Quote: Originally posted by brianconwy on 09/10/2008
Only the land cruiser can be classed as good a car as discos and range rovers and they are expensive. Some japanese cars are well known to have some major reliability problems with turbos blowing etc.
"Good" is a meaningless word, unless you add context.
In the parts of the world where your life might depend on your vehicle - such as Australia and Africa, the Landcruiser is the most common due to its outstanding toughness, reliability and the ready availability of spares. Its main competitor in those areas is the Nissan Patrol - not the Disco or Range Rover, which are less common, comparitively expensive and unreliable.
The latest Disco and Range Rover are plusher, more sophisticated and better onroad solo than most/all of the Japanese and other far eastern offroaders. They are infinitely preferable as "footballers wife" cars too - I doubt that any of them drive a Patrol or Hyundai Terracan, for example.
I don't think a case can be made for Land Rovers of any kind being better towcars than many of the far eastern alternatives. There's not a hairs breadth in offroad competence between the Disco, Range Rover, Landcruiser and Nissan Patrol over very difficult ground - though the Defender 90 is definitely better and most or all of the other Japanese and other far eastern "offroaders" are worse or much worse.
Discos and Range Rovers are definitely better at being expensive - and at being made in the UK (at the moment). They are also way better at having green oval badges on them, which is all that seems to matter for many of their owners.
Cheers
Andrew