Not For the School Run

Loading...

Photo 1 of 20

This 1984 Land Rover V8 is literally not clean and the only thing green about it are the wheels. It may not be great for the climate but environmentally it’s not all bad. Sure, being old and British means it leaks oil into the environment but in its favour it’s 37 years old and still being used. It’s the very opposite of single use plastic or built-in obsolescence. In a world where vehicles are designed to be scrapped and replaced every few years the dear old Landy was built to last and therefore this example has not needed to be scrapped and replaced with all the energy and resource that would require.

So environmentally the Land Rover is not the complete disaster it might outwardly appear to be. However, when it comes to the climate it fares less well. The old, inefficient Rover V8 is a pretty heavy emitter of Co2 and hydro-carbons – not good. But, again, it’s not all bad news as there are mitigating factors. You may have noticed the Land Rover’s lack of basic comfort compared to today’s luxury SUVs, or pretty much any other car to be honest. Now, whilst somewhat contradicting my first point, I dare you to drive this everyday – to work, to pick up the kids from school, to do the grocery shopping. Most couldn’t do it meaning the next owner of this Land Rover will likely use it for going offroad on the weekend or working on a farm. And maybe that owner will drive an EV the rest of the time.

I accept the above arguments are a bit of a stretch but this old stager deserves to keep on trucking and sometime in the future, still solid, still rugged, it’ll get an EV transplant. That’s not really a big stretch, is it?

This Land Rover is being auctioned online from this coming Friday. More details here.