Walking the dogs the other day, we came upon this provocative pair: a first-gen Ford Bronco, circa 1970, and a third-gen Land Rover Discovery aka LR3, circa 2005. Compare and contrast, please!
CC Outtake: Ford Bronco and Land Rover Discovery 3 / LR3 – From Start to Finish
– Posted on December 30, 2012
Its the flat sides but the Ford has more curves.
I’d always thought the gen-1 Bronco was small and tippy-toed, and the gen-3 Disco was long and tall. Maybe it’s forced perspective from the photo, but suddenly the Bronco looks chunkier and the Disco looks almost athletic!
Exactly what I was thinking. If you’d asked me before I saw this photo, I’d have called the first-gen Bronco “small”, and the 3rd-gen Disco “big”.
Really rare to see one of those Broncos with the rear wheel openings unmolested. Most of them have been cut away and flared to fit larger tires.
It’s perspective. Bronco wheelbase: 92 in., LR Discovery 3: 113 in.
The box Bronco might be my all-time favorite truck. Simple, clean-looking and loads of options.
I love the early Broncos and if they weren’t so darn expensive I would likely have a couple of those instead of all the Internationals. Plus a F500 or F600 dump would be easier and likely cheaper to get brake parts for.
Early Bronco prices are ridiculous, although I think they’ve actually come down/leveled out somewhat in the last decade. In the late 90’s people started going bonkers for them out of nowhere. Kind of a strange phenomenon that the Jeep CJ-8 was swept up in as well – meanwhile you could still get a short wheelbase CJ very cheap back then. Maybe it’s just that prices for ALL vintage 4×4’s have finally caught up with the Bronco’s level of silliness. I see late model Grand Wagoneers listed over $10k all the time now, it’s completely absurd.
The bottom end of Scout prices has came up in the last 5-10 years but the top end seems to have stayed the same. The best survivor trucks bring 10-12K and that is about the top price for one that has been modified and done up nice too.
Bronco wins, hands down in the reliability department. You will NEVER see a 40+yr old LR3, I guarantee it!
Sure you will! Every time you go grab a beer out of the fridge
And exactly what does that mean?
Well I was thinking that you’re right about the Land Rover not lasting and I figured when it died for good it would most likely be recycled, perhaps into a fridge 🙂
Hmm, not sure about the LR3. Part of me agrees with you. But the part of me that sees SI-III/Defenders around every day has to wonder whether some of the Discos will last too. Let’s do a count on 31 December 2052 and see! 😉
I’ll take the Bronco over a Land Rover product any day. A friend of ours bought a ten-year-old Range Rover three years ago. That was mistake #1. It’s been parked in his back yard for the last two years because the air suspension crapped out and it would cost him more than it’s worth to fix it – even to replace it with conventional shocks.
Depends on what you like your leather to come in. I prefer my leather in a big old luxury sedan or convertible. I like my trucks with metal and vinyl or rubber.
+1!