In defence of the P38
Oi you lot! I have a serious bone to pick with you about your attitude to the P38 – in the July issue of LRM (p.50) you describe the P38 as “the most reviled Land Rover ever built”.
In defence of the P38, having moved from central London to the wilds of Hertfordshire, we wanted an old 4WD runaround to deal with muddy fields, potholes and country lanes. Initially the plan was a Jeep Wrangler – too many re-runs of Jurassic Park perhaps, but yup, it was a bad idea and a truly terrible vehicle.
Then came a visit to Legacy Motors in Hertfordshire (very good idea) and we left happy with a really good condition but slightly unloved P38 with 113,000 miles on the clock, for £4500, knowing we’d spend some dosh on it to tidy it up.
We took it to Harris Mayes in Harefield (great idea) who know everything there is to know about Landys and Range Rovers. £1250 saw a top-end rebuild, brake system workover, cooling system rebuild and a major service. I was very happy with that given I’d recently spent £600 just on a minor service and front brake pads for my new BMW 430.
Since then I’ve had 18,000 troublefree miles in a year with one failure to start, caused by a dead battery – the original 16-year-old item, no less. Can’t complain about that!
Last weekend, a drive to Brighton at 70 mph saw (real and measured) 20 mpg. Every week someone says “Great car!” and wants to chat about it, and we love it. ‘Tank’ is part of the family now.
So please dump the “most reviled” tag you keep slapping on the P38. Remember, all you lot in your latest Range Rovers and shiny new Velars – all very clever and smart and sleek, wouldn’t exist without the P38!
A bit of respect please for one of the elder statesmen of the family – especially from LRM’S writers!
Scott Galloway Hertfordshire
I love the P38 and their values are just going up and up at the moment! I have lots of friends who happily use them every day and they get just as much joy as I do when driving my Defender. If you read the whole sentence you are referring to, then you will notice that the writer finishes with “the secondgeneration Range Rover doesn’t really deserve its bad reputation”. I have to say I agree with him and that despite the P38’s once-poor reputation, when you sort out those niggles you have a great Range Rover for a fraction of the price of a new Velar – Ed.