An update.

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Originally Posted by JDNSW

I agree there were lots of things that started with the Series 1, and were still there at the end of Series 3 production. One that comes to mind - broken gear levers - I've never broken any acxles, but I think either I, or someone else, has broken the gearlever on almost every Series Landrover I've ever driven! And, the gearlever broke on my 110! And the less said about Lucas electrics the better! (Although to be charitable, if you were building a car in Britain you had little choice.)

Another example I can think of in the way of product improvement - in 1966 I broke the bottom arm on the steering relay of my Series 2 - the replacement was markedly heftier. That was a chang made some time between 1958 and 1966.

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See? Experience differs. I have never seen a broken gear lever, even in LRs that I had to recover from ridiculous accidents, often upside down.

Lucas Electrics? Well, my first real experience of auto electrics was with Lucas, and I believe it scarred me for life.... Although I can beat it. I once had the (mis)fortune to have to work on a Hillman Minx, with a Smith's EasyDrive automatic gearbox. I doubt the Russians could have come up with something as diabolical as that stroke of genius. Sometimes I think we'd have been better off if Hitler had won. Robert Bosch at least had lecktricity beat.

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Originally Posted by johntins

See? Experience differs. I have never seen a broken gear lever, even in LRs that I had to recover from ridiculous accidents, often upside down.

The broken gearlevers have nothing to do with accidents, but rather with the fact that they have a stress concentration at the top of the ball, and movement of the ball tends to get stiff with dust exposure as it outside the gearbox.

Lucas Electrics? Well, my first real experience of auto electrics was with Lucas, and I believe it scarred me for life.... Although I can beat it. I once had the (mis)fortune to have to work on a Hillman Minx, with a Smith's EasyDrive automatic gearbox. I doubt the Russians could have come up with something as diabolical as that stroke of genius. Sometimes I think we'd have been better off if Hitler had won. Robert Bosch at least had lecktricity beat.

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One of the books I have, the autobiography of the man who founded a company that designed and built many of the torpedo boats used in WW2. In one passage he recounts an unreal scene where, during the 'phoney war', when Italy was neutral, he was in Milan trying to expedite the delivery of Isotta Fraschini engines for the boat contract he had - the head of the company was on the phone to Bosch urging them to speed up the delivery of magnetoes, which were the holdup on the engines. (After Italy entered the war, they were unable to complete any boats until Packard started supplying marinised Merlins.)

Marketing has a strong part to play in the success of many products. Toyota is a master.
Japanese quality is also a big factor. Consistent, suited to the market and low cost (of manufacturing). That's why Mazda was better than Ford on building vehicles to the same product specification. In some cases no measurable variations on build.

A big part of Toyota's success in Australia has been its dealer network - which is justified not by the sales and support of Landcruisers, but by the sales and support of cars. Landrover used to have a widespread dealer network, but they were never exclusive to the Landrover, and by the 1970s the market for their other brands (usually other brands that ended up as part of the same disastrous Leyland octopus) was rapidly disappearing as Australians turned to Japanese brands, with Toyota in the lead.

It's been admitted , JLR was taking the MICK with the concept models. But Defender will not be along the same lines of the original.

New Land Rover Defender ute 'number one' on local wish list

New Land Rover Defender ute ‘number one’ on local wish list

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Originally Posted by Drizzle

New Land Rover Defender ute ‘number one’ on local wish list

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They would be silly not to have one in the range.

But will it be a threat to the Jap offerings,i doubt it.

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Originally Posted by JDNSW

One of the books I have, the autobiography of the man who founded a company that designed and built many of the torpedo boats used in WW2. In one passage he recounts an unreal scene where, during the 'phoney war', when Italy was neutral, he was in Milan trying to expedite the delivery of Isotta Fraschini engines for the boat contract he had - the head of the company was on the phone to Bosch urging them to speed up the delivery of magnetoes, which were the holdup on the engines. (After Italy entered the war, they were unable to complete any boats until Packard started supplying marinised Merlins.)

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John, was that in some way connected with the Fairmile range of boats? Those were the marine equivalent of Geoffrey DeHavilland's Mosquito.

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Originally Posted by johntins

John, was that in some way connected with the Fairmile range of boats? Those were the marine equivalent of Geoffrey DeHavilland's Mosquito.

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If I could find the book, I would be able to answer that - I know the book is somewhere among the 5-6,000 I have, but they are not all that well organised, and the fact that I can't remember either the name of the author or the name of the book makes a slight problem!

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Originally Posted by JDNSW

If I could find the book, I would be able to answer that - I know the book is somewhere among the 5-6,000 I have, but they are not all that well organised, and the fact that I can't remember either the name of the author or the name of the book makes a slight problem!

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"5-6000" book?!....Wow, respect to you.
I love books, I have my father's 5 row glass fronted book case, with many of the family's old books in there. I also have a few hundred of my own, focusing on fairly "diverse" subjects such as The Third Reich, Steam Engines, U.S. Muscle Cars, Aussie Motorsport, characters like Ned Kelly, James Dean, Steve Mcqueen etc,....like I said ,.."diverse".....Oh, nearly forgot, I've got a several on LandRover too!
Do you have any particular focus?
Pickles.