Are Range Rovers in fact rubbish?

[DragsterRR]

Morningside said:

I find it strange that you don't seem to see any mid '90s Range Rovers on the road.

Mine is

[kambites]

Morningside said:

I find it strange that you don't seem to see any mid '90s Range Rovers on the road.

You don't see many 90s cars on the road at all, at least around here.

[Jimmy Recard]

Morningside said:

I find it strange that you don't seem to see any mid '90s Range Rovers on the road.

I find that strange because I see quite a lot of them around. Mostly 4.6s, oddly (the engine with the worst reputation)

[sealtt]

Fantastic cars, but the ones getting on a bit are 'bargains' for a reason.

Spend a decent bit of money to get a good example, buy it properly from the dealer with all the LR warranty and enjoy a fantastic car. Even if it goes wrong LR will take care of it all and often put you in a brand new one to keep you on the road. LR assistance are brilliant, come to you within an hour or two to get any issues sorted on the spot.

Otherwise to make it viable you have to be happy getting your hands dirty - or you will realise quickly that the £80k car you got for £15k wasn't such a great buy after all...

[Ozzie Osmond]

Forget the glowing reported from fanboys, check out the industry survey,

http://www.jdpower.com/sites/default/files/2015%20...

[Huff]

Rangies have been rubbish since they grew out of the 3-door hatchback format ordained by god.

I;d add a but I'm not entirely joking - stretching the RR to add more doors was the point the concept was ponced on by marketeurs. Over 20yrs ago...


ETA: 'ponced' is not a spelling mistake, either as it turns out.

Edited by Huff on Tuesday 24th November 22:39

[PugwasHDJ80]

DragsterRR said:

Morningside said:

I find it strange that you don't seem to see any mid '90s Range Rovers on the road.

Mine is

its not strange- they've all rusted away!

I had 8 in a row with some pretty interesting variants and I rebuilt two of them- it was a nightmare with rust everywhere.

I then bought an 80 series landcruiser. It had 3 stuck bolts and no rust. Everything worked.

[Jimmy Recard]

Ozzie Osmond said:

Forget the glowing reported from fanboys, check out the industry survey,

http://www.jdpower.com/sites/default/files/2015%20...

'Fanboys'....not just fans?
My mother has a Range Rover and I'm fairly sure she's not male

[Roo]

lostkiwi said:

KungFuPanda said:

lostkiwi said:

Here we go again - another 'I hate SUVs and can't see the point' thread.

Far from it. It's about the reliability of Range Rover cars. Nobody has mentioned them in their form as an SUV except you.

Its a comment on how it will go, not how its gone to date. It happens every time.

I have an SUV. I've had dozens of them as company cars. All from Mopar.

My brother has owned, and still owns, JLR vehicles.

I know which I'd rather have, and it's nothing to do with the type of vehicle.

[Mr Tidy]

lostkiwi said:

Its a comment on how it will go, not how its gone to date. It happens every time.

Well it hasn't gone that way so far, so to prevent your being disappointed I have to say those SUV monsters have aerodynamics like my shed, CO2 emissions like China, and they're cr*p anway!....

Some owner comments above don't seem to rate them as particularly reliable either - if you need access anywhere at any time get a LandCruiser or a Patrol - any LR product probably won't start!

Happy now?

[Piersman2]

I've just bought my 3rd Range Rover. I had a P38 which exhibited every standard issue they can develop. I then bought an L322 TDV8 which has had all the usual issues fixed. And just this last week I've now bought an L322 supercharged which has already managed to tick one of the standard 'issues'.

However, I can search google and I'm handy with the spanners and have a good specialist just a mile from home so fixing them has not cost a fortune compared to someone trying to use their local LR dealer; that level of expense would hurt.

I'm hoping the supercharge will be less troublesome than the other two, it doesn't seem to have too many 'standard' issues compared to the other two.

The fact I've just bought my third probably shows my thoughts on owning them... I've loved them all. The P38 was a bumbling lump of jelly to drive around town, the TDV8 like a roller on stilts, and the supercharge is like a fast roller on stilts.

[Troubleatmill]

Old adage....

If you want to venture into the Australian outback.... you can bring a Land Rover/ Range Rover.
If you want to survive - you bring a Toyota

[Slow]

Very early 02 l322 td6 owner here, only got it in march.

