Originally Posted by Paul Grant

Here in the US most independent garages loath to work on Rovers. In my last location, the shop next to me had a couple of Rover owners but hated working on the trucks. I never could understand why but the feeling he had was not unusual. Meanwhile, he would think nothing of working on a muscle car from the '60's. So for the smaller shops, it's really not about the money. I think it's more about the lack of hands on experience (especially with the small number of Rovers on the road here in the states) that turns these shops off. Add that to the expense of the parts (and rarity of some for older models) and the brand is viewed as more bother than it's worth.

Now as far as the Land Rover dealers are concerned, they don't want the older trucks taking up lift space because they know most of the owners are likely to blanch at the cost of repair on their $3K trucks. If the average cost of repair at a dealership is greater than the cost of the vehicle coming in, how could you possibly expect to make money. Most older Rover owners would never pay $5k in repairs on a '96 DI. For the dealer, it's a waste of time to even bother with the diagnostics. It's a business, not a hobby, plain and simple.

On the topic of countries and the age of their automobiles, the average age of a used car in France is 7.4 years whereas the average age for the same category of cars in the US is 11.6. According to IHS, that age is growing yearly.

https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-m...-the-vehicle-8

http://www.autonews.com/article/2016...its-11.6-years

The average for all of Europe according to the ACEA is still lower at 10.7 years. An that includes all the countries in Europe, both wealthy and poor.

Average Vehicle Age | ACEA - European Automobile Manufacturers' Association