Drove a different beast at the weekend, do i fancy a change?

E

easty027

Senior member
 South Manchester & East Yorkshire
Bit of a rant this one so bare with me.

i drove my parents friends 09 plate Range Rover Sport all day sunday, TDI-V8, what an awesome machine, it had pretty much every extra on it and full of gadgets, but more importantly it was sooo damm comfy and i didnt have to dodge any pot holes the entire day ! just sat back and relaxed in comfort.

i then jumped back into my car, and felt like i was sat on the floor after being so high up in the rangey. my car felt so fast and reponsive almost like a go kart after that beast, it felt great. then on the journey back home, some 120 miles. I got thinking about how nice it would be to just be able to drive without having to dodge pot holes and in extreme comfort, then when i got home i started looking on autotrader (dangerous i know) for a different type of vehicle.

Obviously RR Sports are expensive used, but then i started looking at facelifted X5's the 2004/05 onwards model 3.0d. ive always loved the X5 and theres seems to be some real good bargains out there with sat-nav, tv etc etc, even found a 3.0d which had been chipped to 275BHP from a reputable dealership.

This is the longest i have ever owned a car being almost 2.5 years, the question is do i change or is this just a fad that will pass ?. im only 32 (30 is the new 20 by the way) so im no old-timer, but i think i have been converted to comfort over go-kart impracticality already!
 
I wouldn't touch a Rangie for reliability issues. Buddies of mine have them and they live in the garage. Disco's top of the range Rangie 'Westminster' all the same. New one's evey 2 years and they still don't learn, but fantastic bits of kit

I've had an X5 for 8 years and it's had 2 faults - fan under warranty and needed rear bushes. Done close to 100k and will not change or part chop it until all the family have left home, finished uni. Worth nothing (£10k) now but an aweome bit of kit. I love it and the Zed for different reasons and need both. I could not live with one and not the other for the balance of practical and fun. X5 eats the miles, can tow 2 tons of Jeep and still looks cool enough in a luxury hotel or bank car park visitor slots (work)

I know others on here with the same combo of cars so it's not unique.

At 30 would I have wanted just an X5 - nope :thumbsdown:
 
Same here, I have the X5 3.0d facelift and the Z and use both for different purposes. X5 is definetely a drivers car, which the RR is not (does look funny to recognise all the BMW bits in a RR from that era).
 
Agree with CJ - Range Rover reliability is certainly at the botom end of the scale. I love my Zed for what it is - a two seater sports car which is fun to drive and live with. I dont think it's possible to compare a Zed and Range Rover - two different vehicles designed for different functions.
 
AlanJ said:
Agree with CJ - Range Rover reliability is certainly at the botom end of the scale. I love my Zed for what it is - a two seater sports car which is fun to drive and live with. I dont think it's possible to compare a Zed and Range Rover - two different vehicles designed for different functions.
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I’m not comparing the Z4 to say a 4x4 in general, and certainly not a range rover. I think I’m almost at my wits end with dodging pot holes and uneven road surfaces all day long as I use the z4 as a daily driver. The road issue and uncomfortable ride are starting to remove the fun from actually driving the car.
 
I too hanker after an X5 as a joint second car (idea being to give wifey the Nissan 4x4 and nick it back to go offroading!!) - what 'real-world' mpg are people getting from the 3.0d?
 
lacroupade said:
I too hanker after an X5 as a joint second car (idea being to give wifey the Nissan 4x4 and nick it back to go offroading!!) - what 'real-world' mpg are people getting from the 3.0d?
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Dunno - mine's the petrol sport that has averaged 19mpg lifetime - or put a more painful way £27,500 of petrol at todays rates when she hits the 100k mark later this year :thumbsdown:
 
Mine gets 32 mpg on average. 34 on a steady 75- 80 motorway run, or 29 on the way back from France couple of weeks back with full load and cruise exactly on 100 mph for 1200 km ...
 
Unless you can afford both stay with the Z but then i am not a fan of any sort of 4x4 unless i was going to get into off roading.
 
GAZA62 said:
Unless you can afford both stay with the Z but then i am not a fan of any sort of 4x4 unless i was going to get into off roading.
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I would not advocate a 4x4 to many people and the crop we are talking about here are 4wd, but not really 4x4's in the sense of off road vehicles. Hell the X5 is an on road performance car as is the Rangie sport and can barely clear a rutted track.

Why I like them is for space and luggage capacity with a family of 4. Ability to tow a heavy trailer with ease. Build quality, road presence and safety.
Traditional 4x4's on the road are a heavily compromised car - Shoguns, Explorers, etc.

