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Great advice for buying a Range Rover.

Suffolk Tony said:
I wonder how many on here have actually owned Range Rovers and Toyota Landcruisers? The first photo is of Liam, our LC5 Land Cruiser, bought new. The dealers were dreadful, but luckily we only had to visit them once more, for servicing, and even then they failed to fix the undertray and didn't check the tyre valves were reseated properly, resulting in a flat the following morning. No apology...Moving on, this was top of the range, with air suspension. It could best be described as agricultural. I'm sure it'd have gone on for many thousands of miles, but you really wouldn't want to drive it that far - the will to live would soon depart. The controls were poor, with the cruise control's habit of suddenly dropping out when towing uphill a positively dangerous trait and apparently normal. The sat nav was basic but very good. After a couple of years, I'd had enough of it.

Below is the TDV8 Range Rover we traded the Toyota in for. It was in a completely different league in terms of comfort, performance, handling, and over the course of four years totally reliable. It was a real pleasure to drive, and only went when my kids gave me grief over its environmental credentials, and we gave up caravanning (SWMBO's idea of camping is a three-star hotel). It's turning circle was poor, and it wasn't a vehicle to take into a multistory car park. We both loved it.
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I’ve owned neither, I was just making a general point about how we design great products (Range Rover) but are not so good at building them. Over its lifetime the LC would almost certainly be more reliable but you cannot undo certain design flaws.

If you look at any prestige car they do cost a bit to maintain regardless of ultimate reliability. Our old childminder had a Nissan Xtrail for a while, nothing but problems, bought a Discovery Sport which I think was better but not perfect. Perhaps 4x4s are just complex?
 
MartinC said:
Funny how 0-60 times that were considered good a few years ago are now considered slow. Our MX-5 is considered too slow to be a real sports car with a 0-60 around 6 seconds. The LR4 (Disco 4) has a 0-60 around 6.7 seconds, which I think is amazing for a vehicle that heavy.

I can't imagine having to merge onto a freeway with a 0-60 of 10 seconds.
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Yes, the arms race over power is bizarre given the increasingly heavy hand of enforcement. The only thing my current car lacks is a cruise control to keep me virtuous. It's a big diesel and you can't hear any change in the engine not e between 70 and a ticket for 85.

As for 10 sec to 60, that did used to be considered as "brisk". Even today it's adequate. You say you can't imagine merging onto a freeway with that, I had precisely that for 4 years and it was fine. The car was a well used Ford Mondeo 1.8, I looked up the specs. 123 bhp, 9.9s. It was never a ball of fire but it was adequate. In fact it's the only car in which I've had a speeding ticket. 47 mph on a "smart" motorway where they had turned the limit down to 40 because somebody reported a crisp packet in the road.
 
Perhaps 4x4s are just complex?
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Modern cars are just complex. Mine is in now for a faulty ignition switch. Overnight wait for parts, coding, £150 final bill. In the past that took 20 minutes with a screwdriver.
 
The only time I've been stopped by an actual policeman for speeding was in our 1968 Series 2 Landrover. You wouldn't have thought it possible!
 
@Suffolk Tony

That RR Sport I rented for a week last year was, without doubt, the loveliest prestige/luxury vehicle I’ve driven, and I’ve driven some very nice ones. But, I’d be too terrified to use an older one in case it handed me a bill that stopped me retiring early.
I’ll just try to rent one when we go away.
 
Suffolk Tony said:
I wonder how many on here have actually owned Range Rovers and Toyota Landcruisers? The first photo is of Liam, our LC5 Land Cruiser, bought new. The dealers were dreadful, but luckily we only had to visit them once more, for servicing, and even then they failed to fix the undertray and didn't check the tyre valves were reseated properly, resulting in a flat the following morning. No apology...Moving on, this was top of the range, with air suspension. It could best be described as agricultural. I'm sure it'd have gone on for many thousands of miles, but you really wouldn't want to drive it that far - the will to live would soon depart. The controls were poor, with the cruise control's habit of suddenly dropping out when towing uphill a positively dangerous trait and apparently normal. The sat nav was basic but very good. After a couple of years, I'd had enough of it.