Since then its had a gearbox rebuild, other than that it has only required a battery and brakes/lower arms. Sort of knew they were needed when I bought it though, finally killed gearbox after a trip back from norfolk with a defender on a trailer.

Strangly just finished the same trip again only this time for a bmw e30. Set off at like 7pm, dont stop, get there load car and drive back. So comfy and effortless towing even after being in the car for 24 hours. Even managed 26mpg avg over the whole trip!

Wouldnt trade it for anything except a newer one.

[ambuletz]

i never undestood why people loved the ranger rover when it was known for being incredibly unreliable. I also still don't understand that despite being more popular then ever these days they are still unreliable... and also why (apart from porsche, BMW, audi) nobody else has managed to make a premium 4x4 that is reliable...

[lostkiwi]

Mr Tidy said:

Some owner comments above don't seem to rate them as particularly reliable either - if you need access anywhere at any time get a LandCruiser or a Patrol - any LR product probably won't start!

Happy now?

Interesting. I had an early 90s RRC 3.9 V8. It suffered a blown headgasket and that was all in three years of use and abuse at pay and play as well as commuting. and green laning. It was bought from a hippy family who had lived in it for a year in Spain (so very neglected) and sold on with 166k miles on the clock.

I later bought a Toyota Land Cruiser Colorado. In 3 years with no pay and play abuse and less commuting it was recovered on a big yellow taxi twice. First time through alternator failure which shut down the ECUs. Second time through gearbox failure as the transmission cooler in the radiator cracked and allowed coolant and ATF to mix destroying the automatic gearbox.
On top of that the rear diff lock was flakey at best (luckily never really needed in anger) and the viscous fan coupling failed as did the starter motor. And lets not forget the price of parts. Viscous coupling was £400ish new from Toyota, starter and alternator were in excess of £300 and the centre exhaust box (in mild steel) was £528! The Toyota was bought with 130k miles and sold with 150k.

My experience of Range Rovers was pretty reasonable!

[Jimmy Recard]

ambuletz said:

i never undestood why people loved the ranger rover when it was known for being incredibly unreliable. I also still don't understand that despite being more popular then ever these days they are still unreliable... and also why (apart from porsche, BMW, audi) nobody else has managed to make a premium 4x4 that is reliable...

I bet you've had loads of experience. I wish I could say that my Range Rovers and Discoverys are less reliable than Porsches, BMWs and Audis but they're not so you'll have to be disappointed

[lostkiwi]

Jimmy Recard said:

ambuletz said:

i never undestood why people loved the ranger rover when it was known for being incredibly unreliable. I also still don't understand that despite being more popular then ever these days they are still unreliable... and also why (apart from porsche, BMW, audi) nobody else has managed to make a premium 4x4 that is reliable...

I bet you've had loads of experience. I wish I could say that my Range Rovers and Discoverys are less reliable than Porsches, BMWs and Audis but they're not so you'll have to be disappointed

Porsche Cayennes and VW 4x4s aren't without their issues.
Cayennes have a problem with the non-turbo V8s scoring their bores and all Cayennes and Touaregs and Q7s suffer from propshaft failure.

[IroningMan]

If you run any premium 4x4 without a comprehensive warranty then you're taking a serious risk - at least with JLR vehicles there's an extensive network of very capable independent specialists and fantastic online owner community.

[numtumfutunch]

2009 TDV8 RR Sport here bought new

It's my daily runner, family shed and wagon of choice for runs to the south of France and Alps

It chewed its alternator last summer

Nothing else has gone wrong
I may regret the above

When the weather is abysmal there is nothing else I would rather drive
Last weekend it took me and my favourite son (4 legs) out onto the moors and back when even 'regular' 4x4's were slithering around at the snow line

I'd have another in a heartbeat but see no reason to splurge 60k on a new one when mine is still sweeeeet

Cheers

[NJH]

Funny how the P38 has its rep. I have been using a 2.5 DSE manual gearbox P38 for 5.5 years now and over 50k miles (taken it from 100k to 150k). Its only actually let me down fully the once when the clutch broke.

Air spring also exploded once but I hit the mother of all pot holes in the dark. Apart from that all that has gone wrong is the air-suspension throwing a wobbly a few times and needing reset and the immobiliser likewise when the battery or key battery was low requiring manual code input. OK she occasionally blows rear light bulbs, can't really think of anything else just routine maintenance and replacing bits worn out.

I think I may run the thing until it dies as its not worth much but has been really great to me, a proper work horse.