I haven’t owned a Land Rover for a while so I still have the mind set of this car predominantly being for farmers or people that live in the countryside. However as the Land Rover was featured on the Top Gear Bolivia Special over Christmas my opinion has changed. In addition the programme got me thinking about this car and the ranges offered. Even though the Top Gear footage is probably staged it raised a good point about its reliability. In my experience they are reliable and offer fantastic value for money.

The Land Rover was launched in 1948 and I am particularly fond of this 4×4 because for a time the manufacturing was based in Gaydon, Warwickshire which isn’t too far away from where I live. In recent times various owners of the brand name name such as MG Rover Group and Ford have struggled to finance this 4×4. Now that Tata own the brand name it will be interesting to see what happens to this 4×4. Over the years there have been several versions of the Land Rover such as the Defender, Freelander, Discovery, Range Rover Sport and a Range Rover. It is probably best to purchase a second hand approved model. This is mainly because it is a lot cheaper than buying a new 4×4. For example a used Land rover Freelander that is 6 years old is priced at around £6,000 which is very reasonable but models at this price usually have a fairly high mileage. However this is still great value because back in 2004 it cost anywhere from £27,000 to £48,000 depending on the model purchased. There are a few competitors such as the Toyota Land Cruiser, Mitsubishi Shogun and many others on the market but on the whole the Land Rover range performs well. Read the rest of this entry »