Land Rover’s 60th Anniversary Cross Australia – Second Leg
September 13, 2008 by Anthony Crawford
Next up on the tourist map was Mini Palms Gorge and we were in for a treat as we squeezed through gaps less than a metre wide, surrounded by 50 metre high rock faces, which glowed red, as the afternoon sun lit them up.
The narrow walkways soon opened up to a beautiful cavern, which provided the perfect setting for a remarkable didgeridoo session by our team leader, Grant Seamer.
This guy must be part Aboriginal, as the audience grew by the minute and digital cameras were going nuts.
After a couple of encore performances, the next contestant stood to attention and performed a beautiful rendition of Amazing Grace. Wow, talk about inspiring.
The photographer and video guy (also Grant Seamer – is there anything this guy can’t do, we heard he rock climbs and fly’s a plane) had booked a Robinson R-44 helicopter for some ariel shots and somehow, I ended up in the spare seat.
I’ve never been a huge fan of heights, but when I saw this tiny bird had no doors and just a standard lap-sash seatbelt, genuine fear set in.
Just a fantastic write-up and magnificent photography. Well done lads and to LR for opening the eyes of mostly Eastern States motoring journalists, to the splendour that is outback Oz.
John
lol well this looks like a great fun adventure but christ how far are you guys up LR’s arse?? Its nearly enough to make you sick! heres a few pieces of journalistic gold:
“The Range Rover Vogue TDV8 is the only five-star, honest to God, proper diesel powered 4wd means of transport on the market today.”
“Each and every vehicle in the convoy had performed flawlessly and is testament to the brand’s robustness and reliability.”
“What Land Rover have achieved from a 3.6-litre V8 diesel is staggering and without peer.”
“….this classic Land Rover into a unique vehicle with unparallel off-road ability and less reluctance for city living.”
“For the last leg of the journey I took the wheel of the Range Rover Sport TDV6 and like most of the Land Rover range, this is another vehicle with a unique set of skills unmatched by its rivals.”
so clearly the sun shines out LR’s arse and their products are made by the hands of god himself. bloody hell. I love the ‘…testament to the brand’s robustness and reliability.’ quote, i just cant stop laughing whenever i read it. The very first RR Vogue I ever sat in, i was lookin thru the log books and found 4 lift out pages of receipts. Receipts for warranty work totalling around $40,000, including the air compressor, sat nav, engine computer, climate control system and more. That, my good friends, is a REAL testament to the ROBUSTNESS AND RELIABILITY of the LR brand.
*just a little footnote, that was the Supercharged 4.2 Vogue, 2006 model, not a base model where such things would be somewhat more tolerable with the much lower sticker price.
That was a brilliant article and some fantastic photography, thank you. Inland Australia certainly is the best countryside in the world, particularly places like the Tanami. Hopefully I’ll get out to the Granites and mix that part of the country with some work underground there in the next few years.
The Defenders are truly remarkable vehicles, I’d love to drive one of the army’s 6×6 defenders, they are an interesting conversion. Great statistics on the 1 series, 1/2 still in use is a phenomenal number, I hope they follow that sound concept into the future and don’t compromise for the sake of price.
Great trip, I’m more than a little jealous of the opportunity!
A little strange, my “Anti-Spam” word was “Austin”!!
OK genius – that’s the self confessed genius, who calls himself Devil 666 – in your opinion, what luxury 4X4 would you consider more capable off road and with superior luxury to the Vogue TDV8? Oh, and don’t forget fuel economy in 3.6 TDV8, will you.
Can’t wait for your answer – please tell me you have driven the current Vogue TDV8!
Receipts for warranty work totalling 40k.
Something doesn’t sound right about that. If it were warranty there would be no receipt with a cost on it, or at least the ones on my cars have never had a bill attached.
I own a Range Rover Vogue and will agree that some of those superlatives are a tad over the top.
I think I would rate the Audi V8 a bit higher but in having said that there is no other “sense of occasion” vehicle in this segment like the Rangie.
