Those of you who drive range rovers or have had in the past ...

Colleen_Miss_Tom

Colleen_Miss_Tom

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Your opinions on them please ?

Towing wise ?

Fuel consumption ?

any bother they give ?

Hubbie going to look at one think its a 2.5, I know its diesel , the other one is a 4.2dse lpg conversion , but not keen on it to be honest as we live in n.ireland there isnt alot of garages that you can fill up in . I think there is 2 at the most near me
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So opinions please , Hes going to look at it in an hours time , So replys needed please and thank you
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I drove my Uncles RR Sport for the first time on Monday. It was loooooovely. Was automatic so weird to get used to.

He said fuel consumption is good considering it's a big monster! Never been used for towing as he has a Discovery that is used for any towing that needs to be done, as he said you never tow with an automatic.
 
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............ as he said you never tow with an automatic.

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Why?

I went from a manual Jeep Grand Cherokee to an auto Discovery 3. Would never tow with a manual again, an auto is so effortless. We live miles up a hilly single track road and you're changing gear every 20 yds (well not literally but that's what it feels like) and an auto takes all the work out of it.

The only thing I can think of is not having engine braking in full auto, but then just lock it in gear and Bob's your uncle. All modern autos allow this.
 
Depending on age anywhere from 12 to 18 mpg on the 2.5 diesel.

I had one for some time and absolutely loved it. It was the auto and to be honest it was great for normal driving but if I was getting one to tow I would look at a manual, you have a lot more control especially in fields or on hills.

Superb vehicles all the same and Id have another if i could afford the diesel! Gone down to a Disco now.

 
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Depending on age anywhere from 12 to 18 mpg on the 2.5 diesel.

I had one for some time and absolutely loved it. It was the auto and to be honest it was great for normal driving but if I was getting one to tow I would look at a manual, you have a lot more control especially in fields or on hills.

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Spaniel,

Sorry I disagree. Towed with a manual for years (in hilly, wet Highland Scotland) and after 2 years with an auto would never, ever go back.

There are rare situations where a manual gives more control than a full auto granted, but then just flick the auto to manual mode and you're away.

In a muddy field in full auto my Disco marches through mud my manual Jeep could not look at, and which stops most other vehicles. And the Jeep had more agressive tyres too.
 
We had a new RR Sport - like the preverbial sh*t off a stick - beautiful and comfy - would tow a house and dead easy to drive - downside - it went through diesel like a binge drinker!
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I loved the disco3 that we had - think I preferred that to the RR.
Kate x
 
We have a 4.6 petrol one. It is an absolutely stunning vehicle BUT soooo heavy on fuel. It does less than 18 mpg towing and approx 22 normal. Saying that it tows the trailer and you wouldnt know you have it on. It also moves our mobile field shelters about - one is 12 x 24 with a 4' overhang so quite a weight.
It is lovely to drive and travel in.
I would definately go for the LPG conversion. They do loads to the gallon and there are more LPG stations about than what you think. We debated converting ours but worked out it would be too expensive as we only use it for horsey things and have another vehicle we have for day to day stuff.
 
Wouldn't touch anything with rover written on it, passed another newish one yesterday broken down on a roundabout,
genuine off road vehicle, spends more time off the road being repaired than on the road, yes they look great and probably drive great, but reliability groooooooooaaaaaaaaann.
 
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We had a new RR Sport - like the preverbial sh*t off a stick - beautiful and comfy - would tow a house and dead easy to drive - downside - it went through diesel like a binge drinker!
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I loved the disco3 that we had - think I preferred that to the RR.
Kate x

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We looked at the RR Sport, but are glad we went with the Disco 3. Best car I've ever had.

Local Land Rover dealers were very good. Went in and said this is my budget, this is what I'll use it for, I'm going to buy a LR product, what do you suggest. For our semi agricultural use they suggested the Disco over the RR Sport, and it's been great so far.
 
I have a 4.0l RR I get 15-16mpg whether I am towing or not. Also the cost of keeping a RR on the road is expensive. I had a problem with the suspension, as it is an air suspension system, it cost a fortune for a new compressor and because it is all controlled by computers it was expensive to get the system reset. I hear this is a common fault. As is porous sumps and overheating (only on some engines though)

Even simple things like a new alternator are hugely expensive. It is a fantastic car to drive though very comfortable and towing is a breeze.

I now keep the RR for posh journeys and I have a REAL 4x4, a Landrover Defender, as my towing/general day to day vehicle. Cheap and chearful to run and fuel costs can even be kept down with "Bio" Fuel!
 
