---
title: "Ocean Destroys $82,000 Range Rover Sport After Stupid Tourists Get Stuck on Protected Beach"
description: "A rental company in England is down one $82,000 Range Rover after a group of tourists drove it onto a protected beach at a nature reserve, promptly got stuck, and abandoned the pricey SUV to be consumed by high tide."
date: "2018-02-28"
modified: "2018-03-01"
authors:
  - name: "Kyle Cheromcha"
    job_title: "Editor-in-Chief"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/kyle-cheromcha.md"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/news/18863/ocean-destroys-82000-range-rover-sport-after-stupid-tourists-get-stuck-on-protected-beach"
categories:
  - "Land Rover News"
  - "News"
  - "News by Brand"
tags:
  - "beach"
  - "england"
  - "land rover"
  - "luxury"
  - "Range Rover"
  - "range rover sport"
  - "rental cars"
  - "Stuck"
  - "suv/crossover"
  - "Tourism"
---

# Ocean Destroys $82,000 Range Rover Sport After Stupid Tourists Get Stuck on Protected Beach

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-td/content/2018/02/range-rover-ocean.jpg>)
*\<em\>www.thedrive.com</em>*

The [Land Rover Range Rover](<https://www.thedrive.com/new-cars/11234/range-rover-makes-the-best-suv-in-the-world.md>) is one of the most luxurious and capable vehicles you can buy today. Its off-road heritage means it can surmount just about any obstacle—that is, except for the folly of man. And now a rental company in England is down one $82,000 Range Rover after a group of tourists [drove it onto a protected beach](<https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/02/27/rented-100k-range-rover-gets-stuck-protected-beach-tourists/>) at a nature reserve, promptly got stuck, and abandoned the pricey SUV to be consumed by high tide.

It's normally illegal to even walk on the beach at the U.K.'s South Walney Nature Reserve, a resting stop for migratory birds and home to sensitive vegetation, but neither that nor physical signs and barriers stopped the three men from driving the brand new [Range Rover Sport](<https://www.thedrive.com/news/18434/watch-a-range-rover-sport-phev-drive-up-999-steps-to-heavens-gate.md>) onto the sand on Sunday. After cruising around for a while, the 5,000-pound truck eventually [got stuck](<https://www.thedrive.com/watch-this/10303/australian-man-drives-maserati-quattroporte-onto-beach-immediately-gets-stuck.md>) below the high tide mark.

A member of the Cumbria Wildlife Trust [told *The Telegraph*](<https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/02/27/rented-100k-range-rover-gets-stuck-protected-beach-tourists/>) that he watched the men "remonstrating wildly" as their attempts to dig out the Range Rover sank it further into the muck.

https://twitter.com/_/status/968123906346414080

"They'd definitely gone to great lengths to [get on that beach.](<https://www.thedrive.com/watch-this/12451/watch-a-high-speed-pursuit-barrel-down-a-california-beach.md>) There are very clear posts up seeing 'do not go on the beach' and there are even wooden trunks acting as a barrier," Tony Jesson said. "We sat there for an hour watching them trying to drive it out, pull it out, dig it out. It was very much stuck."

With the sun setting and high tide coming in an hour, the group decided to cut their losses and walked back to higher ground. What happened overnight wasn't pretty; the expensive SUV was totally swamped by the ocean, with waves smashing several windows and flooding the interior with salt water.

https://twitter.com/_/status/968142185026777088

The Range Rover was finally [hauled off the beach](<https://twitter.com/cumbriawildlife/status/968142185026777088>) on Tuesday by a tractor, and we can't imagine it's heading anywhere but the salvage yard. The Cumbria Wildlife Trust has lodged a formal complaint about the damage to the protected site from tire tracks and oil seepage, and police confirmed to *The Telegraph* that they're investigating the incident.

## Author
Overseeing an expert staff of writers and editors from his lair in Los Angeles, Kyle shapes The Drive’s singular approach to covering the automotive industry and car culture. He’s been with the site as a writer since 2017, taking over as editor in 2019. On a daily basis, Kyle is responsible for directing The Drive's editorial news and car review content strategies, setting special coverage priorities, managing complex reporting projects, and ensuring what you read on the page meets our high internal standards for quality and trustworthiness. He is also the executive producer of The Drive's YouTube channel, which was relaunched in February 2024 to great acclaim and has accumulated over 14M new views in its first year back on the scene. He hosts a biweekly series on the channel where he breaks down fascinating and complicated stories from the automotive world.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/kylecheromcha.bsky.social>)  
[Instagram](<https://www.instagram.com/kylecheromcha>)  
[LinkedIn](<https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-cheromcha-1550248a/>)