Land Rover. Australia Australia has always been an important export market for Land Rovers of various models, but especially the utility models. 80-inch series-I models were sold to the Australian government in the late 1940s for work on civil engineering projects such as dams and road construction, which brought the vehicle to the buying public's attention. Large sales followed and in the 1950s Land Rover established factories in Australia to build CKD kits shipped from the Solihull factory. The Land Rover continued to sell well throughout the 1960s in series II guise, commanding some 90% of the off-road market, and with practically every farm having at least one Land Rover. The series III continued this success in the early 1970s, but from the middle of the decade sales declined. A large coal export deal to Japan relied on the subsequent import of Japanese cars and other goods, a combination of this increasing competition and increasingly poor quality of the components being shipped from Britain meant that Land Rover's dominance slipped. In an attempt to address declining sales in the rural and civil engineering markets in the mid 1970s, Leyland Australia developed the Land Rover GAME, an up-market, short-wheelbase Series III aimed at the emerging recreational 4WD market. Fitted with fifteen inch white spoke wheels and wide tyres, wheel arch extensions, deluxe bonnet, rear bumperettes, rear swing away spare wheel carrier, interior trim, and a radio cassette player, the GAME was available in a single colour scheme of 'Yellow Devil' body, white roof, black front panels and silver windscreen vent panel. Optional extras included a Fairey overdrive, safari roof, and free-wheeling hubs. Sales were limited and the model was discontinued in 1979. A problem specific to Australia was the always-limited supply of new Land Rovers. Leyland's factory never had the capacity to meet possible demand and the need to import almost the entire vehicle in kit form from Britain restricted the supply and manufacturing process further. This led to a long waiting list developing for the Leyland product whilst commercial operators could receive large fleets of Japanese vehicles very quickly. The other problems faced by Land Rover were the same throughout its export markets- compared to the Japanese competition, the Land Rover was underpowered, unreliable and slow with a poor ride quality, despite their arguably superior off-road ability. Poor rust-proofing and low-quality steel used in comparison to the Japanese vehicles turned