So basically it drinks you dry ? ? lol

I do like the discovery , Pedantic ... Hubbie has said the newer discos are giving alot of bother where as the older ones are not .

We had a discovery before and it didnt give any bother whats so ever , a few more cars inbetween and then we got a jeep cherokee , the head went in it , hubbie spent £800+ for a new head which he fitted himself (hes a mechanic) god knows what we would have paid if we had to have someone else fit it . Dont really want to have to go through the same thing again so hence the change .

I really do like the range rover , but running it hmmmm

Discovery is ticking all the boxes as well .

So range rover drinks more ? than a disco ?

Just off the phone to hubbie, hes went and looked at the range rover and he says its lovely , going well and well he likes it .
Possibly going to see a discovery tomorrow .
 
As you may gather from the above, I have no hesitation in saying go with the Disco 3. The LR dealers were very clear in saying that for all it's comfort and electronics, it's still a ruffty tuffty Land Rover underneath. Went on a LR Experience weekend and the instructors there were quite clear about it too, the Disco 3 is king of the hill of offroaders as far they are concerned and walks all over other LR products.

Several friends have them too, not heard anyone say a bad word about them.

The RR's are great, but you pay a premium that's not warranted.
 
We had a petrol RR LPG conversion which we sold last year. It was very juicy on petrol & like you, getting the gas was quite hard as garages were few & far between. Hubby loves RR's & feels if you are gonna have a 4x4 then you can't beat a RR but personally I found it too big for ordinary day to day stuff, parking, turning round and all that girly stuff. We're on our 3rd Disco now & I much prefer that. The conversion wasn't great either, it was an old fashioned one & every time we switched from petrol to gas it just cut out - not great. The RR I found to be a lot wider than the Disco (maybe imagination), find the LR a lot easier all round. Though I will say if you have a decent conversion, professionally done & serviced then I don't see why you should have any trouble with it. Towing - the RR & LR have no trouble towing anything - both great.
 
i had the 04 reg 4.6 l petrol with the whole overfinch kit on,mmmm i loved that RR but done about 12 miles to the gallon !!lol

very nice to drive and fantastic to tow with my dads alos had RRs and loves them but also has just brought a disco and is happy with that so id say either really,cant help with the lpg thing though as i dont like it !!
 
We've had 16 Range Rovers over the years - so you can tell that we liked them a little...
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Wouldn't bother with certain models though and certain years had dreadful problems, particularly when they moved away from the Classic.

We've had various engines/models; Tdi, Mazda Diesel, 3.5 carburetted, 3.9 fi, 4.2, an Overfinch and a CSK. Loved all of them, some more than others.

They are not economical if you are used to a car, but I've always been used to RR's so the gas-guzzling isn't ridiculous to me. The worst was the 3.5 carburetted as it only did 8 mpg, the best was probably the Tdi which did around 23 mpg.

Excellent tow vehicles!

Used to be very easy to maintain - not so nowadays, too many electrics and electronics.

Parts used to be very cheap, a bit costlier these days, but still cheap compared to other vehicles. Make sure you have a mechanic/garage who know how to work on these vehicles.

Generally they are very reliable vehicles, will go through anything, tow like a dream (disliked my manual as a tow vehicle though - go for auto).
 
It's always nice to see reviews from people on here who have never even driven a certain vehicle, let alone owned one.
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It's always nice to see reviews from people on here who have never even driven a certain vehicle, let alone owned one.
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pmsl how true !! yes how can you seriously comment p if you havnt driven one and if you have then why didnt you say ?
 
Our RR has been picked up from the repairer today for the third time in as many weeks........ all different problems.

First time a wire had worn through and the suspension went into hyper mode!! It looked like it had been jacked up at the back and one side on the front, making left hand bends a bit interesting
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The following week all the warning lights came on for the Transmission Failsafe prog...... needed to be reset.

Last Friday the bloody thing broke in the fast lane of the M40
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with a failure of the differential thingy..... a common problem with RRs.... we even had ours inspected 6 months ago when we bought it to make sure it was ok!! And it had already been replaced a 10k miles..

So we are selling it..... interested
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Thank god I didnt go ahead and pay the £1500 that I was quoted by Hunters to put a towbar on.... just imagine breaking down in the fast lane with a trailer on!!!! Goodbye hind legs me thinks
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It also does badly on fuel, at most we can get 24 mpg on a long drive.
 
OH has a new-ish (05 plate) 4.0l RR Sport, while I love it dearly I had to stop driving it because it's so bad on Diesel.

I just test drove several used RRs, all autos, in my 4x4 search - what I found with all of them was the 2.5/2.7l TDIs just don't have the grunt to move a car that big. They rev up quite high (3,500-4000) before changing gera and are quite sluggish feeling. They really are completely outclassed by the 4.0/4.7l models.

