ON GUARD

Guards to prevent damage to light are also a worthwhile addition if you drive where stones are regularly flicked up. The grilles fitted to older Series Land Rovers look the part and withstand impacts well, and some are available for the current range of vehicles. Another solution is to use moulded Perspex protectors, which clip on to the lights and diffuse impacts from flying objects.

The steering and fuel tank can also sustain damage, and a wide variety of guards are available for all Land Rovers from the advertisers in Land Rover. When fitting accessories you’ll also need to consider the rest of the vehicle. A light bar on a Discovery roof is unlikely to cause problem on a chassis requires a decent base to start with. And a winch looks great on the front of a Land Rover but first time you use it, the winch and bumper will part company with the rest of the vehicle.

THE LIVING WITH DISCOVERY

Same as for the series III, but you have more chance of joy at main dealers. Both vehicle can be very cheap to repair and maintain if you DIY and shop around for prices and don’t forget the massive supply of secondhand parts.

Resale value: unless you buy mint one , don’t expect prices to appreciate. We bought a rough one with a few weeks. In a few years time, expect nice once to be sought after, as has happened with Range Rover Classics.

Luggage capacity: Surprisingly enormous again the family car credentials are boosted by the huge boot, and if you fold and tumble the seats, they make excellent vans. Bikes, for example, will go in upright. They become increasingly plusher as the years went by, but this K reg example has a sensible bare minimum diff lock, electric windows, remote central locking and the seven seater option. Depending  

STAYING SMART

Just as when the vehicle was new the blinged engine bay will get dirty again, spoiling the results of your hard work. To keep it smart, use a degreaser spray every few weeks then rinse off. When the engine is dry again, spry everything lightly with WD 40 to prevent the dirt, oil and mud building up and stop rust and aluminium corrosion taking hold. It’ll also keep electrical fittings corrosion free, helping ensure electrical reliability.

Its as easy as that to keep an engine bay permanently smart a little, and often. And if any serious oil leaks develop, you’ll see exactly where they’re coming from. Carburetor, rocker cover, coolant transfer pipe and clean spark plugs start to build the contrast in the overall engine view. It’s the clean details and neatness that make the job look striking ignore these, or paint sloppily, and it’ll look like a botch job. 

THE LAND ROVER IN THE PARK

They say elephant never forget. While I’m sure there’s substance to that supposition, I’ve no way of proving it. Monkeys on the other hand, are another matter. I’d managed to find time to sneak on the holiday before the kids new school term started and as it would be tied into me being the Land Rover, I decided to find somewhere relatively local near a beach. So, off we headed to near the sea.

We didn’t take the touring caravan this time, but settled for a static on a site with a direct path through to the beach ideal as the forecast was for changeable weather. Yala (in Sri Lanka beach side) is great as it has fine, sandy beaches, ideal for the kids to build sand castle on. The only problem is that when the tide goes out, it really does go out this is, after all, one of the longest beaches in all of Sri Lankan. This doesn’t really matter if you’re just building sandcastles but, if you want to fill the moats as well, you won’t to be able to get any water to fill them. 

HALP SAVE THE PLANET

The good thing is that Land Rover products last considerably longer, so the amount of energy spent on creating the vehicles in the first place can be spread over a longer life span than normal cars making Land Rover more environmentally sound.

But you can reduce the environmental impact of your Land Rover still further by using greener fuels. On the next five pages we look at the main options and highlight the pro’s and con’s of using them in your Land Rover. Some require modifications to be made to the engine, which means you should inform your insurance company.

Our intent should be to reduce the overall amount of carbon dioxide our vehicle emit for it is that which creates global warming and leads to ice melt and rise in sea level. Crops absorb carbon dioxide will be absorbed and new fuel created. The negative impact will be less by using biofuels than from fuel extracted from mineral oil

RESPONSIBLE FOR GLOBAL WARMING

Electrical cars may well be future, but their movement is reliant on energy stored in battery packs energy that has been converted from another from somewhere down the line.

Locally, they may be classified as being zero emission and city dwellers can sleep soundly in the knowledge that they aren’t destroying their neighborhood. But what about the environment of the people living close to power station? Or where the chemicals for the batteries are produced

Energy is used in every manufacturing process, whether it is whittling an arrow from a stick or building a jet aircraft. To make the best of that initial consumption, people expect items to last a certain amount of time. The life expectancy of a toaster is around a decade, yet the average age of cars on roads is just 6.8 years.  

GO GREEN WITH LAND ROVER

Day after day we are bombarded by pleas to cut our reliance on fossil fuels to avoid a catastrophic change in the global climate. The ice caps will melt and sea levels will rise, we’re warned. Indigenous species will die as the temperature become too hot to sustain them and ecosystems will break down.

Of course, it’s easy to blame the world’s ills on car owners alone, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t play our part in stemming the tide of global destruction, even though we’re not the only culprits.

Flicking a light switch at home does not produce the same visible evidence, but travel to where the electricity is produced and you’ll find then chimney and the exhaust. Nuclear power tends to be cleaner, chucking out less pollutant and being more energy efficient. But there is the drawback that highly concentrated levels of radioactivity can be deeply unpleasant.