Good points, Dee!
If Don Samuels manages to get elected and gets his way there probably won't be any city employees left to drive snowplows so four wheel drive may be needed. Of course, this assumes it ever snows in any meaningful amounts in our globally warmed future. Having driven a front wheel drive VW through most of our great blizzards without much problem I question if 4 wheel drive would even be necessary then.Just wondering, Does he need the Land Rover to plow through the huge amount of snow we've received this winter or is he planning some off the road driving at his new North Minneapolis location?
BTW, a bit of Land Rover history- the Land Rover was originally built for the British military, who wanted something like the Jeep. It was better in many ways than the Jeep, with rustproof aluminum bodywork and a much roomier cab. Rover also developed a whole range of optional equipment to customize the Land Rover for many uses- ambulance, armored car, snowplowing, expeditions, etc.. In the late 1960s they introduced a larger model, the Range Rover. The Range Rover pioneered long travel suspension and full time all wheel drive- features some of our SUVs do not offer.
Sadly, the Range Rover and Land Rover soon became fashion accessories for the wealthy. Nowadays there pretty much just an even more overpriced SUV, and their unnatural habitant is gentrified neighborhoods and the malls.
Of course here on the Northside a Land Rover or similar vehicle screams "rob me"!. Such obvious displays of wealth in working class neighborhoods tend to attract vandalism. In areas that have seen a lot of living wage jobs lost to imports something like a Land Rover becomes a doubly attractive target for vandals. For example, I was not in the slightest bit surprised to see BMW's fake "Mini" knockoffs torched in riots in Britain- the real Mini was a source of national pride and the brits are quite angry to see BMW try to replace it with an imposter. If one really needs four wheel drive, a plain looking Ranger pickup is a safer bet at about half the Land Rover's price. My Ranger was spec'ed to look like a fleet truck, and the local thugs pretty much ignore it. By conrtast I'd go broke just paying for the glass breakage on a Land Rover around here.
motorin' in Hawthorne,
Dyna Slyter
Dee Long East Isles
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