The Land Rover Writer

Behind the Steering Wheel [Courtesy Rovers North News, May, 2005]

By Jeffrey Aronson

I came off the ferry without my ’66 Series II-A. It sat at East Coast Rover, 10 miles away in Warren, ME. I could drop $22 on a cab or try and mooch a ride for free. Of course, I began the shameless begging of neighbors with cars on the ferry. One woman graciously agreed to give me a ride in her Chevy Tahoe. I opened a rear door to put my two bags on the seat and realized, to my amazement, that there’s no room back there. I could barely get two small bags between the door post and the seat. The car occupies vast amounts of length and width but you can’t put anything in it. The ridiculous ground clearance means you absolutely must have side steps in order to enter. Since the driver and vehicle are providing me with a free ride, however, I suck it in and tell her what a nice car she has. I explain the location of East Coast Rover and she exclaims, “Oh, I’d love to have a Land Rover.” I look around the Tahoe and do the math – for the price of this ordinary yet oversized SUV that’s low on both the S and the U, she could have purchased a Discovery or a Range Rover Classic. I mean, who even looks at a Tahoe except a Chevrolet dealer?

Not long ago I drove my green ’66 II-A down the main street of a coastal town in Maine. With parallel parking on both sides of the busy street, I paid attention to traffic but I just about caused an accident when I spied a green Series II-A 109” parked on the side of the road. Amazed, I parked directly in front of it. How often do you spot a 109” on a main street at all? I walked by a few stores, looking for someone who looked like an owner/enthusiast. As I returned to my car, I found Dave Roberts, Bangor, ME, and Steve Morrison, Rockland, ME, chatting beside Dave’s car.

Dave found his 109” at a friend’s in Maine, sitting rather forlornly. It’s straight, fairly complete inside with that patina of old age showing everywhere. Like very Series Rover owner, he’ll have to confront frame rust in the future, but right now, Dave uses it daily, year round. His only complaint is that the 2.25 liter 4-cylinder seems to work hard to move the car. With the engine working hard, gas mileage averages 16 mpg. Otherwise, he’s absolutely thrilled to be in it daily. Talking with Dave was Steve Morrison, a photography shop owner who purchased a Discovery Series I for his business use. Steve’s a motorcycle buff, too, but he swears by his Discovery.

As we’re introducing ourselves and talking about our Land Rovers, some tourists strolling on the sidewalk spot the three Rovers parked together and begin to snap photos. The three cars attract the sort of attention from people passing by that you rarely see from automobiles these days. Neither age nor gender seem to matter; the Land Rovers still command attention.

I finally pull myself away from the conversation to begin my three hour drive to work. Ten miles later, I pull over to park near a small grocery store. Immediately, an early Range Rover Classic pulls in to the spot behind me. The Range Rover has a substantial bull bar up front, fairly tall tires and the appearance of daily use. The driver, Scott Herring, admitted that he was actually hoping to find that 109” he saw ten miles down the road, but he was pleased to see mine, anyway. Scott’s owned both a Series III and a 109” ambulance but he confirmed that he could not go back from a Range Rover now. The Rover before me actually belongs to his girlfriend, who said she’s thankful Scott will maintain the car by himself. “It’s more complex than my Series Rovers, but you can still work on them.” With a three hour trip on empty, two lane roads ahead of me, the Range Rover looks pretty good to me, too.

I finish my shopping and begin the trip anew. Thirty miles up Rte. 1 crossing the bridge over the Penobscot River, an LR3 approaches from the opposite direction. Out of habit, I begin a hesitant wave. Yes, it’s a Land Rover, but such a new model. Could this driver be one of the New Enthusiasts?  To my delight the driver and her passenger, take time from chatting to offer a generous wave to my Land Rover. Affirmative – she’s also one of the New Enthusiasts.

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Another healthy sign of the New Enthusiast is the interest people connected with public education have in our vehicles. For example, at my school a high school junior came up to me to say “I was in Brewer [near Bangor, ME –ed.] this weekend with my family and I saw a Land Rover, just like yours, sitting in a field.” The fact that he could recognize the car, just from having mine sit in the school parking lot, is very encouraging. As Editor, I don’t get to send anything to the Sightings column but an administrator at the area vocational school told me of the Land Rover he spotted in a recent movie. “That’s Jeff’s,” he said to himself at the movie theater. He was amazed that the one he saw was also in pastel green – not realizing how few colors Land Rover offered in the ‘60’s and that the majority of Land Rovers produced came in the same shade of green. I know of a teacher in central Maine, near the capital city, who owns a Series III and drives it to his elementary/middle school every day.

We concur with NCLB – No Child Left Behind. To help in that effort, I offer the following. We all know of the 3 R’s –reading, ‘writing and ‘rithmatic. Maybe it’s time to add a fourth, “Rovering.”

