You always sell the one you love (Land Rover Series III)

Member Name: naturenet

Product:	Land Rover Series III
Date:	16/07/01 (1555 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fun, Offroad dream, cheap

Disadvantages: Shakes a lot, Onroad nightmare, drinks petrol

I sold it - and wept. Five years later, not a day passes without I think about buying another. I even have a photo of it on my website, alongside my children. So why did it have to go?

Too noisy? Certainly not. The noise of one of these things going by is unmistakable, especially if the traditional Avon Rangers are the chosen tyres. But if you think that’s noisy you just try getting in one, and see how you like that noise. Chose the soft-top option, and you also have the pleasure of wind and the clatter of bits of canvas and rigging beating you around the head. But that’s Ok, we’ll forgive it. You can take the roof off and the door-tops off and even the windscreen off if you really want to, and it’s still legal to drive, even if you do get flies in your teeth. The cheapest convertible you can get.

Too rough a ride? Never. As you can read in ’Masochism made Easy’ it’s a wonderful, unbeatable ride offroad. But anywhere else, it’s like driving a cow. Yes, including the smell (that’s either burning clutch or muddy exhaust – both smell like, err, well, you know). But once you drive across a field once or twice – and once is never enough – you won’t care.

Too hard to maintain? Hardly. Even I managed most of it, and there’s so much room under the bonnet that the most cack-handed of mechanics managed a few simple operations. What’s more, for the bigger job land-rover mechanics are two a penny, and parts are not much more. Buy another Landy and strip it down, if you’ve got the room. So long as the chassis isn’t too rusty nothing else really matters if you’ve got an MOT.

Too much fun? Well, almost. In the few years we had it we were wedding car for two different lots of friends, who wanted it shone up and open-topped to drive them to and from the church. Once we were so late that we only polished the side that was going to be in the
photos – the rest was covered in ‘rustic architecture’ straight from the farmyard. They couldn’t work out why we had to back down the road when it turned out to be the wrong side… happy days. Everyone loves it, and asks how old it is, and can they buy it (they never really want to) and can they play with the pretty coloured knobs. It’s a bit like having a big, friendly dog. A nuisance, not really much practical use, but very, very worthwhile.

But, like some dogs, even our beloved Landy had to go. ‘Why?’ you may be moved to ask if you choose to indulge me. The answer was in the first paragraph: the great change of life which accompanies the arrival of children into the family. Lots of very nice but impractical things have to go - the Land-Rover was one. After weeks of trying to budget to fit a roll-cage and child-seats in the back, I realised that it just wasn’t going to work. Sure, it could be done. But the result would not be much good. And babies just don’t appreciate that wind in their hair, if they have any. So it went. We bought an old Range-Rover instead on the principle that it would be like a Land-Rover with seats in the back. That was interesting. If you want to know how it went, watch out for the next opinion…

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