Interesting comments by Perrone.
I'll give you another perspective from another marquee.
In the Land Cruiser community, the exact opposite is true. Shorties and leaf
spring wagon owners drool over the later coil sprung trucks (FJ80 & FZJ100
Series), waiting for those models to hit the market used so they can be bought
and wheeled.
The coil sprung owners (for the most part) know nothing of the history, nor do
they care about it. 1 in 10,000 will ever touch anything rougher than a graded
gravel road.
I believe the difference is in manufacturer support. In the US, Land Rover is
extremely supportive of the entire family of trucks, form Series I to the 2002
models. History and purpose drive your advertising. The relationship between old
and new is wallowed in. LR supports the magazines, events, etc. A new customer
walking into the showroom will leave with a certain knowledge level concerning
Land Rover roots. It's all part of the mystique.
Toyota, on the other hand, seems to be moderately embarrassed about the Land
Cruiser roots. Although they did celebrate history one year, for the most part
they attempt to distance the late model luxo mall crawlers from their parents
and grandparents.
The TLCA is the largest single 4 wheel drive club in the country. I'm sure there
are more collective local jeep club members, but not under a single tent. I
believe the same is true of Land Rover. You would think that Toyota would bend
over backwards to support a 4000+ member organization devoted to Toyota's most
profitable (per vehicle) line, in the US and worldwide.
Ha! In 26 years, they've place one stinking ad in the national newsletter. They
make it incredibly difficult to purchase "discontinued" parts that are readily
available as close as Canada and Central America. For years, they refused to
even acknowledge the existence of the organization to Cruiser owners seeking
help (that was not available through their local dealer).
I could go on and on. You guys have it made. Count your blessings and be
grateful that so much variety is available to you. Be grateful that the coil and
spring clans even recognize the other's vehicle as a Rover. Think of how it
would feel for a Series owner to greet and Defender owner, only to discover that
the Defender owner didn't even know the two were related. That happens to us
Toyota leaf spring folk on a daily basis.
Andy Litkowiak
Perrone Ford wrote:
>
> Marin,
>
> While I respect you a lot as you bring a lot of experience to the list, it
> pains me that your statements ring true. I know many leafers don't care about
> coiler guys, and that permeates with your attitudes. It seeps into the
> persona of off-road events, and generally makes for a difficult time planning
> events between the two groups. Those of us who own coil-sprung rovers and
> actually are enthusiasts tend to appreciate the series trucks and learn what
> we can about the heritage of our marque. It seems that in large part, the
> series guys would rather pretend that we don't exist or we are not "real" land
> rover enthusiasts. I don't know if its envy, disdain, or elitism, but it
> really is distateful. I'd stop in a heartbeat to help any motorist, but with
> some of the attitudes on this list toward coil sprung rovers and their owners,
> I don't know why I would bother to stop for a series.
>
> Maybe thats why coil sprung guys don't wave more to you guys.
>
> -P
>
> Faure, Marin wrote:
>
> > Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2001 22:14:33 -0400
> > From: "Perrone Ford" <ford_p@nettally.com>
> > Subject: RE: LRO: New Guy or All about Joe
> >
> >> I wouldn't DREAM of walking onto this list and telling you guys about
> >>
> > your series trucks, but I don't have ANY hesitation in telling you that as a
> > whole, it seems you guys are GROSSLY misinformed about what is available for
> > coil sprung trucks, and you really don't seem to have any idea of what they
> > can do when the playing field is made even.
> > Of course, you are making the assumption that those of us with leaf-sprung
> > Series Land Rover CARE about coil-sprung Land Rovers....:-) I suspect
> >
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Jun 29 2001 - 21:53:39 EDT