I do know of a 2.7 TDI auto in black on an 02 plate going cheaply as the owner couldn't deal with the diesel costs - if you want details PM me.

ETA: If you're looking for alternatives go have a look at Nissan Patrols - I'm in love with my new one. Also check out www.honestjohn.co.uk for car reports, recalls, road tests and common issues to check for in each model.
 
We had an automatic diesel one- it was a HSE I think? One the one hand I loved it- very comfy, dead easy to drive, towed well. But on the other it was unreliable. Loads of little things went wrong it eventually- air con, heated seats, various engine warning lights etc It would get hot as well and start to loose power. Eventually it had a new engine put in. I'm not certain I'd get another now.
I bought a lorry and a mini in the end
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Ours is a 10 year old automatic - my OH calls it my mobile wheelbarrow.

It costs a fortune to run (just paid £93 to fill it up), but as 3/4 of it's life is spent towing and we do about 5000 miles a year it's not worth us running a cheaper car. It averages 14 mpg (petrol)

It is virtually worthless (offered £2000 part-ex) so we decided to keep it until it gives up. I don't want a posh one because OH moans enough about how dirty it gets.

I would only tow with an automatic now. We used to have a Jeep which OH used to tow a heavy car with - he hated that for towing and thought the Range Rover was much better and safer.
 
We had a RR Vogue EFI 3.5l (I think!) F reg and I reckoned on getting 10-12 miles to the gallon on stop start journeys with 2 horses. It was fantastic for towing and would pull out of the really deep mud when everyone else needed the tractor! You do need to make sure you have a heavy duty, preferably factory-fitted towbar fitted. Not the Halfords rubbish!!!

It was very wallowy when driving without the trailer, and the material seats were impractical for us as we moved hay etc in the back. You can get boot liners and I would recommend this is you want to keep a rangey tidy.

One failing is that the tailgate is aluminium and the bolts and hinges are steel. These two metals react and eventually the hinges can seize and the boot mechanism and lock fails. (Thats what OH told me!) That happened to ours. But it was probably about 12 years old by then and had done well over 100K. But worth checking.

The rear suspension can also get a bit weak as it has some weird compensator (Please dont ask!!!! Im just typing what he is saying but its gives your OH an idea of what to check!) OH also says look at the engine and look for gasket sealant and the head gasket is prone to go. If you can see gasket sealant walk away.

He has just added that you are better off with a manual rather than an auto for off road and it will also be marginally more economical, if that means anything in a range rover!

OH also commented that it was a bloody good wagon! So that means something! If we could afford another I think we would definitely have another one (OH was given the other one as a Christmas Bonus!!!) My OH is into his cars!!!
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I love my defender and it really is a workhorse but I must admit I do miss the luxury, comfort and quietness of the RR!!!
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I have had the RR, Disco and Defender and work on them daily.

Each will tow extremly well, with the Defender being the best for towing effortlessly. If you want comfort then you'll need to go for RR or Disco as Defender is an agricultural vehcile.

The Diesel Defender models will be cheaper on fuel, following by Disco and then RR.

People have different opinions on weather to go auto or manual. With an auto you don't have to do any work as such, but some auto boxes can jolt on the change up and down.

My opinion is perhaps Disco for good towing and comfort.
 
Thanks everyone for your input appreciate it
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, Hubbie has decided he wants a second car, So our price range has dropped a right bit
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He went and looked at another RR , its a 98 2.5tdi, 119k miles , he sent me pictures and its spotless, very clean indeed for 4k ? He thinks thats quite reasonable if not cheapish ??

Hes going to have a look at a 99/2000 (cant remember the year its one or the other ) Discovery , supposedly very clean also and in fab condition .

He is loving the RR but it comes down to the fuel consumption . I have no problems driving it(parking wise) doesnt bother me in the slightest .

So based only on fuel consumption only RR or LR ?
 
I a Range Rover. Currently live in the desert in Middle East with lots of road driving and also do a lot of driving deep into the desert where reliability is hugely important. RR is lovely in the town and very popular among oil rich locals and workers. They have reliability problems though. Suspension is a perennial one.

For absolute reliability and the probablility that you will not need to visit a garage between services, go for a Landcruiser or Patrol. They are what are used when you need confidence in the car. Also have 2 tanks so don't have to fill up so often ( not sure if UK editions have that actually. See what Jeremy Clarkson says about them
 
Two tanks
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is that to help with parking problems, just drive over the others or blast them out the way, oh to have money, bet clarkson would love that.
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