Range Rover (L405) - experiences?

[inflames]

I have always appreciated a nice Range Rover, looked at buying a RR sport more than once. I currently own an another JLR product and with my recent experience I will appreciate them from a distance but will never own one again.

 

[bigmike20vt]

You've got to admit though, that was pretty impressive. That driver has some serious cojones.

Longer version:

that looks like it would be scary.. you certainly would not want to get an engine light come on with reduced power half way up!!!.

btw i know JLR have a bad rep for customer services however i can only call it as i have experienced it and i must say Marshalls Jaguar/Land Rover in Cambridge have been great for me (so far, touch wood, cross fingers etc)...... that said i am currently in process of booking in for a service in the next few months so expect a rant from me when it all goes wrong

I know Range Rover have high running costs - too rich for me, my mate told me how much it cost him to sort the cylinder head on his and it was horrible!. BUT they are such nice cars and when inside them they are a step up from any other cars i have been in personally (including my ipace as well as various high end audi/BMW SUVs). There is a reason so many people with ludicrous amounts of money own them.

the only car i could compare it too would be (again not mine) my friends Bentley (in terms of OTT luxury).

 

[ChrisD.]

I nearly did, I found a very nice British Racing Green facelift model and almost went for it, but I've ended up in another 7 Series again (a G11 LCI 740d xDrive). I'm not really needing the practicality element and I just feel more familiar with BMW. The 7 is perhaps slightly less comfortable, but it's nicer to drive when pressing on a bit. This is my third 7 Series so I should probably declare myself a fanboy now!

The considerations are reliability, of course, but I came to the conclusion they're fairly solid if you get a decent example. Insurance is annoyingly expensive, although for me it wasn't too bad - around £1600 whereas the 740d is about £800. I don't think warranty costs are too bad (for this sort of car) and I'd want to keep that running. Whether it's as good as BMW's I can't really say. I wasn't overly impressed with the Land Rover dealers I dealt with (many are Marshall), but some seemed ok. Have your wits about you when buying them as most Land Rover dealers are happy to sell them with part service history.

I'd love a 7 series (or S Class). I really regret selling my F10 530d, I loved that car. Unfortunately I don't think a saloon is compatible with my requirements. My wife has a Tiguan but she wants a smaller car, we have a dog and child so need something larger. I'd have an estate, but I do a lot of night time driving back from client sites and being honest I do struggle with visibility with many other cars having LED/laser headlights pointing directly at my face. I much prefer driving the Tiguan in these situations over my M3. The sensible thing is I just use her car and she uses mine, but for me the Tiguan isn't exciting enough to keep me from looking at something quicker, it's quite small by the time the dog is in, and she doesn't like driving the M3.

I do really like the idea of taking the family & dog on camping weekends, hence the idea of a caravan. If I got something that can tow, then I could also get a small track/weekend car. I can put bikes on the back of a RR, put the dog in, and still have plenty of space for luggage. They're quick enough to keep me entertained. I guess the lack of driving dynamics compared to an M3 is something I will just have to deal with, or can be met by a weekend car. I've been looking at S2000's etc.

Insurance is an issue, I ran a quote on a P525, the cheapest quote was £600 or so but it was from a company I'd never heard of, and they wanted a telematics type box installed. Quotes from companies I did recognise were around £1000, which is what I currently pay for both cars! I haven't run a quote on a V8 diesel which is probably what I should be considering but the supercharged V8 sounds lovely and I've never owned a petrol V8. Reliability wise, I'd hopefully get one with sub 40k miles and keep a warranty on it. I don't see me doing more than 10k in a year, probably half that but who knows, if Europe trips are on the cards it could be more. I have no idea what the JLR warranty is like for used/older cars, and Marshall wanted to sell me their own warranty which was £1500 for 3 years beyond the first year. No idea if that's any good or not compared to the JLR one. Lots of reading to do and I am open to suggestions for other cars. I've considered an X5M50d, I've looked at the X7, Q7's etc also, but I really do fancy trying a RR.

The car I drove yesterday was shagged. I had no intention of buying it as it's white with oak/walnut interior so I didn't look at the service history, I just wanted to drive one. It had 26k miles on it, it hadn't been through prep but all wheels were curbed, it had scuff marks on the bumper, it had lots of small scratches around the dash etc. It clearly hadn't been nicely looked after.