Yes agree, It’s hard work watching the slow progress at times.
‘They’ being Oz buyers.Who loudly proclaimed the virtues of 4 cylinder Jap crap while decrying the superior 6 and 8 cylinder home made products.
Your point being what ?.
You’ve lost the plot sunshine. As usual, you think you are the knowledgeable expert when the reality is the exact opposite.
Toyota got a foothold in this country in 1959, during the construction of the SMS. Leslie Thiess couldn’t get Land Rovers, so imported Cruisers. They were crude and poorly suited, but unlike all the arrogant British manufacturers, Toyota listened to the people actually using the cars and made improvements accordingly. Thiess was so impressed with the service and desire of Toyota to build what was required, that he went into partnership with Toyota to import, wholesale and retail the entire Toyota range. As with the Cruiser, Toyota listened to the customers and gave them what they wanted.
The rest of the Japanese manufacturers followed with the same culture.
My father bought a 1965 Toyota Crown, there was no comparison to anything Australian at the time. Holden, (Ford) Falcon and (Chrysler) Valiant offered family sedans and wagons with rubber floor mats, extra cost options consisted of radio, heater and automatic transmission.
My father’s Crown had all of that plus full carpeting, factory tinted glass all round, automatic electric antenna, self seeking radio, superior comfort, fit and finish, all for less money than a pov pack big three! Why wouldn’t an astute buyer opt for a Japanese car? The memories of Japanese atrocities in WW II was the biggest hurdle for Toyota, Datsun et al to cross.
The death knell was sounded for Australian manufacturers in the USA, when the government bailed GM out of bankruptcy, stipulating that the money was to be used on USA manufacturing, as opposed to overseas operations.
As GM withdrew from manufacturing in this country, the peripheral suppliers became unviable, starving all Australian manufacturers of vital parts.
As fuel got dearer, engine technology got better and Australia became more urbanized, four cylinders became the sensible choice.
There are four cylinder engines out now that would leave your old clunker in the dust, despite the extra eight spark plugs.
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Yep, the Japs may have been design copiers, but they were also improvers on those designs and models of cars.
I remember in the 70s as a kid my Dad and Uncle looking around for new cars.
Nissan had just launched in this country, or Datsun as they were then, compared with anything British, they were way ahead of their time on features and gimmicks, that attracted potential customers, as well as much better service after sales deals.
I remember being amazed as a kid cos the car had electric windows 
…and a cigarette lighter 
, never seen before unless you owned a Roller or something else top market.
The Datsun 240z for instance, a landmark sports car, especially succesful in the US market, was said to have been based on combos of succesful Brit cars, including the Austin Healey and Aston Martin with an E.type thrown in, to name a few, and built arguably to a beter standard, … and definitely cheaper.
The Japs revolutionised the automotive industry, and the famous term of ‘Jap Crap’, used by critics, after their very first attempts…those words were rapidly ‘eaten’ when they got established.
Also look what they did to the bike industry…same thing but more so.
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Radio silence from the “guru”. 
Here Carryfast, put your money where your gob is.
Which proves the superiority of a Toyota v a nice big V8 Holden how ?.
What has Land Rover got to do with…Holden ?.
The truth is any excuse to shun the superior Anglo product for cheap oriental junk.
Or Ford AU.
Yeah, righto.
Post WW II, Jeep was the only 4x4 LV (incidentally designed by Bantam) available. The first Land Rover prototype was built on a worn out Jeep chassis, by Maurice Wilks. The first true Land Rover was released in 1948, incorporating prewar Rover components and continued virtually unchanged for ten years.
Land Rover had no competition from any Commonwealth country. Complacency compounded by lack of finance and the condecending attitude to the mere colonials, gave Toyota an opportunity. Toyota’s attitude of listening and responding to customers’ needs was the end of Land Rover’s dominance. Toyota has continually developed their entire product range, that’s what elevated them to the number one light vehicle manufacturer in the world.
As to Land Rover being superior to Land Cruiser…
You need to compare apples with apples. To the ignorant such as yourself they’re all lumped together as 4x4s. Nothing could be further from the reality.
As a Land Rover owner and aficionado who has also owned the Toyota product, I can say each have their strong and weak points.
Toyota offer a wide range of vehicles from basic, rugged off roaders to city pose cars that can handle gentle off roading.
Land Rover excel in the latter end of the market, offering greater pose and snob value.
How many of your “superior engineered” manufactured vehicles are in production today?
You’re trying to push rope uphill, china.
It was a classic equation across the commonwealth: Landrover did a fantastic job but Toyota actually got you there - a matter of life or death in the outback, the veld or the sahara. Africa simply voted with its feet.
As did so many armies and mulisha around the world.
Well I never! A vehicle health check video from the first service at Wigan MG Motors has shown up in my email this morning.
It gives wheel disc, pads & tyre depth readings & shows a visual check of the battery pack & suspension parts whilst up on the lift.
It didn’t show how they measured the pads & wheel discs though. 
The Merc vids actually show the tech checking tread depth, pushing / poking the suspension, exhaust etc and they have a tool for measuring brake pads and discs, all with a running commentary.
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Yeah, the tech in this video spoke so fast I’d a job to understand half of what he said with other noise in the workshop.
It’s a pity they insisted on me removing the dashcam before it went into the service bay, as I would have liked to see/hear what they did.
Or what they’re trying to hide.
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Bearing in mind we’re actually talking about the fate of Holden and Ford Australia v cheap oriental imports.
The truth is not better but cheaper.
No one is/was going to sell you a Range Rover or a V8 Falcon or Commodore for the price of a Toyota.That’s not because of snob value.
You can measure the discs visually by the step left by the pads around the outside edge and/or just use an engineering micrometer to check the exact width and place a screwdriver against the caliper and turn the hub to check for any run out.
Running pads low is also a false economy because like worn discs it also exposes the the caliper pistons outside the gaiter to the weather.
Why do you insist on prooving what a goose you are, passionately arguing on a subject that you have zero knowledge?
In regard to “Holden and Ford Australia v cheap oriental imports.”, the mould was cast in the early~mid sixties. Holden and Ford offered respectively a base and deluxe model, the mere differences being an external chrome strip and front door rests on the inside.
Along came the Japs who had improved out of sight on their initial late 50s, “ideal for post-war Japan, totally unsuited to the wide brown land” offerings.
The later cars from Japan were better built and equipped than anything we had ever seen.
To borrow one of your cliches, “bear in mind” we were importing cars from North America and Europe, the Japs left them all looking very second rate.
Look no further than your own local industry, how many of them are left? The Japanese quality also left them for dead, nothing to do with the number of cylinders.
Sorry I still don’t agree with this. At what point would you change brake pads then?