Landy looks or Ford power?

I have been a Land Rover fan since childhood – many family holidays on the Zululand coast in remote locations firmly embedded the Landy culture into who I am.

Over the years that followed, I have owned a number of Land Rovers and have endured the usual combination of joy and suffering.

Defender owners out there will immediately recognise these afflictions: a wet right shoe; a left leg burnt by the handbrake handle; nowhere to put your right arm and that historic wave or flash of the headlights to other sufferers, I mean fans.

There is however a deep-rooted passion that comes from sitting behind the wheel and looking over that chunky front end, or staring into the smouldering lifeless engine bay of a Land Rover Defender.

After many years of Land Rovers, I was given a Ford Ranger 4×4 as a company vehicle which naturally I looked down upon from my lofty Landy perch.

Nearly two years have passed and I have to admit that I have been persuaded, and that is very difficult and somewhat embarrassing to admit, that the Ford might beat the Landy. This is not specifically a promotion of the Ford, just of modern 4X4 technology.

For example, in the Ford we can do the following that we cannot do in the Landy: have a civilised conversation; keep the rain and wind on the outside; have access to functional heating and cooling; sit in a comfortable seat that does not require an account with the chiro; look out of the driver’s window without head-butting the door pillar and, the big one, generally making the destination on the first attempt.

Some might now say that the Landy is streaks ahead off road, and again I have had to admit defeat.

A recent outing to Killarney 4X4 in Shongweni showed that although a little long, the Ford is capable of the same feats and in far greater comfort.

It was a gut wrenching blow to the Landy as the Ford with its modern tech was actually easier to use off road and required less skill, and when you have none to start as I do, that’s a great plus.

Despite all of this, I expect I will own another Landy one day like many other fanatics out there.

Subjecting myself to the adrenaline rush generated by the unlikelihood of making journey’s end.

You see, once the Landy bug has bitten, there is no escape.

Every time I see one, whether it is a 1950’s Series 1 or that beautiful, heavily insured Heritage Edition cruising around Umdloti, I want it – warts and all! If only they could take the Landy body panels off and stick them onto the Ford…

See you on the side of the road, living my “One Life” the difficult way!