Are there better? Yes there probably is.
Magnificent rock formations, and the first of the aerial shots of the cars was magic too =)
The way that the Freelander 2 acts off road without low range (keeping up with the ones equipped with said gearbox) makes me wanna yell at the supposed “off-road know-it-alls” that say you need low range for EVERYTHING under the sun.
All you ever really need while off-roading is a good bit of common sense (though really, if you think about it, its a bit of an oxymoron =p Off-roading isnt overly sensible LOL)
Was just in the bush in the middle of nowhere once, working with a couple technicians inspecting power poles, and we had a guy in some Toyota ute monstrosity with big huge knobbly off road tires and he looked at the MB ML320 we had (at the time, city slickers at heart ^_^) and betted against us getting stuck in the first ditch we came across.
And of course, guess who’s the one who gets wedged in a ditch nearly tipping over? Mr Toyota off-roader man.
But anyway, would LOVE to take an LR off road somewhere, through great big muddy puddles and the like =p
Land rover & reliability in the same sentence ? :)
They have improved, but are still way behind everyone else.
JACKAL -
100% on the money
Cheers
F-0
Sounds like alot of fun. I did take note on the comment on the Freelander 2 that there is enough space for drivers over 6ft. I had the TD4 SE bought by my wife in 2005 (I don’t want to admit I let my wife buy a $50,000 car before I drove it) Now I stand at 6ft 4 and couldn’t fit any whey I tried, Yes I have sat in the Freelander 2 and it was no better.
GREAT STORY. GREAT PICS. GREAT VEHICLES.
Salesman, I’m 6′2″ and there is plenty of room for me in the Freelander. At 6′4″ you are part of a very small minority and car companies tend to build to an average which probably does not exceed those of 6″2′.
Having said that, there are plenty of small cars with a high roof line that could accommodate your frame.
jack fast;
Answer Landcrusier sahara v8 turbo diesel.
I\’ll take reliability over a \”badge\” any day in the desert.
simple question simple answer… NEXT!
Not so fast DanMan,
God I love it when I see responses from amateurs. For a start the Sahara V8 TD is about 3 stars at best, in the luxury stakes.
The engine is 50% more noisy at best in the quietness stakes, and fuel econ against the 3.6 TDV8, not on the same planet.
What else have you got?
I suppose the wood veneer can be useful for firewood while you wait for search and rescue in the desert. Done 3 toyota fishing classics in the Lc series. not a drama once!
50% more noisey… Hmmm what to come back with.. oh yeah the ‘vogue’ (sounds like a fashion magazine for the gullible..oh wait) deprectiates 60% faster.
My father worked as service manager and then australian parts manager for JRA (remember them) for twenty five years and made soooo much money off warranty for these things. There was a reason BMW sold them to ford for ten bucks… And now ford has flogged them off too. Bit like i said before. you pays your money you makes your choice. if you love these, fine. I just dont get them.
DanMan, thanx for answering the call, (100% correctly might I add) But hey, lets up the Luxury stakes and thrown in the Lexus LX series (sure they don’t have a diesel atm, but who knows what the future holds). NVH will be equal to, if not better than The Vogue (as it shall be sarcastically referred to from here on), and while interior luxury is highly debatable (While The Vogue may have a pretty interior, the centre stack looks disgusting with all that square black plastic that looks like a Motorola flip phone from 1998), I’m gonna give the ‘gong to the LX.
How bout the RR Sport (4.2 Supercharged) you ask? I have two distinguished words for you: Porsche Cayenne. Specifically the S model, because the Turbo and Turbo S are in another league altogether, but in terms of off-road ability and sport performance coupled into one package, the Cayenne S with offroad pack is potentially one of the best combinations of off-road flexibility and sports performance.
Hmm, thats two models and already the “…skills unmatched by its rivals…” is fading fast, I dare not shame the writer of this article by mentioning another vehicle capable of equalling if not destroying the abilities of a LR.
