Tight shutlines have never been a Land Rover thing* but these are consistent, if wide, and the whole things hangs together very effectively; it looks good as you walk up to it, and while no vehicle wears a patina more lightly than one of these, fewer excuses than normal are necessary.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a Land Rover if it didn’t have a few small dents and dinks and this one does, most notably to the offside rear door. But it strikes a nice balance between the sort of rugged good looks that mean you could take it anywhere and don’t-give-a-damn parking when you arrive.
It has the double-skinned Safari roof too, which acts as an analogue air-conditioning system, the rush of air between the two panels helping keep the inside cooler than it would otherwise be. It can also channel cooler air into the interior via four vents in the headlining.
The arrangement acts in concert with the usual twin flaps under the windscreen that can be opened to allow a breeze straight into the cabin. There’s an exterior sunshade above the windscreen too, and no fewer than six sliding windows in total, arranged so that every row of passengers has access to a throughflow of air.
Designed for use in Africa, India, and other tropical climates, given we are on our fifth heatwave of the summer so far, you may find it works every bit as well in the home counties.
Perhaps best of all, every component of this integrated system has the complexity of a hammer and doesn’t need either petrol or electricity to operate.
Let’s not forget either that the Land Rover’s new colour is also the very best of them all for hot countries. That said, the white paint looks like it has been applied with a brush, so while there is a good thick coat to protect the metalwork underneath, there are brush marks in the finish as well as imperfections and even the odd run.
If these bother you, flatting it with fine wet ‘n’ dry may help, or you could ask your favourite valeter to bring their experience – and probably something powered by 240-volts – to the task.
The seller painted the steel wheels white to match the rest of the exterior, and it’s a colour combination that works well: There’s a reason so many of us crave our 4x4s in basic UN-spec and that reason has never been more obvious; our photographer is a talented chap but even he has to agree that a Land Rover like this practically shoots itself.
The seller is kindly offering to supply the spare 16" steel rim, however it would need painting.
The tyres reinforce the impression of dedicated curation because all four are matching 7.50R16 Michelin 4x4 O/R XZL, a tyre that scored an impressive 4.8 out of five from 85 reviewers.
They are less than two years old too and still have several inches of depth left; circumnavigate on them and we suspect you’d still pass an MoT.
Plus, we will never get tired of telling you that experience shows that matching high-quality tyres are an infallible sign of a caring and mechanically sympathetic owner who is prepared to spend the appropriate amount in maintaining their car properly.
The glazing is intact but some of the panels are heavily scratched. All six sliding windows open freely though, and the Goodwood sticker in the rear window shows you the sort of places you can take a Series IIa without drawing anything but approbation. (There’s a Series 2 Club sticker in the windscreen too, and membership of the owners’ group is never a bad thing, is it?)
Additions include an LED work light on the rear, chequerplate on the front wings, and red headlamp surrounds. It’s got a towbar too, plus a pair of recovery points on the heavy-duty galvanised front bumper.
Oh, and the front grille is the metal one hardy bushcraft folk remove and use to barbeque on. #justsaying
Things to do include perhaps replacing the rubber mounts on the bonnet as they’ve got paint on them. That’s the bad news. The good news is that you could put the spare wheel back on the bonnet if you prefer, or even buy another and have one on either end to give you peace of mind when you venture into the wilds.
*The rumour is that when the Germans bought Land Rover one of its senior engineers was boasting of the panel fit across the BMW range to the boys in Solihull: “We lock a cat inside each car overnight, and when we find it suffocated in the morning then we know the door seals are up to scratch.”
An old hand took a drag of his rollup before saying in a broad Brummie accent: “Yes, we have something similar. We lock a cat inside overnight, too. If it hasn’t escaped by the morning then the vehicle is passed by quality control.”
