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p m
| | Posted on Monday, June 17, 2002 - 05:38 pm: | 
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okay, here it is. Ax, Ho, Kyle, feel free to delete it if you think there's no merit in it. I took time to type it because I feel really amused by how patrotism (or brand loyalty) substitutes any rational approach.
A jeeper friend of mine gave me a book called "Range Rover takes on the competition." This is basically a collection of UK and US automotive articles with comparisons of RR with other makes and models, with a bunch of numbers and seat-of-the-pants' feelings.
After reading the entire book, I got a very strange feeling. See for yourself:
early-70s. Range Rover vs. Jeep Wagoneer.
Range Rover is about the same on the highway (Wagoneer smoother), about the same off road (depending on the 4WD setup, Wagoneer may be better), a little lighter, and with much better fuel economy (like 13 vs 9 mpg), and a little pricier. Overall impression: Range Rover is MUCH better than the jeep.
mid-70s. Range Rover vs. Jeep Cherokee Chief. more or less the same story;
Range Rover is a bit better on the highway (29" Michelins vs 31x10.5" off road tires on the jeep), a bit worse off road, a bit lighter, has noticeably worse acceleration off the line (Cherokee was with the 401), better fuel economy (about the same numbers), a good bit pricier. Little bits here - spare tire is under the jeep, and inside the cab on the RR. Even if there's ways much more storage area in the jeep's cargo compartment, it is oh so inconvenient to retrieve that spare tire. The quality of the jeep's built is awful. (I definitely agree with the last two statements). Overall impression - Range Rover is MUCH better than the jeep.
early 80s. Range Rover vs. Suzuki Samurai, (russian) Lada Niva, and Colt Shogun (Dodge Raider for U.S. folks).
Here, with no "buts" and "ifs," Range Rover blows the doors off the little critters (which cost about 1/3 to 1/2 of the RR's price). Fuel economy - all little critters deliver nearly twice the mileage per gallon of the Rangie, but it's not all that important. Of course, dahling, Range Rover is MUCH better than anything else!
sometime in the 80s. Range Rover vs. Land Cruiser, Pajero, and Patrol. Here things get more interesting. Patrol comes as an obvious winner in nearly every aspect, which gets acknowledged. But - there's "charm" in RRC's instrument panel (that binnacle that wants to fall out at every bump). Regardless of what the numbers say, Range Rover is MUCH better than the competition.
mid-80s. Range Rover vs. Jeep Cherokee (downsized, with 2.5 liter 4-banger).
Somehow, all concerns about fuel economy are dropped, and the Range Rover is incomparably better than the jeep.
early-90s. Range Rover clearly losing to the Land Cruiser. Here, the width of the U.K. green lanes comes for help, and the (1.5" wider) Land Cruiser is still not as good as the Rangie.
late-90s. Range Rover Autobiography vs. Jeep Grand Cherokee Orvis Edition.
A little bit here - a 4.6HSE RR is compared to 4.0 I6-powered JGC (the smallest engine available, while this was a year of JGC Limited with 5.9V8).
Range Rover is better on the highway (numbers don't prove it, it's just the seat of the pants' feeling). With a smaller engine, Jeep is faster off the line. Range Rover clearly dominates off road (no details). Now, the Jeep's spare tire is inside the cargo compartment, exactly where RRC used to have it, and the Rangie's spare tire is under the floor. Somehow, now the cargo space consideration beats the crap out of inconvenience of pulling the spare tire from underside of the truck.
Fuel economy numbers are something like 13mpg (RR) vs 17mpg (JGC), but who cares. The Range Rover sports the tag of 60k U.K.pounds, 27K more than JGC. Almost twice the price. Needless to say, JGC is nothing compared to the RR.
I only mentioned a few articles here. Interesting that in the 90s, the Rangie is compared to every possible 4x4 worth mentioning, but not the Disco. As if the Discovery never existed. The only mention of the Disco I found in the U.S. article, in a comment like you can buy 2 Discoveries for the price of 1 Range Rover, the Disco being a better vehicle off road (this is late 90s, before the D2 but after the RRC became a classic).
Also, all articles' authors dealt with the new vehicles, so no long-term reliability, or maintenance, or insurance, or registration costs were ever factored in.
The whole book reminded me of the similar discussions on the rover lists.
"Regardless what the numbers are, the Rover is the best 4x4xFar."
I hope I don't lose sleep because of "why the heck am I driving a rover?" thing.
peter |
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