PS Jack Fast, you constantly mention Economy and Quietness. Heres a few categories for you:
-Reliability
-Durability
Are you suggesting that these American/British sh’boxes are anywhere near as reliable compared to the German and Jap competitors? Because that sir, would be warrant enough to lock you into an Insane Asylum.
Ian, the receipt had a detailed itemisation of the repair work. They included the costs in this itemisation of all the parts. Perhaps their computer system did not remove the individual prices. Surely this is not unheard of. Naturally LR would pay cost price for the parts and labor tho, but this was a receipt for the customer. A receipt for a car with a mere 38,000kms and a 3 page warranty job. Sickening.
Oh BTW Jack Fast (who is clearly not as fast as he states, perhaps only in the bedroom?): If I were a self confessed genius, would I not have confessed it? I have confessed nothing, but I consider myself capable of logically working through the BULLSHIT that some people spew forth. Go figure.
DanMan, as I said buddy, you’re a dead set amateur. Wood veneer – you mean the same wood Veneer that Bentley use in the Conti GT? Lol enough said pal.
Now for your mate Devil.. Porsche Cayenne with any package you want to add (no matter what the cost) compete with the Vogue off road!
Mate now don’t be stupid. In fact what is your address and I’ll send some of the appropriate medication over. A Porsche Cayenne would not make first base against any Range Rover off road.
And for the Lexus with the incredibly thirsty 5.7-L V8 – try rock crawling in that up a steep incline. Again you won’t make first base against ANY Range Rover.
You guys are a couple of regular bogans. Unless you have driven a Rangie off road – no need for you clowns to comment.
Listen to yourselves, the article applauds the land rovers for being capable, which they are…but…I would not think twice about driving almost anywhere in Australia in a standard tray back landcruiser with a bullbar, 6.5Db aerial and a pair of lightforce 240s, and when the ignition goes you can start it with a kitchen knife like the bloke I stopped next to at the shop last week.
As for the Tanami track, geez you can take a mack titan with 120,000L of diesel to the Granites, so I’d expect any non hyundai/Sansayong/(insert other shitbox here) to be able to do it. I mean does anyone actually care about wood grain and pale leather interiors anyway???
I love how brown washed people become about Toyotas and that they think they are indestructable whilst having no backup for their comments. I have inlaws who did love their toyotas but have now traded them in due to not only reliability issues but Toyotas lack of aftersales service. The first was a 78 series ute that had half the teeth chip off second gear with only 30,000 city kms on it but was 4 weeks out of warranty and claim denied. Then a 78 series troopy that had both diffs replaced at 60,000 km and owner was stranded up the cape as there was no parts. Then when perts were supplied one diff was the wrong ratio that meant a gearbox rebuild which Toyota wouldn’t pay for and the cost of freight on the diffs was not covered either. Then there is a 100 series wagon the brother in law had that has had 2 front ends replaced in it from various failures and both times he was left stranded in the cape and had a minimum of 4 days wait just to get parts. They 100 series has now been replaced with a Disco 3 which has done 70000 km in 2 years with not one failure, and yes this is on the same roads as those which caused the 100 to fall apart
New drinking game. every time Disco 3 says ’stranded at the cape’ you take a drink.
Everytime he doesn’t use Grammer correctly, you take a drink… hehe
70,000 klmm in 2 years? Hmmm.
Also ‘the cape’ would classify as extreme off road use and the logbook covers this in the warranty section.
Anyway why do i care… enjoy your Disco mate good luck.
How many range rover service depts in Aust. Not many.
Why does everyone on here hate LR so much? All cars have their issues, it’s not just LR with make unreliable cars. I bought a Pug a few years ago, and it spent more time being repaired than on the road.
We put in an offer on a Freelander 2 last week, as they are lovely cars. The dealer wouldn’t do the deal so we walked. In the end, we decided too not spend over 53K on a softroader, and bought a TL Xtrail. Happy with the X-trail, and saved almost 10K, but the LR was the nicer car. Oh well.
