The time has finally come to say goodbye to our Ford built, British engineered, Indian owned automobile – a. k. a. the Land Rover. Friends in the states were sometimes in awe when they heard we drove a Land Rover. It was obvious that they had been conned by some great marketing and never had the misfortune to own one of the nasty beasts. I’m convinced that the reason they are so high priced when new is that, the company knows they don’t really have any extra parts to make repairs. Therefore they price them at a ridiculous number to keep people from buying the darned things in the first place. No one in the right mind should ever purchase one and certainly not a used one with an unknown past.
Let me highlight a few of the reasons I hated that machine.
It had the turning radius of a dump truck (loaded and no power steering).
No matter the age of the batteries, the keyless entry doohickey only worked when pressed against the front drivers side window.
The bottom fell out of the driver’s seat several months ago, so we’ve been sitting on the pillow to keep our butts from getting stuck down in the seat.
Both sun roofs (yes we were blassed with two) and all four windows leaked a LOT.
Yes – we live in a desert, but it’s very dusty and the windshield wiper squirters overshot the windshield and landed on the front sun roof and dripped back in on the arm of the driver.
The window leaking problem necessitated taking along an empty garbage bag to the car wash. I’d cover up the driver’s seat pillow so that I had a dry seat on the way home. This was in the manual car wash. My only trip though the automatic left me slightly traumatized and very wet.
The top setting on the fan only worked for the first mile of any trip. In a place that reaches 110 degrees for weeks on end – this is a bit bothersome.
The radio quit working last time they took the dash off to fix the electrical fault that left me stranded several times. (Yes – that is a cassette player)
Even when the radio did work, reception was a bit limited after the antennae fell off. When we tried to have some of the broken bits fixed at th
e Land Rover dealership, parts were very had to get. The side mirror got broken several months ago and they still hadn’t been able to get a new one.
Those days are gone forever and we’ve jumped light years in automotive technology.
We are now proud owners of a 2002 Holden Jackaroo. It is an amazing vehicle – everything works! I mean – each and every button with no jiggling or cursing. We have tinted windows, running boards, alloy wheels, tow bar, bull bar (for bouncing cows and kangaroos), cruise control, 4 wheel drive, power steering, radio, 10 CD stacker, spot lights, long range fuel tanks, UHF radio, snorkel, the remote lock doohickey that works from across the parking lot. Best of all, there are even little bitty wipers on the head lights. (Don’t know how useful there are in the desert, but they are very cute.)
I am a happy camper (as long as I don’t have to actually camp)!
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