Below is the TDV8 Range Rover we traded the Toyota in for. It was in a completely different league in terms of comfort, performance, handling, and over the course of four years totally reliable. It was a real pleasure to drive, and only went when my kids gave me grief over its environmental credentials, and we gave up caravanning (SWMBO's idea of camping is a three-star hotel). It's turning circle was poor, and it wasn't a vehicle to take into a multistory car park. We both loved it.
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I’d take the LC, every time (although the Amazon would be a better comparison with a FFRR of the time). I ran my LC4 for 7 years, from 10K miles to circa 170K. Totally faultless and brilliant vehicle. Superb dealer who I only saw for routine servicing / MOT’s. Should never have sold it (for amazingly strong money, which says a lot). Colleagues at the time had new FFRR’s, RRS’s and Discos, no end of horror stories, massive bills and inept dealers. I honestly think you were very unlucky with your Toyota dealer and exceptionally lucky with your RR (phew...!).
 
I'm not sure I'd buy a new motor without ensuring the warranty and service plan was robust enough. I've done that with the Volvo I'm getting next month. I was always a realist regarding my Jaguar - nice car, lots on/in it to go wrong, so ensured sufficient funds available to cope with it. When we had the RR Velar for a week whilst my wife's car was in for repair post RTC (not her fault) I loved the car, but not the reliability reputation or actual cost of it.
 
Andrew C! said:
I'm not sure I'd buy a new motor without ensuring the warranty and service plan was robust enough. I've done that with the Volvo I'm getting next month. I was always a realist regarding my Jaguar - nice car, lots on/in it to go wrong, so ensured sufficient funds available to cope with it. When we had the RR Velar for a week whilst my wife's car was in for repair post RTC (not her fault) I loved the car, but not the reliability reputation or actual cost of it.
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Yep, there’s just too much stuff to go wrong. I only buy Japanese now (apart from campervans) because they don’t break, have great dealers IME and a 5 year warranty as a backstop, although I’ve had Japanese cars for 14 years now (Toyota and Subaru) and never had a problem.

What’s frustrating is when you hear a positive story of LR (such as Tony’s), you think what a crying shame they can’t seem to get the consistency of build quality. I find this bizarre when they’re all built on the same line with the same parts. The Japanese, however, seem to have perfected this.
 
stevec67 said:
Modern cars are just complex. Mine is in now for a faulty ignition switch. Overnight wait for parts, coding, £150 final bill. In the past that took 20 minutes with a screwdriver.
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And that’s why the cars I own are low tech old shaggers ;)​
 
Ponty said:
I’d take the LC, every time (although the Amazon would be a better comparison with a FFRR of the time). I ran my LC4 for 7 years, from 10K miles to circa 170K. Totally faultless and brilliant vehicle. Superb dealer who I only saw for routine servicing / MOT’s. Should never have sold it (for amazingly strong money, which says a lot). Colleagues at the time had new FFRR’s, RRS’s and Discos, no end of horror stories, massive bills and inept dealers. I honestly think you were very unlucky with your Toyota dealer and exceptionally lucky with your RR (phew...!).
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We're weren't just "Lucky" with our Range Rover. Before the Landcruiser we had a Td5 Discovery, which was also completely reliable from new. I bought it as an import in the days when you could save a goodly bit by getting one of the various companies to do the paperwork. We saved £7K on the price. Apart from towing a large caravan across Europe for a few years, my wife used it for commuting around the UK. It didn't even need new tyres until 65K miles.

Many other folks in the caravanning community ran Rangies/Land Rovers of various sorts, and we were by no means alone in having trouble-free ownership. We all knew they were expensive to run and proper main dealer maintenance was essential. As towing vehicles, and for long journeys, they were superlative.
 