Of course the borders are all now being blurred. Baby X1's that are rather small and even in 2WD now ??
 
I used to be against ALL 4x4's being used on roads, but I've mellowed out somewhat. People can buy whatever they like. Only now, after buying my van and covering approx 12k miles so far, can I really appreciate why some 4x4 owners buy them for the higher driving position: it's brilliant seeing over the top of other cars :D

I still think a lot of folk currently with 4x4's would be better off driving a normal car, but it's their choice.
 
I remember a winter not that long ago where only the 4x4s could get around with snow tyres 8)
 
cj10jeeper said:
GAZA62 said:
Unless you can afford both stay with the Z but then i am not a fan of any sort of 4x4 unless i was going to get into off roading.
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I would not advocate a 4x4 to many people and the crop we are talking about here are 4wd, but not really 4x4's in the sense of off road vehicles. Hell the X5 is an on road performance car as is the Rangie sport and can barely clear a rutted track.

Why I like them is for space and luggage capacity with a family of 4. Ability to tow a heavy trailer with ease. Build quality, road presence and safety.
Traditional 4x4's on the road are a heavily compromised car - Shoguns, Explorers, etc.

Of course the borders are all now being blurred. Baby X1's that are rather small and even in 2WD now ??
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Thats the difference you use it not just pose on the school run or to get a paper like round my way if i needed to tow a trailor or lived in the sticks and needed a good work horse then i would most likely own one but something that could go off road like a SWB Land Rover
 
X5 is also the only off-road car I will consider (if I need one). I think you only need Range Rover and Discovery if you do serious off-road driving.
 
X5's are terrific cars,the only full size 4x4 worth having unless you want a full bore off roader then a Land Cruiser is a good bet. Anything from LR is likely to be a nightmare to own, nice ot drive though.
 
ksher said:
X5 is also the only off-road car I will consider (if I need one). I think you only need Range Rover and Discovery if you do serious off-road driving.
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Range Rovers are undoubtably better off road than the German jobbies - X5, Cayenne, etc. but frankly they are best at towing a horsebox over a wet field or getting along nice wide non scratchy tracks. In the £50k to £100k market nobody really off roads them. Disco is a significant step up from either of those (although the latest has gone a lot more comfy and on road), but for serious off roading you really need a short wheelbase vehicle and nothing that's drivable on road is good at both. Closest you get is the Landie Defender or the Jeep Wrangler (once the US safety crap is removed and proper wheels fitted).

Now for serious off roading then it's another league and game
 
I bought a 07 disco 3 SE about 6 weeks ago - would have liked the RRS but way to expensive and useless off road and not enough luggage space for what i want and i want to do so basic offroading. Just going on my first LR off road experience on Thursday, cannot wait to see what my car can really do.

The auto box i have is so smooth and on the hideous m1 j21 morning crawl it is now an absolute pleasure to be sitting in all that traffic and all those white van drivers do not try and push me out of the way. It is not the quickest thing in the world, but will be getting a remap very soon, took me a while to get use to going a round corners very very slowly and braking 2 miles before a junction :oops: , it is a far better car to drive than most think and what pot holes not noticed any since i have been driving the disco :D

Have to completely agree that the roads, speed limits and traffic etc are really taking the fun out of owning a sportscar. Which is why my M is now the 2nd car, but i am older than you so i have an excuse for driving like my mother :oops:

I love my Disco, but you do not want to own one without a warranty, any of the Landys can be somewhat unreliable and make BMW look cheap to fix if you use a dealer.

Off roading is really good fun, but if you want to do that you need something like a disco, forget X5 etc you will be the one the discos are towing out of the mud! I test drove every and i mean every 4x4 before i bought mine, they are all very very different and it all depends on your requirements. The great road 4x4s are in general useless for proper off road use.

Oh and the prices for landrovers are sky high at the minute. I could have bought a 3 year M and had £4k change for what you will pay for a decent specd 07 disco and X5s are even more expensive. The decent specd 4x4s real and pretend versions seems to be holding their prices really well.

I think you would regret swapping to any 4x4 if it was your only car, super comfortable and easy to drive, but not very exciting, but only you can make that choice. Have both you cannot go wrong :D
 
Inuit said:
it is now an absolute pleasure to be sitting in all that traffic and all those white van drivers do not try and push me out of the way
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Not me, honest :oops:
 
Inuit - where you going for your first off road experience?
You'll really enjoy it. Forget everything you ever learnt about on road driving and you'll be fine
 
yup, we have a Z4 and Touareg combo that works swell. Touareg had a lot of issues lately but they are now all fixed :)
 
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