Land Rover options from 1955

Basically, everything was optional, even a windscreen wiper for the passenger's side! Click picture to see both pages.

Customer service at its best

Good customer service is hard to find, so I'm tipping my hat here to the best. About 14 years ago I bought a Tirfor hand winch from Howard Material Handling of Seaview, Lower Hutt. The transaction was over the phone and I never met Errol Howard, who sold me the iconic French winch. The Tirfor made some great "saves", but became largely relegated to the shed after the arrival of a Superwinch electric winch. I'm not fitting a winch to my new Wrangler Rubicon, so I dusted off the Tirfor. It was stiff and didn't want to work. I called Howard Material Handling, got hold of Errol and without introducing myself sought his advice – which turned out to be spot-on – and I soon had the Tirfor going like new without having to spend a cent. But here's the thing: during the phone call he asked, "Did you buy this winch from me years ago; it's Phil in Auckland isn't it?" Amazing. He remembered me after having had only a couple of conversations more than a decade ago! I hear Errol and his wife are looking at hanging up their snig chains and retiring – any new owner will have a hard act to follow.

Good things about a hand winch
• Can be used to pull from the front, back or side.
• Relatively light and easy to store.
• No need for even one battery!

Bad things about a hand winch
• Can be really hard work.
• Not particularly quick.
• Not rated for really heavy pulls – usually between 1250kg and 2500kg.

Jogging the memory

So what does this picture have to do with the one below left? Well, the dot jogging background left turns out to be John Steele, once the boss of Mercedes-Benz and that's my dog about to paddle in putrid creek water and  … you'll just have to read the item!

It was ages since I'd seen John Steele (see caption), who went on to a top job with the Giltrap organisation after Mercedes, and bumping into him on the trail provided an impromptu opportunity to catch up, while the dog got filthy. Back in the mid-1990s John asked me and Ray Stone (an auto industry identity who is a skilled off-roader) to do separate reports on whether Mercedes should import the SsangYong Korando – the vehicle in the top photo. Mercedes had recently taken on distributorship of the Korean brand in New Zealand and already had the Musso on its books. I don't know whether my report or Ray's had anything to do with the decision not to bring in the three-door, but when the distributor changed so did the decision. The new people saw it as a good alternative to the Jeep Wrangler, but it was not particularly successful, despite good pricing. In 2005, the base model with the 2.9-litre Mercedes-based turbodiesel cost $24,995 in manual and $28,995 for automatic. The Limited, with lots of extra gear including traction control, was $5000 more.

We got the second generation Korando, introduced in 1996. Korean production ended in 2006, which included several years of Daewoo ownership. Russia's TagAZ resumed production in 2008 as the Tager. Add an extra 'g' to the nameplate and it could have been ideal for New Zealand. Meanwhile, SsangYong is readying a new version to compete with such vehicles as the Hyundai ix35.

I thought the Korando was generally good, let down mainly by poor tyres. It would be interesting to see how it went with a decent set of rubber, like today's Kumhos – to maintain the Korean theme. And it was difficult to accurately place on tight tracks because, for seating and styling reasons, the driver had no real idea of where the front left corner was – not that my Jeep Wrangler Rubicon's any better.