14 LANDROVER MONTHLY
Whereweare: LETTERS
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Printed by Walstead Bicester
A Disco, but not as weknowit
I really enjoyed the article on the Discovery, and
have to agree with Dave Phillips on his options
regarding the ‘new discovery’ (lower case
intentional). It’s not a Disco – it ’s more likea
Freelander 1.
All thestylingcues are there, but for some
reason JLRwants to distance themselves from
whatwas, and is, a great car, as many people
are realising.
I’m using aFreelanderTd4 whilerepairing my
Disco 300Tdi. When she’s back on theroad it ’s
on to the Series IIA.You can’t ha ve too many
LandRovers.
P.S. Great magazine
Kevin Lee
Crawley, SussexBritishness?
I am sure that what I have to say will be highly
contentious, but...
I ha ve owned four LandRovers and currently
drive an 18-year-old Disco 2 V8 – glorious
sound! Anyway I digr ess.
All these people that arerefusingto buy the
new Defender – okay, I understand some will
keep their older LandRovers on theroad for
some moreyears – but with idiots like the Mayor
of Lo ndon tryingto ban or tax to extinction
‘polluting’cars, what happens whenyour old
LandRover can no longer travel in to urban
areas? You won’t buy a Defender as it is built in
Slovakia, so I suppose you will all pop outto one
of the Japanese, Korean or German showrooms?
Ford was ne ver English(although I believe
some people think it is) andVauxhallcertainly
is not!
My point is that surely it’s best for LandRover
to continue production, in Slovakia, thereby
supporting the English dealer network, and
ancillary businesses, and allowing meto walk
into mylocal LandRover main dealer and either
get GenuineParts for my 18-year-old old
Discovery 2 off the shelf, or delivered withintwo
days, for years to come?
Charles Beazley
CornwallI have a cunning plan...
WITH Brexit looming, surely what JLR should
be tryingto do as a matter of some considerable
urgency, is to locate a newfactory in the UK
whichwould have the capabilityof building
not only the new Defender but also the
Discovery, for the UK market version only,
leaving the Slovakian factoryto buildfor the
rest of the world?
Ironically, after manyyears of strugglingto be
able to order enough Discovery models,
especially thecommercial models, in the
Republicof Ireland, the distributorover there
now has the abilityto order as many as they like
becauseof the move to Slovakia, and thefact
that theycan also now order inEuros which
makes the overall consumer priceof the Irish
version of the Discovery 5 Commercial quitea
bit cheaper than the UKversion!
I also think thatsomehow JLRreally do need
to reduce the prices of the entire LandRover
range by £10,000 across the board in ordertomake themcompetitive. I ac cept that they are
more luxurious than thecompetition ingeneral,
but at the same time Iwould liketo see a
Defender and a Discovery that theaverage
person, farmer, business owner can actually
afford.
It would alsoraise sales back upto where
they oncewere in the UK.We don’tsee as
many Discovery 5s around in thiscountry as
we ever didof the previous models becauseof
the overpricing.
If the new Defender isgoing to cost at leas t
£40,000 thenwe won’t be seeing as manyof
them on theroads here either. It needsto start
at £25,000 if they are hopingto sell in large
numbers in the UK.
Colin Gregory
Via emailGreenlaning: the future
IN 18 97 the American author MarkTwain is
reputedto have read a newspaper account of
his death andsaid: “Thereports of my death
have been greatly exaggerated”. Much thesame
could besaid for your anonymous
correspondent’s le tter – “The endof
greenlaning” – inyour Sept ember issue. Despite
the bad behaviourof some rogue 4x4 drivers, I
don’t think there is arealistic chanceof a total
ban on greenlaning.
Yes, there is a problem, andyour writer is
correct insaying that LandRover owners are as
bad as anyone as misusing greenlanes and
using them as freeoff-road courses.
I ha ve evidenceof this: infact I quit an
ARC-affiliated club nearly 20years ago because
their so-called ‘Rights of Way’ officer was
deliberately taking out Sundayconvoys for a
glorified mudbath. They’d turn upat our
monthly pub meets boasting about how many
times theygot stuck... and how many hadto be
winched outof the deep ruts theywere causing.
You probablywon’t be surprisedto learn that
manyof the greenlanes these idiots mistr eated
back then are now closed.
But that isn’t the full picture. The morons are
a minority. There are many lanes in most parts
of the country where 4x4 drivers behave
themselves and there arefew if anyconflicts
between them andfellow users likewalker s
and horse riders – mainly becauseso many
of our greenlanes hardlysee a soul from one
year to the next. I knowof a few lanes that
are so overgrown through lackof use that
neither drivers norwalkerscan get through
the dense undergrowth.
There is also the little matter of legality. Our
right to drivebyways is enshrined in law andto
remove that rightwould take up a lotof