It's Gorra Go

[Surf01]

Interesting Thread!

This makes me smile all the time,when people say Toyotas don't rust.They do,and shockingly! The 4 runners rot at the door bottoms,inner and outer arches,sil sections and the boot lids. The 95 Range Rover I owned for 5 years was immaculate body wise but the quality of the interior plastiuc was woefull ,compared to the Toyota.
The V8 in the Range Rover is just music!!!!!

Regards

Mark

Not disputing that they do rust, but have you see a LR after the same number of dips in the sea. These guys reverse the rear end into the salt water to off load the boat. A lot of these vehicles have a special rubber coating sprayed on and water cannot penetrate which gives the vehicle a longer life. That is all vehicles.
BTw I used to swear by LR until one day I had to walk home through the bush! Gear lever broke off!

[rodp]

Not fairy stories as I lived and drove in Africa for 22 years on roads that weren't really roads spending weeks at a time in the bush . The real reason was because the Toyota LC was more reliable and could cope with any condition thrown at it. Also they were less prone to rust and many fishermen will testify to this. One of the biggest problems with LR was the half shaft snapping although this mainly driver error coupled with poor design. The LR idea was based on the American Jeep initially.
BTW LR had a manufacturing plant in Blackheath outside Cape Town in South African and I think another in the former colony of Rhodesia. Both are now closed.
Toyota has a modern manufacturing factory at Prospecton outside Durban in South Africa which now exports vehicles. Landrover parts were always easier to obtain throughout Africa. The first Toyota was imported into SA in 1961.

LR's answer to the 1/2 shafts breaking is that it's a deliberate weak link, and one that you can get at even in deep clag. Better to change a 1/2 shaft than a prop or g/box. Quite how true this is I don't know but seeing as though they never uprated them, which would be cheap and easy, it's probably true.
The manufacturing plants in Africa were assembly plants for CKD vehicles, they still needed a lot of input from LR UK which they just couldn't do. Apparently, if I remember correctly, there were also a lot of problems with "the blicks" who made up most of the staff. Their version of quality control was just staying awake.
Bear in mind that most of what I remember is from conversations with LR staff 40 years ago so some details will have long gone.

When Toyota did eventually export to Africa etc it was hardly a mad rush to buy them, after all the war was still fresh in the minds of prospective buyers and Toyota was made by those infernal Nips. When LR decided to pull the plug is when Toyota started to make inroads, there was nothing else so folk had to buy them.
The same could be said for Australia about Toyota taking it from LR, except the Perentie blows the theory out of the water. I honestly don't know what the SA army use now, whether it's LR or Toyota but if I had to put money on it I wouldn't put it on them having used Toyota for very long if at all.

The bottom line is that Toyota did not take the trade from LR, it was already on the open market and Toyota stepped in. Right place at the right time, and good luck to them. It was purely a business choice to pull out of the third world markets and it seems (now) it was the right choice.
From a purely financial point of view LR is walking all over Toyota at the moment (and every other 4x4 maker) with the current line up, the profit margins must be huge.

As I said earlier, the future will be interesting, Tata have huge markets in the third world purely from the contacts they have, will they market the new Defender to take over from Toyota. They have the funds, they have the engineers and they have the plant, do they have the inclination ?

[BUSHWHACKER]

Have you bought one yet?

[rodp]

Have you bought one yet?

You mean "another" one, I already have a couple

[Sancho]

I've never owned (or driven) a defender. A mate had one and quite liked it, even though it was not exactly refined...

You mention, though, that you're planning to change your surf for a diesel disco. I presume that you've driven one but, in case you haven't, I would put that miles ahead of a surf in bland / soul-lessness. Unless by 'soul' you mean 'body roll', I can't see why anyone would ever want to own one of those things. I drove one for a weekend and I wanted to kill myself - http://www.hiluxsurf.co.uk/showthrea...ight=discovery

[rodp]

I've never owned (or driven) a defender. A mate had one and quite liked it, even though it was not exactly refined...

You mention, though, that you're planning to change your surf for a diesel disco. I presume that you've driven one but, in case you haven't, I would put that miles ahead of a surf in bland / soul-lessness. Unless by 'soul' you mean 'body roll', I can't see why anyone would ever want to own one of those things. I drove one for a weekend and I wanted to kill myself - http://www.hiluxsurf.co.uk/showthrea...ight=discovery

Maybe so, but if we all liked Surfs there wouldn't be enough to go round would there.

[KERRSURF]

Maybe so, but if we all liked Surfs there wouldn't be enough to go round would there.

And the scrappy's would be out stealing drain covers.

[ziggy]

i have had a land rover discovery i sold it as i did not like the body roll as for rust compare a surf of the same age, and the surf will win every time, partly beacause they have been in japan most of there life. if a disco has a sunroof then most of them leak leading to major rust probs.

i used to have a defender 90 as a work vehicle i liked it much better than the disco but i never had to pay the bills for fixing it at 3 years old it cost 2k to get it through an mot .the turning circle was a nightmare. but then they are largely produced to spend life on farms.i think they are overpriced for what they are my mate just paid 6k for an n reg 90. for that money he could have a very very nice surf. i tried to tell him

i think we all get attached to a particular make of vehicle and tend to stick with what we know on the whole, thats why im still with the same womman for 20 years time for a moddle change i think. but then no ,she is cheap to run and reliable and to replace her might cost me 3 times as much

[flounderbout]

I like Landrovers, but I couldn't get one, because of the punishment that I give 4x4s. In particular the kerb just outside Chelsea fire station where I park up for trips along the King's Road is seriously high, and in wet weather can be a death trap for the unwary.
Toyota's are the only way to go. Well, that and BMW M5s, which are magnificent in every way.