Jeep vs Land Rover

The tale of when I first bought my Jeep, which was about 4 years ago, and my rivalry with Land Rover drivers.

It’s always a slightly nervy time, the first time you take your new 4×4 on a trail. I’ve bought myself a Jeep Grand Cherokee 2.7CRD, to replace the soft roader I’d just about pushed to the limits of its offroad usefulness. And while it’s true what motoring magazines tell us, that most trails can be done by most SUVs if there’s a competent driver behind the bucking wheel, it’s also true that it helps a lot if you’re a motoring journalist who doesn’t have to pay for his own repairs.

If it’s your own car, you’re much happier in something that’s designed to absorb a lot of punishment. My poor Renault Rx4, for example, had neat little lines sandblasted across the middle of all four side windows, where the Kalahari desert had taken its sandy toll. Luckily, I managed to convince the guy I sold it to that they were stylish French design elements.

A Jeep is a slightly more rugged proposition, though, so you feel a lot more confident blaring up a sand dune or inching over a rocky river crossing. Also, taai offroad types don’t laugh at you so much, which, believe me, is very important.

Buying the Jeep was designed to help me negotiate rough terrain, but the roughest terrain of all is sitting around a campfire with a bunch of 4×4 manne. And I’m using the word manne in a non-gender specific sense. The women of the offroad community can be as cruel as their menfolk when it comes to making fun of a stadsjapie in an SUV.

So it’s day one of my new Jeep’s first ever trail, and for its debut I’ve chosen the Klein Tafelberg 4×4 trail in the Western Cape’s Sandveld. And what a beautiful trail it is, with a luxurious camping area, and a marvellous view dominated by the kopje. The owner, Albert Smit, decides that he’d better send me off in a convoy with two Land Rovers, as they’ve done the trail before.

Now asking a Jeep driver to drive behind a Landie, is like asking a Stormers supporter to stand back while the Bulls guy does the braaiing. Insulting, that’s what it is. But I grit my teeth and take it, because I’m a gentleman, and Albert Smit is a very nice man. More importantly, the Landie driver is a very big man.

Imagine my joy when the first Landie has to make at least eight attempts before it makes it up the first, tricky sandy stretch. It’s the equivalent of the Bulls supporter burning the tjops, and I enjoy it thoroughly. By the time the ‘experienced’ driver has managed to finally make it up, our three vehicle convoy has become a snaked up jam of 10 vehicles.

There are mutterings about the inefficiencies of manual transmission versus automatic, but all I can think of, as my Jeep sails up without a problem, is, ha, sucks to you, Land Rover. Jeeps rule!

(No idea why I’m using a pic of Cairo to illustrate this story, by the way – let’s not ask uncomfortable questions)

Unfortunately for my brand loyalty, the second Land Rover, driven by a phlegmatic chap called Wim, idles up easily. So maybe it’s true that the first vehicle up compacts the sand for the rest. But come on, eight attempts? I spend a large part of the trail making snide, smartass comments about the Best 4x4xFar, such as that it should be 4+4, since they need eight run ups to get over a little sand hill.

1. 

   sonja says:

   January 19, 2010 at 1:50 pm

   must of heard of …first time lucky?