Thread: Solihul ... How times have changed

Originally Posted by Stuuu

John my Aussie history isn't fantastic but Theiss used the first Landcruisers on the Snowy scheme didn't he?

I don't know for certain the answer to that. Certainly they were involved as a contractor in the Snowy scheme, and almost certainly the first company to use Toyotas there. But they were a Queensland company, and it is pretty likely that they would have first used Toyotas on their home ground. Also, I have no idea of the relative timing of their Snowy involvement and their import of Toyotas. I seem to remember that their first Toyotas were imported in about 1958, possibly a year or two earlier, but I have no idea when they started Snowy work, could have been earlier or later - the scheme as a whole started right after the war.

John

Originally Posted by Stuuu

John my Aussie history isn't fantastic but Theiss used the first Landcruisers on the Snowy scheme didn't he?

"More than 390,000 LandCruisers have been sold since the vehicle's first appearance on the Snowy Mountains construction in 1959.

Sir Leslie Thiess, head of Thiess Constructions, was impressed by a privately imported LandCruiser working on his Tumut Ponds site." Toyota Landcruiser Celebrates Snowy Mountains Anniversary newsarticle

Originally Posted by Rosco

..., they incorporated all of his suggested modifications. He was later advised they took great interest in feedback from Aus and African users and took all the comments on board.

When I read here all the gripes about this very issue, I can't help but wonder where along the road to developing this marque, that they so badly lost the plot.

Cheers

What happened was British Leyland. The control was taken out of the hands of the people and engineers who had developed the marque and handed over to Lord Stokes, a Triumph man. The automotive megalith was so diverse they stopped listening to the customers outside the UK and the rest is history.

Just this week a stallwart of Land Rovers in Sydney and owner of a number of series vehicles is getting rid of his L322 RR and looking at a LandCruiser 200 series. All because of reliability and servicing issues.

Diana

Thanks for that Diana - I thought I remembered the advertising shots of the ol' 3 speed cruiser at the Snowies.

I'm sure that Land Rover listen to the feedback of their main customer base and incorporate good suggestions into future models:

"I suggest a greater range of colours for the leather seats, perhaps with contrasting piping..."

"Some more cupholders would be good, particularly for the 3rd row passengers...."

"What sort of paint protection do you offer? I can't stand my Range Rover being dirty!"