When I first started driving Landies in the '60s there was nothing else comparable around. They worked, apart from the half-shafts breaking, because they were simple, as most things built in a blacksmith's workshop are. When Toyotas came along, they put LR in the shade. I believe the first Range Rovers were fairly reliable, although I never drove one. It seems that they couldn't make anything that was in any way complicated, reliably.