Landrover

I am biased towards what i consider to be the best four wheel drive available as I have owned and driven various Land Rover products over the years.

My fascination with them started when i was very young as I was brought up in a rural community in Cheshire, England. The only vehicles i saw on farms were Land Rovers. From the very earliest examples called the Series One right though to the much more modern Defenders. The Defender still looks like the very earliest even though it is 60 years younger. The occasional farm may have had a Range Rover but this was usually used for special occasions. But all products in the Land Rover range are all capable off roaders some more than others.

The vehicles I have owned over the years have been a 1980 Series Three short wheelbase, 1970 Series 2A short wheelbase, both 2.25 litre 4 cylinder petrol. The Series 2A also had a liquid petroleum gas conversion (L.P.G.). More recently I had a 1990 V8 Discovery (3 door) and now presently running a 1998 Freelander with the 1.8 litre petrol engine.

During my time working on farms I have had the opportunity to drive all these vehicles in an off road situation and they all coped admirably over all terrains. These vary from steep grassy inclines to muddy fields and tractor rutted muddy roads across the farm.

An off road vehicle in my opinion needs to be able to cope with roads surfaced with tarmac too. The Freelander is a bit more road biased as it doesn't possess a low ratio gearbox but it has quite a low ratio first gear and a few gizmo's to aid its off road ability. These are called Hill Descent Control (H.D.C.) and Electronic Brake Distrubution (E.B.D.) and allow the vehicle to descent under control at low speed using the brakes to control the speed of descent.

The models that Jeep produce are also very competent machines and it was back 60 years ago that the first Land Rovers were based on as the founders of the Land Rover had one on there farm on Anglesey, Wales.

In the United Kingdom we have mainly Land Rovers and Japanese 4x4's on the roads with very few American machines. I have driven a few of these Japanese off roaders but they are only pretenders to the throne of best off road vehicle. They are too road biased to give any serious opposition to the true king of the off roaders, the Land Rover.

Useful websites are
www.landrover.co.uk

I owned a 1990 3 door V8i up untill recently when i bought a 1998 freelander. This is the 3.5 litre buick based engine fitted to many Rovers and Land Rovers over the years. A well tried and trusted engine that can be tweaked to gain more power. I paid £3000 for it used back in about 2001 I think.
Mine was the one of the early ones with 3 doors (H plate), it had the go any where ability which you expect of a land rover product. The V8 was helpful in this respect.

Unfortuantly I had to sell it as it required alot of expense for the MOT, but if there had been no problems with it I would have kept it. It was mechanical problems due to the fact it had done well over 100,000 miles but the engine was still strong. I had upgraded the air filter to a K&N filter which i found gave slightly more power as the engine could breathe better and the maintainance was easier.
The minor niggles i had with it were the rear door could only be opened from the inside due to a tiny spring breaking in the door mechanism. I tried to fix it but didnt have the dexterity to do it but if you have small hands it may be easier.
The front sunroof leaked especially if it was parked on a slight angle so that caused staining onto the front seats.
Starting was also tempormental due to a poor connection on the solenoid but once you knew the technique it would start fine. Most of the time you wouldnt need to pop the bonnet to fiddle with it though.

I would buy one again but would make sure it had an LPG conversion in order to make it cheaper to run, but would also go for a 5 door as it is much more practical.
Recommended for families and also those who like a powerful toy. It would out perform most cars at traffic light grand prixs.