ChrisJ
A good question will I attempt to answer.. deep breath.
you are right to say they have ’showroom appeal’ They look great and are superficially reliable. however..
Unfortunatly they were probably THE most unreliable cars in the western world in the late ninties. Freelander 1 was even subject to a massive class action lawsuit in the UK. same as the discovery. The workforce got stuffed around by their German and then Ford managers and all the talent left leaving a fearful workforce. This has cast a long shadow in the industry and any salesperon in the car industry would run a mile at the sight of a customer attempting to get out of onw of these. not much sense, but there rarely is with people and cars!
Fair enough DanMan, but it does seem, at least from the research that I have done before we decided to place an offer for a FL2, that LR are getting better.
While I agree totally that LR had massive issues in the 90’s, the current crop seem to be better. Resale seems to have improved with the FreeLander 2, we couldn’t find a second hand one here in WA, and the demos were the same price as the new ones. The Disco 3 won best 4wd in the Australia Best Cars, which also gives some crediability, well maybe…
Don’t get me wrong, a much as we liked the FL2, they probably aren’t worth the extra cost when compared to a TL X-trail, or Tiguan.
I’m not a LR fanboy, like I said, we ended up buying a Nissan, mostly due to price, but it does seem people here are excessively hard on the new Land Rovers. Especially, as now that they have been sold to an Indian company(which may mean quality will go down again), the current crop of Ford/Volvo/Jag designed and made vehicles might be the best LRs ever.
Cheers!
Spot on.
Right now seems like the ‘high tide’ mark for the brand. Yes the Freelander 2 is good, very good. (notice how the ads for the LR2 had fortune tellers. future not the past)
God knows what TATA will do. India is best know for superb Tea and Cricket and IT and… call centre’s! I dont know of anything in my day to day life that i tangibly ‘use’ that is made there. big risk to spend 45k on a product they own… yes.
You did well with the X-trail a good product! No risk.
Imagine if you spent (you wouldn’t, but hear me out) the difference of 10k that you saved on doing up the xtrail… DVD’s this Reverse camera that, leather the roof! go crazy and you have a much better vehicle than the FL2. The FL2 would drop 10k in 6 months anyway…
Yeah pretty happy with the X-trail. Like you said no risk, Nissan are a reasonable brand.
The TL exy comes with leather and sunroof. We saved 8K, and got a towbar, roofracks, nudge bar, parking sensors, cargo trays etc as well. The FL2 didn’t have any of this…
The only things the LR had the X-trail didn’t was auto headlights and wipers, and folding mirrors.
The FL2 SE TD4 didn’t have a sunroof, nor heated seats. We also would have had to go white, as paint is $1800 extra on the FL2! Towbar for the FL2 is $1600 or more….
But the FL2 is a nice car, if the budget could have stretched that far, we would have been happy. The styling on the FL2 is very nice, both inside and out.
Still more than happy with the X-trail, and like you say the resale should be better.
Cheers!
I cant believe I found this! Thought id leave a message to say that I am one of the British girls in the photo at Wolfe Creek. Finding this picture has brought back good memorys from that day! Thanks to Ken who posed as the Ozzy Nutter for this pic, its one of my favorite pics from that day. Great guys/team. Monster vehicles!!
Sophie
“Bruce didn’t bother coming out when we arrived at Rabbit Flat”
Typical!
Bruce “The Goose” Farrand is a total nutter, how that French girl got hooked up and stayed with him is one of the world’s great mysteries!
NOT unknown to pull a shotgun on peple that go knocking on his door…..
Rips off people BIG time with prices, opens only limited days and times [his way or no way], sells full strength beer to the abos [illigal], and is as rude as a human as one could be!
Sure he lives in the middle of nowhere, but plenty of others do too, and they act like members of the human race.
Do what all the other savy traveller are doing on the Tanami track, carry enough fuel for the ~950km and give TheGoose TheBird finger when you zoom past and cover him in dust.
Cheers
F-0