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If you’re an automobile enthusiast it’s hard not to enjoy reading Autoweek. This is a magazine that generously wished Lotus Cars well with the US launch of the Elise. The article did not sugarcoat the problems confronting the manufacture of such a niche market car, but you could tell that they, too, believe that there ought to be a place for cars like the Elise. One issue covered the reincarnation of the Datsun Z cars in the form of the Nissan 350Z. The styling leaves me cold and the car does not interest me in the slightest, but Autoweek’s testers, who kept one for 25,000 miles, adored it. As enthusiasts, they noted that the car seemingly ate tires for breakfast despite all the fixes attempted by Nissan. Autoweek also polls its many readers and interestingly, a surprisingly large number reported significant transmission problems. Several readers had multiple gearbox replacements.

I offer this as perspective. Our beloved Land Rovers get raked over the coals over quality control issues, at times with good reasons. Yet Nissan, which had to replace transmissions on their flagship car, seemed to escape the reputation as a high maintenance, low quality car line. According to a New York Times article a Mercedes C230 owner in New Jersey made 14 trips to her dealer for hard to diagnose problems, most related to faulty sensors and software. Ford has already warned its dealers that software might disable the CVT transmission on the brand-new Ford 500 sedan. VW seemed unable to purchase enough working coils for its Jetta and Passant, both of which suffered a high number of failures. Mercedes sales have declined this year partially on the long-of-tooth M series SUV and partially because of electrical gremlins infesting their automobiles. Thilo Koslowski, an automobile analyst in San Jose, CA, quoted in the New York Times, called electronic and software problems in modern cars “one of the biggest quality issues the automotive industry is dealing with. The problem is that most of these applications in the vehicle are being supplied by a lot of different suppliers.” Who knows which software version you have loaded into your car’s ECU and related systems?

Let me admit I write as an “electrophobe.” As a kid, I could make a Lionel train set into a dangerous weapon. As an adult [I think I am, anyway] I back off in fright at anything more rigorous than changing a rear brake light bulb. I’d much rather replace a cylinder head than track down a wiring problem. There are enthusiasts who delight in explaining the mysteries of electricity to me. The staff at Rovers North doesn’t hesitate to walk you through tracing electrical gremlins, but when they talk about “testing resistance in wires” or getting out your multimeter, well, I look to simply replace all the parts in the hope that I get one right.  Just taking off the back cover of an alternator sends me into panic mode.

The growth of electronic sensing and control in automotive technology parallels the growth of computer technology in everyday life. It’s not a surprise that in contemporary luxury cars, 25% of the manufacturing costs are tied up in electronic components. The high heat, extreme temperature ranges, weather conditions and general owner neglect mean that these components must be constructed to exacting standards. I know they’re supposed to last forever, but the reality is that the bulk of new car warranty problems result from electrical system or component failures. Most electronic items are not adjustable. They just work or they don’t. Diagnosis and replacement are much more common than adjustment and repair.

If you’re a Series Land Rover, Range Rover Classic, Defender 90 or Discovery Series I owner, you can maintain major components of your car with your own tools, patience, persistence, attention to detail and an appreciation of engineering design. It will get harder with the new Range Rover, the Range Rover Sport and the LR3 because more of their components are controlled electronically. Increasing emission and safety regulations leave less room to tweaking with a screwdriver. The message to enthusiasts – keep as many Series Land Rovers, Range Rover Classics and P38A’s, Defenders, and Discovery I’s on the road as long as possible. I’ll be the one waving at you!

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Autoweek also has a soft spot for classic cars, and last autumn, they featured a ’64 Series II 109” Dormobile camper owned by enthusiast Robert Raffensperger of PA. He was quoted in Autoweek last October noting “"It gets you around. We drove 10,000 miles in it last year, to and from Alaska.” Autoweek commented that “like its Rover counterparts, Raffensperger’s long-wheelbase Land Rover has been getting around for four decades. It has driven the lengths of Europe, Africa and America on smooth pavement and uncharted trails—just as a Land Rover was meant to do.”

Raffensperger found out that his Rover was ordered by a Connecticut architect in 1964. The man took delivery of it in England; it cost him $3,137.10 [the then-new Mustang had a base price of $2,320]. He drove it across Europe and Africa. After residing in South Africa, he returned to Europe and had the Land Rover shipped back to the United States from Sweden. Raffensperger, the third owner, acquired it in 1980. I saw Bob’s Land Rover at a Downeast Rally and again at the RoverFest in Killington, VT. It has an original winch but a mahogany roof rack and teak front bumpers that were mounted in Portugal. A tent opens from the roof; mosquito netting and chairs were made in Kenya Inside, front and rear seats fold flat into a perfectly comfortable bed. Otherwise, it’s quite stock inside, with familiar levers and multi-colored knobs. It’s propelled by the standard 2.25 liter engine.

Raffensperger’s Land Rover underwent a frame-up restoration in 1995 but it’s not a pampered car. The Rover has about 225,000 miles on record, including the trek to Alaska the Raffenspergers made last summer, during which they suffered only a broken fuel line that cost $1 to repair. As Autoweek noted, “not for a 40-year-old Land Lord.”

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