let down so badly by execution.
If you read history at all, it isn't hard to see why this was. WW2 was an incredible drain on everyone involved, except for the US. When the war ended, the US was the richest country on earth. They then chose to do repatriation and remedial works in Japan and Germany, and ti a lesser extent Italy.
Great Britain, remember them, the first to take on the Nazis, was left to rebuild alone, with the Americans insisting they paid all the "Lend Lease" agreements they forced on them in the time before they joined the war proper. Not sure John Wayne or Ben Afflick ever mentioned that.

The Range Rover could have been the best car the world has ever seen. Instead, everyone buys Landcruisers. So, blame Roosevelt and McArthur, because they set up Japan to rule the world. Guilty conscience? Who knows?
The Range Rover changed everything, and was the most important car ever made. But everyone forgot....

Expecting a hit on this one..

Cant say they i have felt that my D1 was a badly built vehicle, of course you curse the crap out of it when you have issues but then you fix it and think that was easy compared to other makes.

Compared to every American car I've ever worked on (and I've wrenched on a fair few) they're not near as easy to fix. That said they're not unusually difficult.

As far as the spot of history, I am aware of what occurred economically following WW2. But in my opinion that doesn't excuse Land Rover for such poor fit and finish circa 1997 (several shoddily secured trim pieces come to mind).

This all said, I'd love to have this car back home in the States and will likely own another Landy (an imported Defender or Series would be particularly neat).

Originally Posted by DeepBarney

As far as the spot of history, I am aware of what occurred economically following WW2. But in my opinion that doesn't excuse Land Rover for such poor fit and finish circa 1997 (several shoddily secured trim pieces come to mind).

.

No, I agree, but I was responding to your comment re "an exemplary piece of design", done back in the days of Harold Wilson ant the Trade Unions running GB.

And, it has to be said, the US turned out some shoddy cars as well, as a lot of Jeep owners wiill testify.

Oh I won't argue that. Just about every vehicle manufactured in the US during the 80's was crap (not to say they're aren't examples on either side of that era that also were crap), but they still remain easy to work on pieces of crap. But then I suppose American auto design always has been a bit simpler sometimes to the point of being crude.

Jeeps were actually quite good up until the mid 80's when AMC owned them

Fitted the snorkel to the 300Tdi.
Damned cheap crapo products tho!
I've never fitted a snorkel, but the process looked easy nuff.
Put that here, and that there and eventually you have a snorkelled intake.

The type I got was a cheap $100 special copy of what looks like a Safari, the s-bend tube(btw air box side and snorkel inner wing tube bit)was a hard plastic type. Way too loose to not use a hose clamp.
Problem was that the tube was a hard plastic!
The type that hose clamps have no effect on
Like trying to use a hose clamp on a 2.5" exhaust to clamp onto a 2" exhaust.
Had to cut 4 slots(easy) with a hacksaw .. but the point is that it should have been done at the factory!
Or a softer material should have been used for the s-bend tube.

Originally Posted by DeepBarney

Oh I won't argue that. Just about every vehicle manufactured in the US during the 80's was crap (not to say they're aren't examples on either side of that era that also were crap), but they still remain easy to work on pieces of crap. But then I suppose American auto design always has been a bit simpler sometimes to the point of being crude.

Lol.. The well known Crown Vic, or the Chevy Caprice, spring to mind.. These cars were, of course, available here, in disguise, but smaller, so jobs like plug changes went from simple to difficult.