When recreating a famous SUV stunt in China goes wrong

This has "let me show you my bulletproof cybertruck" vibes. I have personally been distrustful of Chery since this: https://www.chinesecars.net/content/gm-daewoo-auto-technology-co-ltd-versus-chery and this: https://www.ancap.com.au/safety-ratings/chery/j11/e02ded
Those articles are donkeys years old. Maybe things ave improved since then do you think?

Edited... Speelin is ard. And how come I can read it 'til I am blue in the face and yet, I only notice my shite spelling after I have posted????
 
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Spunjji

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A Series Land Rover is sort of the perfect British vehicle; easy to fix as a post box, tough as Shackleton's feet, and reliable as Jimmy Savile around your kids. They're at their best when they've become kind of a SUV of Theseus and have been fixed, repaired, and part-swapped until everything kind of works, or has failed but isn't important enough to replace. If your local mechanics know Land Rovers, that's the best case scenario, but there's a reason most of the rest of the world has adopted the Hilux.
That absolutely killed me.

I have a fond childhood memory of the engine in my mum's LWB Land Rover Defender exploding. The mechanic surveying the mess asked how many miles it had done, then solemly proclaimed that this was just what they do around that age.

I think due to a confluence of circumstances it ended up having a Ford truck engine jammed in there, which also conveniently converted the beast to running on Unleaded.
 
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thinkreal

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My brother and his Kenyan wife run a lodge in the Masai Mara. He swears by the simplicity of the Land Rover in that most things can be fixed by local mechanics, with their ingenuity and metalworking, rather than having to send off for a part. I'm not sure he is so complimentary about the reliability, but I guess they throw a lot at them out there
That would be the OLD Defenders, too simple to break too bad. The only thing they have in common with the Range Rover that made it up the stairs is aluminium panels and the green oval.
 
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Snark218

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You sure you aren't thinking of a 70 series Landcruiser? We have both Hilux & 70 series in Australia and they are very different, the Hilux has been continually updated in appearance, has usual Toyota tech (AEB, radar cruise control, speed sign recognition etc) whereas the 70 series has the same look since the 70s, until very recently had literally no tech, manual roll down windows, 4.5L diesel V8 producing 200hp, drives like a tractor and ironically costs more than a Hilux.

The Hilux is just a standard ute common throughout the world (apart from the US), your description sounds a lot more like a 70 series.
Quite sure; it was definitely a Hilux and had modern styling, but there was absolutely no ADAS, it was a manual, the most basic head unit imaginable, etc. It was industrial fleet spec, not a typical model for sale to the public; electronics don’t love -50C.
 
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Snark218

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That absolutely killed me.

I have a fond childhood memory of the engine in my mum's LWB Land Rover Defender exploding. The mechanic surveying the mess asked how many miles it had done, then solemly proclaimed that this was just what they do around that age.

I think due to a confluence of circumstances it ended up having a Ford truck engine jammed in there, which also conveniently converted the beast to running on Unleaded.
Gotta love when the 60,000 mile recommended service is a full engine rebuild.
 
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ghostcarrot

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Some moron around here destroyed a Toyota Tundra with something like 150 miles on the odometer about a decade ago trying to drive it up a dried river bed at some ridiculous speed when he hit some concrete debris and railway ties that had washed down there.

The wreckers made a huge mess pulling him out of there and had to cut down a bunch of trees. There were supposed to be all sorts of environmental charges pending but they were never filed.
Recreational off-roading is selfish. You can compare how places that were only recently protected look, like Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument north of Las Vegas, to places that have been protected for a while like Mojave National Preserve. Driving on a 4WD road or 2-track is its own thing, for better or worse that's an established route, though the heavier or higher-speed a vehicle is the more it may degrade a trail and also makes it easier to make steal resources from the backcountry that have been protected mostly by remoteness. But just driving off into the desert is gross.

So, naturally, Utah Sen. Mike Lee wants to force National Parks to allow UTVs. The proposed rule requires that any closed UTV route be replaced by an equivalent route, and that environmental protection is not a sufficient reason to close a route.
 
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lp0_on_fire

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Recreational off-roading is selfish. You can compare how places that were only recently protected look, like Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument north of Las Vegas, to places that have been protected for a while like Mojave National Preserve. Driving on a 4WD road or 2-track is its own thing, for better or worse that's an established route, though the heavier or higher-speed a vehicle is the more it may degrade a trail and also makes it easier to make steal resources from the backcountry that have been protected mostly by remoteness. But just driving off into the desert is gross.

So, naturally, Utah Sen. Mike Lee wants to force National Parks to allow UTVs. The proposed rule requires that any closed UTV route be replaced by an equivalent route, and that environmental protection is not a sufficient reason to close a route.

Recreational off-roading is... I don't see the appeal.

I dated a woman who's family was into it and she dragged me out with them a few times and I really, really did not enjoy it.

I honestly have no idea what this guy was out to accomplish, most of the local degenerates find the old logging roads satisfactory enough for their reckless pursuits.

If the concrete and railroad ties didn't get him there were lots more hazards to choose from, whenever there is a torrential rail all sorts of garbage gets washed into the riverbed. After the last major flood there was a dumpster and portable toilet both full of silt and other debris deposited along there. There is still debris from a storm in 2003 that is practically immovable.

Sometimes they bring out prisoners to clean up after storms but they can't move the most dangerous debris.
 
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henryhbk

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One well known example is headlights; luxury car manufacturers can't sell super-advanced matrix LED headlights here because they don't meet a requirement dating back to the '60s, so it doesn't even work when the applicable ROW standard exceeds the stringency of the US one. World cars are wildly expensive to develop.
That's no longer true, my Tesla does matrix headlights where the high beams "cut-out" the car in front of you (it's easy to spot when you're going around a bend with a wall/forest behind it and the black square around the oncoming car follows it...
 
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andocom

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Thinking of Hiluxes, the coming 9th generation Hilux will have an EV option. Yay, more leccy choices!
Weirdly enough they are claiming a hydrogen fuel-cell version is also coming which unlike the Mirai will be available to the public not just lease/fleet sales. I thought Toyota had given up on hydrogen TBH, maybe they think the FCEV's 600km range vs the BEV's 240km is worth it, knowing the Australian market any range anxiety will be addressed with the cheaper 1000km diesel version though.

Personally I'd love a Hilux EV, but 240km is rough.
 
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SimonW

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A Series Land Rover is sort of the perfect British vehicle; easy to fix as a post box, tough as Shackleton's feet, and reliable as Jimmy Savile around your kids. They're at their best when they've become kind of a SUV of Theseus and have been fixed, repaired, and part-swapped until everything kind of works, or has failed but isn't important enough to replace. If your local mechanics know Land Rovers, that's the best case scenario, but there's a reason most of the rest of the world has adopted the Hilux.
Yes I appreciate what you mean. Top Gear once did an episode where they tried to destroy a Hilux.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnWKz7Cthkk
 
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andygates

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Weirdly enough they are claiming a hydrogen fuel-cell version is also coming which unlike the Mirai will be available to the public not just lease/fleet sales. I thought Toyota had given up on hydrogen TBH, maybe they think the FCEV's 600km range vs the BEV's 240km is worth it, knowing the Australian market any range anxiety will be addressed with the cheaper 1000km diesel version though.

Personally I'd love a Hilux EV, but 240km is rough.

Yeah I didn't mention the hydrogen one as it may not be wide outside their home market -- ISTR Japan has had a hydrogen boner that's distracted from pesky batteries.
 
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