SLROC Forum

Lucky me. I'm road-testing a Range Rover Sport HSE TDV6 for a forthcoming review in The Scotsman.
It's the same colour as my Defender, but there the similarities end.
For instance, I drove it through a lot of puddles today, and I still have dry feet.
Nothing rattles, clunks or squeaks.
The heater pumps out hot air. Hot!!! Hot, I tell you!
The kids don't complain about the din at 60mph. That's because there is no din. It's whisper-quiet. Besides, they're too busy watching DVDs on the screens set into the headrests.
It also costs more than the first house I bought, and I'm not that old. The price of the in-car entertainment system alone would have paid for a very nice conservatory.

To sum up then: It's not like any other Land Rover I've ever driven. I'm just nipping back outside to check it actually HAS a green oval on it.

you wont have it long enough to find the faults  bushes wear out in less than 20000 miles tyres scrub and cost over ?1000 to replace as a set electronics are crap and before tim stands to there defence he must have had one of the best ones   do a long term test

. I'm just nipping back outside to check it actually HAS a green oval on it.

Lucky beggar.

We have one at my work and the electrics are very problematic and there was a period of time when the mobile Land Rover tech was never away from our offices. Eventually went back to the main dealer and many days later was returned  fixed.
Tyres are a problem in that they do wear out quickly and trim seems to come loose quickly. Last but not least we just extended the L/R warranty and all I can say is no wonder they offer interest free finance over ten months      

you wont have it long enough to find the faults  bushes wear out in less than 20000 miles tyres scrub and cost over ?1000 to replace as a set electronics are crap and before tim stands to there defence he must have had one of the best ones   do a long term test

I won't spring to their defence as I know that a lot of people have had a lot of problems - but far more of them are fault free and never miss a beat, you just don't hear about them. I ran a 2.7 TDv6 for 2.5 years and then a 3.6 TDv8 for another 2.5 years. I had niggling problems but nothing serious enough to spoil the enjoyment of them. Even though I now own a 3.6TDV8 Full Fat RR with more whistles and bells than you could shake a stick at it, I reckon that the TDv8 Sport was better all round as it didn't do what the L322 does and that is roll like a cross channel ferry going round bends - this has been cured in the new 4.4TDv8 which has the latest version of the trick hydraulic antiroll bars and similar performance to the old 4.2V8 S/C but 31mpg. I had 2 sets of front bushes in 28000 miles and a new tailgate release switch and that was the sum total of what went wrong on the TDv8 Sport. Tyres still had a good 10k miles left on them too. The only reason I changed was because the warranty was nearly done and I didn't fancy having to foot some potentially very expensive bills if it went wrong. I know one guy who has run a TDv8 to 98000 in 4 years and nothing has ever gone wrong, not even worn out suspension bushes. The new 3.0ltr TDv6 is a lovely car, it doesn't have the trick suspension of the TDv8 or the S/C and after a lot of rapidly discharging batteries in the early days they seem to be pretty reliable cars.

UDO, if you want to be seriously impressed then see if LR (or as it should now be called Range Rover press office as they are now separate brands) press office will lend you one of their fleet of 2011MY 4.4TDV8 Range Rover Autobiography's............... air conditioned, massaging reclining rear seats, who could live without them.................. and an 8 speed autobox that makes the highly acclaimed 7 speed Merc autobox seem very crude

despite the faults and failings of land rover products  the tdv8 is impressive it would bl**dy well need to at the price of them when the range rover first came out it cost ?1800 or there about a mk1 escort rs1600 cost ?1400 now you can get a very good house for the same cost as the top of the range rangie and it would not hemorage money like a rangie

All marques have their problems, the internet tends to focus complaints/ dis-satisfaction of owners into a place where it is easy to find - the owner's forums, so you don't always get a fair picture of reliability. Satisfied owners tend not to "complain" or pass comment.

All marques have their problems, the internet tends to focus complaints/ dis-satisfaction of owners into a place where it is easy to find - the owner's forums, so you don't always get a fair picture of reliability. Satisfied owners tend not to "complain" or pass comment.

tim you are exactly right about complaints if you google any car you will get pages of complaints the interesting thing is how many pages, i was looking at replacing my disco a while back and read up on many 4x4s landrover has a few thousand pages,toyota has few thousand , nissan has hundreds of thousands of pages, i think that is more a true reflection.
the funniest one i read was a guy moaning about his hilux, it need a propshaft uj at 110 000 miles

UDO, any chance of hanging on to the RRS until the April Driving Day - we could all have a shot in it and give some constructive comments you can add to your review!!

Tom.

If anybody is looking for forums (should the plural be fora...............) for the newer Land Rovers and Range Rovers then a guy called Martin Lewis has created 6 owners forums that are excellent and great sources of info and advice. I know there are quite a few members here who are also members over on Martin's sites. The forums are:

For TDci powered Defenders  www.defender2.com
For L322 Rage Rovers  www.fullfatRR.com
for Disco3 and Disco4  www.disco3.co.uk
for RRSport www.RRSport.co.uk
for Freelander2 www.freel2.com
for Range Rover Evoque (yes it is alive and well and quite active!) www.babyRR.com

There is also the excellent www.landrovernet.com 

A wee update...

The day before I picked the RRS up, a pothole split the sidewall of one of the low-profile, 20-inch tyres. 

Two other tyres have just been declared unsafe because of bulges in the sidewalls (presumably caused at the same time), and replaced.

Land Rover is footing the bill, thank god.

The tyre pressure monitoring system reported a fault after the photographer took the car to a muddy place for the photoshoot, but it cured itself after I drove it through a puddle at warp speed. I suspect something got stuck somewhere and just needed flushing out.

Recently driving a supercharged vogue hard the fuel consumption was an eye watering 4mpg on the computer. Ouch

Recently driving a supercharged vogue hard the fuel consumption was an eye watering 4mpg on the computer. Ouch

And Land Rover's trip computers are usually quite optimistic, you were probably getting 1-2 mpg not 4!   The TC in my 3.6 TDv8 Vogue says I average 32-33mpg, in reality I get 28-29mpg, I can get it down to 25 if I drive it very hard, but the worst I've seen is 7.6mpg driving round the Galloway Forest Drive special sections in low box.............

I'm just nipping back outside to check it actually HAS a green oval on it.

You'll see another subtle change as all RR's now have a smaller black oval badge instead of the green oval which now fronts the LR range. 

I am now onto my second RR Sport having previously had a 2.7TDv6 and now a 3.0TDv6 changing when the warranty was about to run out. Tyres were not an issue on the 2.7TDv6 and don't appear to be excessivly wearing on the 3.0TDv6 as i have 12k miles on it.  Considering one of my mates bought a Touareg, which has been ripping tyres between 5k and 7k miles....ouch as well as in and out of the garage with mechanical problems, issues not just limited to Land Rover.

Gordon

If it is a 2011.5MY RRS then there will be fewer Land Rover Ovals on it as they are now branded as Range Rover with wheel hub centres with the new RR logo on them. IIRC there aren't even any ovals inside from this year................