I’ve never been the type to like SUVs, especially not Land Rovers, but goddamn it the Car Autance crew is making me fall in love with them. I saw this damn good Range Rover whilst trouncing around the Bay Area, killing time.
- Car: A Range Rover with chunky tires
- Location: Daly City, California
- Photog: me (Kevin Williams)
- Camera: Canon EOS M
It’s kind of crazy working on a team full of West Coasters. Sure, I fully well acknowledge the fact that Peter Nelson’s from Chicago and Andrew Collins grew up in Massachusetts, but where have they been lately? Yep, I thought so — the LA area.
Living in the rust belt has severely colored my opinion on car enthusiasm, in ways you’ve probably picked up on. Some cars that enthusiasts like, to me, have always been shitboxes. Like, any Land Rover, for example.
I grew up mere blocks away from a BMW and Land Rover dealership. Was this a nice neighborhood? Absolutely not. There was a running gag amongst the neighbors that a BMW dealer and a Land Rover dealer in the middle of “the hood” was using some sort of drug money to keep itself afloat.
My experience with Range Rovers has always been seeing them in someone’s yard, broken. They never run, the air suspension has failed, it doesn’t move under its own power, it’s a British, SUV-shaped lawn ornament.
Now, people like them. Or maybe they’ve got the patience and know-how to fix them? Peter Nelson’s Discovery seems like the latest in a long line of a resurgence of Land Rover and Range Rover love. I still think they’re mostly playthings for the kind of wealthy, but that’s probably due to my stupid complexes on how the world works.
This knobby-tired Range Rover in Daly City attracted my attention, it’s suave luxe styling with off-road ready tires feel like the equivalent of some tech-bro guy pretending he’s more humble than he actually is. The type of guy who day drinks IPAs at a cheap dive bar in a t-shirt and worn-out jeans, but he’s also wearing a Cartier bracelet. Like, you’re cool dude, but you ain’t fooling nobody.
