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The power of Media

mettisse

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Recently watched on you tube a Top Gear program from 1991 where Mr Clarkson pits a G Wagon, Landcruiser 80 and a Range Rover Vogue against each other, I found it interesting to note some of the remarks, he thought the diesel G Wagon to be sluggish, the cruiser far too many switches and a " leviathan" although he admits it was Toyota who took Africa from Land Rover, and he rather liked the Rangie, don't get me wrong, I love all three, but I realise now the power of the media, which maybe why the ' Cruiser was popular with groups of people who may not have been influenced by the TV or the 4x4 magazines of that era! People with heavy trailers to tow, big caravans etc, what do think? ( I'm not paranoid, yet) maybe they just didn't "click" with potential customers of the time against the Rangie?
Best regards to all, Bill Westley
 


in this he claims the Amazon is the king in 1998...
 
Interesting comments by Clarkson, (who in my opinion knows feck all about nothing), in his observations that LCs are leviathan and have far too many switches.
I know these views were a long time ago, but his daily drive is a Range Rover ?? Odd thing to say, considering he has owned many different models in the past.
He never fails to promote the brand whenever he can, and I think the media are guilty as well when it comes to a vehicle with off road or towing capabilities.
When was the last time you heard an endorsement for LCs ? Whenever there is a documentary, expedition, etc shown on TV there is no doubt the vehicle of choice, as seen. Toyota obviously do not need to "push" such a capable vehicle themselves, they sell regardless!
Also interesting, LCs never seem to feature or get a mention in the Tow Car of the Year award, - who do they all go on about and normally find as a winner?- yep you got it.......

John
 
Didn't the Kia Rio diesel get voted Tow Car of the year once? What a useless sh*tbox that is, couldn't even pull the skin off a rice pudding.
 
I had a 1990 3.9 SE RR in 1994-8. It was the longest I had ever kept a car! It was fantastic, but very thirsty. I used it for towing our off road clubs cars - a series 2 landy (mine), and 2 comp safari RR's that weighed more than the doners due to all the steel plate we used for protection lol. The only way I would change it was for a sports car, well, an MX-5. kept that 4 years too!
 
Recently watched on you tube a Top Gear program from 1991 where Mr Clarkson pits a G Wagon, Landcruiser 80 and a Range Rover Vogue against each other, I found it interesting to note some of the remarks, he thought the diesel G Wagon to be sluggish, the cruiser far too many switches and a " leviathan" although he admits it was Toyota who took Africa from Land Rover, and he rather liked the Rangie, don't get me wrong, I love all three, but I realise now the power of the media, which maybe why the ' Cruiser was popular with groups of people who may not have been influenced by the TV or the 4x4 magazines of that era! People with heavy trailers to tow, big caravans etc, what do think? ( I'm not paranoid, yet) maybe they just didn't "click" with potential customers of the time against the Rangie?
Best regards to all, Bill Westley


linky?

I don't think Clarkson drives a rangie, he has a volvo XC90 and whatever sports car is his latest. They use rangies for camera cars. he does rave about them, but then, when new they are very very good cars with a superb spec. trouble is, after a few years they drop to bits!!

I think the landcruiser is more about function than form, go not show, so maybe thats why it doesn't get pushed so much. maybe Clarkson is too superficial to understand it's finer points and instead is taken in by all the gadgets and whizzy stuff like multi-area cameras on your dash display!!

One of the best revues I saw was quentin wilson on the history of landrover, at the end of the program he'd bought himself a pre1950s series 1!
 
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Clarkson has owned and run an 80 and a 100 Amazon as his school run cars too. There's a piece on YouTube somewhere about it.

Also interesting to note.. In the Top Gear Bolivia special, where the Range Rover was the eventual "winner", all the camera cars were 100 series cruisers. As has been the case in almost any crazy and inhospitable place they go.. Even the North Pole trip had a 120 Arctic Trucks edition.

Mostly though, there is no proper testing of 4x4s in the mainstream media.. Nothing like what Andrew St.P.W does.
 
true, they often test them as cars and mark them down because of the features that give them good off road ability, rather than testing them for what they are. from that point of view, I think top gear is quite good, they do at least take off roaders off road, probably much to BMWs annoyance!
 
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