This I would not doubt at all. The Land Rovers can be failure prone, and are no doubt less reliable overall than the simpler Diesel G-Wagens used by the military. However, I would not catagorize the Lightweight Land Rover as an unreliable vehicle. I believe they are substaintially more reliable then many military vehicles out there, mainly due to thier sheer simplicity. With a few simple upgraded modern components, the reliability goes way up. The Landie problems are well defined and solvable. I also believe that the Landie would be the ultimate survivor of the two, too, due to it's ease of repair and sheer simplicity. The G is on the other end of the spectrum. I dread the day that my G-Wagen fails in the outback.
I don't hold Landies with that high of regard. The general consensus I get when I ask about them is that when they go they go and that they are good offroad.... when they work. If something breaks be prepared for the big wallet to pay. BUT that might just be related to the more "modern" Landies and Range Rovers ie that as more electronics and driver aides are added, the more expensive it gets to fix if something breaks.
I just don't see how that's possible. The G-Wagon is made of better stuff, more stuff, and at a higher engineering and labor cost. I've never in my life heard of a comparably spec'd Land Rover costing more than a G-wagen. I simply can't believe that anyone, anywhere, could buy 2 or 3 G-Wagens for the price of 1 Land-Rover.
Well I "think" and thats a big think that it might be down to the fact that the G-Wagons we get don't have a lot of driver aides or comforts
. The 290 I was trained on was prepared for Anti-Lock Brakes, but they weren't installed, ie. So basically almost bare metal vehicles. Most of the G-wagons used here have canvas tops, so basically only a front window and no real doors much like a willys jeep. But there is the odd ones with a canvas top and real doors and even fewer with an actual metal roof etc, but they do exist.
That is part of the vehicle chassis number. The 463.421 is the complete number. This is a G500, which is the second generation 4-door. I love the truck and it's my daily driver. But to be completely honest, I enjoy the Land-Rover much more when running the trails, and it's more capable off-road, mainly due to it's much lighter weight. I need to mention that my Land Rover has Locking diffs front/rear, just like the G-Wagen. But the G is just heavy. On the road, the G-Wagen is absolutely suburb for an old-fashioned solid-axle Military vehicle design. Much better behaved and much more comfortable than the Land-Rover. If the world as we know it ended tomorrow, and I had to get somewhere no matter what driving one of these two vehicles, I would chose the Landie. Why? Because it will run on most any quality of fuel, the fuel system can be primed by hand and then started with a hand-crank, it has no electronics whatsoever in the ignition or fuel system, it's better off road, and if it breaks, I have a decent chance of fixing it. But this is a little apple and oranges.
And as humans we are each entitled to our own opinion, but both sitting as the passanger in a G-wagon with the instructor behind the wheel, as well as driving one myself I would tend to err more towards the G-Wagon as opposed to the Landie. But that view is also coloured by the fact that I have never actually driven in one, so that opinion might change when/if that happens. Personally I have no reason to believe either of these vehicles aren't capable off road, but whether one might be better then the other will be hard to prove or test since I would suspect a lot of driver skill and familiarity with the vehicle might tip the scales either way. All I know was that our instructors didn't have much praise to give in regards to the landies, but that being said the landies we procured might have been the most cheap and saddest version available (typical military acquisition OP). But i agree, saying one is better then the other would be hard to define as it depends on what you really expect and want
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But if I owned a G500 I would be a bit hesitant to take it offroading, as opposed to buying an old Military 290GD or a G270-280 CDI and using that offroad since I "know" how they are built up as we inspected it before taking it out. But is your G500 equipped with the same features as the 270-290s?, ie with the underside skids to ride on the terrain so that the belly of the beast is at least somewhat protected from skidding contact with the terrain etc. Because if they are more or less identical apart from yours having the bigger engine then my hesitation would be equally less
But in regards to the topic I at least wouldn't have an issue with bringing the Land-Rovers into the fold, considering the Land-Rover name as well as the various bodystyles having been changed or adapted to fit battlefield conditions (ie pinkies etc.)
