On the road with Blue Tit and Big Richard

When Tati Reed bought her first vintage Land Rover two years ago, she had no idea it would change her life. Now she's a social media sensation, with videos of her fixing various breakdowns gaining tens of thousands of views

- By Andrew Papworth

WHEN Tati Reed bought a battered and broken 1985 Land Rover, little did she realise she had found the car that would transform her life.

The 23-year-old snapped up the rusty Land Rover 90 a couple of years ago with nothing more than an idea to go camping with a roof tent for two weeks around France.

Not knowing the first thing about cars or one end of a spark plug from another, she faced a baptism of fire as the ageing off-roader repeatedly broke down with faults.

For most people, it would be a holiday from hell. But the unlikely bond Tati developed with her beaten-up car by tending to its every need has not only taken her all over the world, but into millions of people's lives through their smartphones.

Sharing the trials and tribulations of her breakdown-filled journeys with the Landy - which she affectionately named "Blue Tit" - on social media, she has amassed a whopping 490,000 Instagram followers.

Her first video, in which she jokingly caresses her vintage vehicle like it is a multi-million-pound Bentley, racked up a staggering 23 million views. Some of her most recent videos show her washing her filthy, mud-covered second Land Rover - a 1998 white 110 named "Big Richard"- after a 124-mile off-road trip through Romania, and an adventurous trip to the beach in Greece.

She regularly gets tens of thousands of views on Instagram and TikTok for clips of even the most mundane activities, such as changing the engine oil. She also got the chance to film a “breakfast date” with Top Gear and Grand Tour legend James May in Los Angeles for YouTube.

In a world where the most coveted cars are expensive scarlet red Ferraris or James Bond-style Aston Martins, Tati's brutally honest and humorous posts show that even the most raw and basic vehicles can bring unbridled joy.

And her giant following perhaps also proves that, whatever their ups and downs, Land Rovers hold a special place in people's hearts.