We’re also caravanners and we tend to use sites with little or no amenities and usually off the beaten track. My old Rangie never had an issue getting us where we wanted to go. I had a Disco 1 for quite a while too and that never gave us any problems either. The year before last I bought a TD5 but I just didn’t like the way it drove. I sold it a year later and bought a Freelander:( I knew it had issues when I bought it so I can’t complain I suppose. I’m not going to tell you what I have planned for it as you’ll probably all laugh your bollocks off:D
 
My only experience of riding in a Landrover was when hitchhiking up the A1 going to Newcastle. I was picked up and taken quite a way, however compared to most of the lifts I got - it was slow (max about 50mph) noisy and not very comfortable.
As a hitchhiker one can get to be very fussy as to what you get a lift in but you never reject a lift - it might be the last one for several hours.
 
I briefly got behind the wheel of an older series (1 think) Landy SWB that had a V8 dropped in to the bay. The power was notable and the engine/exhaust note intoxicating.

I did not drive it far...about 20 yds. It was a ‘challenge’ as part of a wider ‘farm challenge’ event. I was blindfolded and there was a sighted emergency stop guy alongside. The task was drive toward a tree and stop before it but not hitting it. Closest would win. I wanted that car. Good job it was not for sale.
 
I have always had a love hate relationship with Range Rovers. Love the comfort and all road ability but hated the early models made from the BL parts bin (Morris Marina door handles ), also the ridiculous short service interval for the drive shafts.
Slightly OT but, a guy I worked with bought a lightweight Land Rover and was a little upset when someone told him that they are not classed as lightweight until they are thrown out of an aeroplane and survive :). He was doubly upset when he found out that his low millage example was really a radio/communications vehicle and so the engine had just been idling for hours, or even days, at a time.
He had the original engine replaced with a large Perkins Diesel lump but was told to keep it in 4 wheel drive at all times as those drive shafts were good old British tolerance ones, he didn't and 100 miles later they were reduced to swarf and bent metal :)
 
I had a 2011 4.4TDV8 LR322 Full-Fat Range Rover for 2 years. As anyone will tell you it is a wonderful way to travel, supremely comfortable and relaxing. It was also the best tow wagon I have ever driven - even with a rally car on a trailer behind it you could out-accelerate cars from traffic lights.
The downside was a combination of the reliability and the worst dealers I have ever encountered. I bought an LR Approved Used car, which came with an excellent warranty, but every time the car was repaired it had to go back to the dealer for further work. It took ages to get the parts for repairs and on several occasions the promised courtesy car was not available when I arrived at the dealer. I'm still waiting for a quote to update the sat-nav, 3 years after I sold the car!
After 2 years the LR Approved Used warranty was due to expire, there was an option to extend it, but it was expensive and there was a claim limit of £3500. As it happens a good friend of mine works for the company that underwrites LR warranties, so I asked him what kind of claims he was seeing on LR322 Range Rovers. He told me that £15K+ claims were fairly common so I traded in my Range Rover for a Lexus RX450h.
The Lexus wasn't quite as comfortable as the Rangie, but it was 100% reliable.
 
Seeker_UK said:
What's the CVT like for towing?
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The RX450h was fine towing my rally car on a trailer (around 1600kg), not as good as the Range Rover - but it weighed 2.7t, had 500+lbft torque and self-levelling suspension.
The combination of CVT and the assistance from the hybrid electric motor worked pretty well - it never felt like it was struggling, you could hold the speed limit on any motorway or dual carriageway incline.
 
eternumviti said:
This, of course, is where it all began.

I take no responsibility for off-roading, actual or inferred...!


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Or for drinking Stella-Artois, offroading or not.

Those Goodyear Military NDTs set you back about £1400 for a set!
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Looks great, but no wipers on an off road vehicle? First time it rains or you hit a puddle you have to fold the screen flat out of the way.
 
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