Re: Why do we drive them

Almost everybody around us says "wow, cool, I have ever been dreaming of such a car, but...(familiy/children/costs/the wive/fuel consumption/whatever)" why the hell do they not kame their dream come true?? Instead they buy a VW or Ford or BMW at twice the price they would have to spend for a good landy... Fools!

regards - Ralph

For me it's about character I think. it's a 10 minute walk from my house to the landy (I live in a fishing village with skinny streets, really skinny) and when I walk along to it I smile as soon as I see it poking up above the line of cars, I can't help it, I just grin like a bloody idiot.

I get in it and the height of it puts me at about the same height I would be if I was standing next to it, none of this stooping down, and I like that, I'm used to being bigger than people around me at 6'4" and I'm the same height in my landy.

I start the engine up and let it warm up for 5 minutes and it feels like home.

then I pull away and manovre out of the tiny parking space with the ease that is absent from most smaller car drivers around here, it makes me feel good about my abilities.

when I'm driving around everyone I know can recognise me easily so I get plenty waves, and of couse I always exchenge a wave and a stupid grin with other land rover drivers.

my work takes me into rough countryside and I feel confident going there in my landy, anywhere I think I can go I have been able to, my landy has not failed me yet. and I'd never get to such places on foot as I can't walk further than 100 yards at a time.

when I'm working on the landy it's usually so easy and everthing is tough and chunky, and I'm always being approached by people who used to have one or have friends who have them and have fond memories and/or amusing stories involving said landy.

I was even chatting to another photographer I know, he's part-time and hi his day job he has to drive a landy and he insisted he hates them, but he still had a selection of good things to say about them, and he's the only person I've ever met who doesn't like them.

I go to pick the kids up from school and I park among the shiny mercedes and pristine discos and rangies and there I am in my mud-splattered landy, and all the kids love-it, big chunky tyres, mud-spray, daft bloke in it in a funny hat, they always want to stop and look at it, the boys come over with comments like "cool truck" or "I like your landy" or sometimes, "cool jeep" (little sod).

Land Rovers are very very cool. they are what cars should be.

you drive it and you feel like you are driving it. when I drive most cars I look at thinking "do I actually need to be here?".

land rovers, we love-em. everyone loves-em.

Regards. Mark.(AKA, Mr.Nice.)

Do you live on the road then?

Same with my wife. When we come back from a walk and do not have the landy in sight she urges me to walk past it, just to touch it and say "hi", and I enjoy this, too *g*

This was really interesting, I never hat expected such a car to be so easy to handle, in fact much better than most normal cars.

In deed!

Sure you do!

regards - Ralph

Hi Mark,

Saw your post, and on the off-chance typed Mark Varley into the Alamy search box, and found a lovely set of pics!

Your Landy sentiments regarding character ring a bell with me, but the major plus for me is the feeling that I have the Solution to any transport problem which is likely to arise.

From another Landy-owning photographer, Pat

Pat Bennett Email : snipped-for-privacy@cheshirewildlife.co.uk Website :

Hear Hear .....

Well said that man i couldent agree more :)

You know what I meant!

Alex

Twas Tue, 02 Nov 2004 20:55:02 +0000 when Pat Bennett put finger to keyboard producing:

That's odd, I don't have anything on Alamy yet...

I was out photographing the flooding recently, it was causing problems for lots of people with closed roads under a couple of feet of water. not a problem for me :oD

Regards. Mark.(AKA, Mr.Nice.)

Quite. Apart from I absolutely refuse to call any of my Land Rovers 'Landy's'.

Steve. Suffolk. remove 'knujon' to e-mail

Ought to make bumper stickers:

"It's not a bloody JEEP!"

A while ago I was trying to find my old drumming teacher's new house here in Brussels. The instructions I'd found on the internet (TIP: Mapblast can't tell the difference between asphalt and mud) took us up a dreadful farm track which, unbeknownst to us, actually ended up in the nice paved little suburb street where the house is. But we didn't know that at the time, so my dad turned the Saab around (the 9-5 is a great car, but not in eight-inch ruts and mud) with some difficulty and we said "bugger this for a lark".

If I'd had my Landy then we wouldn't have even noticed.

I have a sticker on mine that says :- 'The Toyota in front is my crumple zone' :-)

Andy P

Then there is another Mark Varley! Go to

Pat

Pat Bennett Email : snipped-for-privacy@cheshirewildlife.co.uk Website :

Twas Wed, 03 Nov 2004 15:19:28 GMT when snipped-for-privacy@nokia.com put finger to keyboard producing:

I gotta get me one of those..

Regards. Mark.(AKA, Mr.Nice.)

Too polite and indescriptive?

P.

That's because Mondeo's aren't marking territory in the same way

Hi Mark,

Is the parking area is away from other folks houses?

The reason I ask is that we had a neighbour who would, in the winter, come out, start his car and go back in to leave it 'warming up'. The exhaust note seemed to be at the resonant frequency of our hourse and was very annoying. ;-(

Luckily the Police 'had a word' with him before I had to .. (I believe it's an offence to leave a vehicle empty oin the public highway with the engine running or summat)

That's on top of the environmental issues (and I know Land Rovers and the environment aren't generally considered good bedfellows anyway?).

Also I believe someone once said that letting an engine 'idle' for an extended period (say >30 seconds) wasn't a very good (efficient) way of warming it up and not generally required anyway (apart from personal comfort ... and you would warm up quicker by putting some gentle load on the engine and driving?).

(DA mode off>

I like the imagery of your thoughts though .. I felt similar about an old Royal Enfield 350 Bullet motorbike ... attracted more admiring attention than any bike I had owned before or since ;-)

All the best ..

T i m

Twas Wed, 03 Nov 2004 18:25:03 +0000 when Pat Bennett put finger to keyboard producing:

There are photo's of Isobel Varley there... I have a membership but I don't think I got around to sending them anything yet.

Regards. Mark.(AKA, Mr.Nice.)

snipped-for-privacy@nokia.com wrote in news:4G6id.29251$ snipped-for-privacy@news1.nokia.com:

I was in a Discovery in Tunisia a few weeks ago that ran into the back of a Land Cruiser (no, I wasn't driving). I'm sorry to have to report that the Discovery suffered a smashed headlight and a few dents, while there was no perceptible damage to the Land Cruiser at all.

I was impressed at the lack of damage on both sides, actually; the occupants of both vehicles got thrown around quite a lot.

Jeremy