Thread: L660 or L663

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

Range Rovers seem to do very well off road.

On weekend jaunts LOL The mythology that the Range Rover is excellent off road is rarely put into practice.

...not many working the cattle stations, farms, mines or even extended overlanding that I can see.

Originally Posted by Zeros

On weekend jaunts LOL The mythology that the Range Rover is excellent off road is rarely put into practice.

...not many working the cattle stations, farms, mines or even extended overlanding that I can see.

Haha isn't the weekend when most people go four wheel driving

Seriously though you would have to admit, Working the cattle station farms and Mines are not the target market of the Range Rover and never have been.

In terms of off road capability Range Rover have always been at the forefront, whether people use it's breadth of capability is another thing.

We were on at North Stradbroke over the break in our Range Rover classic and it was amazing and saw multiple Brand new Range Rover sports driving down the beach gliding across the top of very soft deep sand, making it look so easy compared to other big heavy rigs. Defenders were also plentiful as were Discovery 1 and 2's. It seems that people that live in the harsh salty environment of Islands love Land Rovers, same on Moreton especially south.

If you gave me a standard Range Rover classic and a standard Range Rover Vogue I know which one I would be more comfortable in going for a big lap in right now.. believe it or not it would be the Range Rover Vogue.

“Seriously though you would have to admit, Working the cattle station farms and Mines are not the target market of the Range Rover and never have been.”

Correct, but they used to be for Defender. And in this thread we’re only talking about Range Rover in the context of what the new Defender might or might not be.

Strictly speaking, the Defender has never had the target market of cattle stations farms and mines.

This was the target market for the original Landrover, and it was the major player in this market from about 1950 to 1975. By then the market was slipping, partly because the shortage of supply for Landrovers in the 1960s allowed the Japs in. And they took advantage of this entry, evolving their offerings rapidly, while Landrover languished as the cash cow for BL through the seventies, and as the Japs made inroads into the car market in Australia, enabling them to spread their dealers as BL's dealers shrank, as their car market evaporated in an atmosphere of poor quality and second rate designs.

The last gasp in this market was the 110, which retained a foothold with coils and full time four wheel drive that the competition lacked, and they were cheap. And the army bought a lot of them.

Two years (1989-91) off the market left the Defender, when it was introduced, mainly selling to the recreational market, albeit still with a residual workhorse market. The major mining sector market ceased to be available as safety ratings became mandatory there in the 1990s. Lack of dealers in rural areas saw the residual farm and station market shrink to virtually nothing well before the end of Defender production. And the city dealers as well as JRA tended to regard the Defender as an embarrassment among their Discoveries and Rangerovers, as they pitched their appeal to the urban luxury market.

So, as I see it, the Defender has never had this as its target market in Australia, and its predecessors had largely lost this market by the end of the eighties.

Originally Posted by blackrangie

Haha isn't the weekend when most people go four wheel driving

Seriously though you would have to admit, Working the cattle station farms and Mines are not the target market of the Range Rover and never have been.

In terms of off road capability Range Rover have always been at the forefront, whether people use it's breadth of capability is another thing.

We were on at North Stradbroke over the break in our Range Rover classic and it was amazing and saw multiple Brand new Range Rover sports driving down the beach gliding across the top of very soft deep sand, making it look so easy compared to other big heavy rigs. Defenders were also plentiful as were Discovery 1 and 2's. It seems that people that live in the harsh salty environment of Islands love Land Rovers, same on Moreton especially south.

If you gave me a standard Range Rover classic and a standard Range Rover Vogue I know which one I would be more comfortable in going for a big lap in right now.. believe it or not it would be the Range Rover Vogue.

Yes, I noticed the same thing when on North Straddie over the New Year in our Defender. Lot of Defenders and RRSs ambling about.
We never looked like getting stuck, even when we had to do a three-point U-turn with the camper on to avoid a sudden rise in the tide which had blocked the beach. The only vehicles I saw have problems on the beach were Tritons, strangely enough. That might be mainly caused by driving style, not the vehicle, of course.

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

Yes, I noticed the same thing when on North Straddie over the New Year in our Defender. Lot of Defenders and RRSs ambling about.
We never looked like getting stuck, even when we had to do a three-point U-turn with the camper on to avoid a sudden rise in the tide which had blocked the beach. The only vehicles I saw have problems on the beach were Tritons, strangely enough. That might be mainly caused by driving style, not the vehicle, of course.

Wasn't you was it? very nice!

No, mine has silver alloys.

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

........ That might be mainly caused by driving style, not the vehicle, of course.

In my experience, sand driving is about 60% driver, 30% tyre pressure and 10% vehicle.

But driving style can be a very strong influence in the type of vehicle a driver selects, so that it can look to an outsider as if it is the vehicle.