A new Aston, a hybrid Range Rover and a special Clio
Discussion
I'll start by saying I might have found my perfect 3 car garage, after a fair bit of trying. I've learned that if possible, it's definitely best to have different cars for different jobs, rather than a one size fits all car. I've definitely managed that with these and have the main boxes ticked; SUV/comfortable daily, Sports/supercar and hot hatch/track car.
Two of these cars came into my possession kind of by accident/circumstance, however both have worked out perfectly. The one I had researched properly and spent a long time on the purchase of has actually given me the most grief so far, although I'll touch on that later (no prizes for guessing which one this is).
so, in order of acquiring them:
Aston Vantage
This was unplanned purchase #1. I 'bought' it brand new back in December on the finance deal that's now fairly common knowledge, i.e almost too good to be true. I had an F type at the time that I owned outright, had no plans to change any time soon and was all round fairly content. That was until I heard how little I could get into the new Vantage for and my brother deciding he was game for one. We both collected our cars from AM Nottingham on a cold, wet and very dark December evening, still not quite believing that we'd just been handed over these brand new cars for such little outlay. An experience perhaps never to be repeated!
Picking up a car like this in the depths of winter can be a bit of a pain as there's not many opportunities to go out and enjoy it. Just as the weather started turning and I was looking into road trips and booking car events for the summer Covid and the lockdown hit, so it ended up spending far more time in the garage than planned. So much so that I invested in a Ctek and an indoor cover. Since things have eased I've managed to spend more time in it, but haven't yet done any 'special' stuff in it as I had with the previous Jag. I'm way down on the mileage, so hopefully next year will allow European roadtrips without the pain of lockdowns and quarantines.
Range Rover Sport
This is the one I really wanted for some time and did a lot of research into. I'd been thinking about a PHEV for my next daily as my commute is 6 miles each way and I'm <5 miles from the city centre, so it was making sense for my trips during the week whilst still allowing me to take it on longer trips at the weekend. On the other hand, my dad has a FFRR, and having borrowed that a few times I fell in love and decided to start looking into one. This was around the time that some really good lease deals started to appear on the P400e hybrid Sport's, so after having a good look round a few, deciding that leasing the fancy new hybrid was a better all round choice than risking a secondhand diesel and filling out the order form the wait began.
I'm a firm believer that if you read lots of anecdotes on forums about cars having either a certain common issue or being generally unreliable then it's more likely than not true. BMW N47 timing chain? Been there, done that. Wouldn't touch a 996 Porsche with a bargepole etc. However, I broke my own rule for the RRS. Even my dad's ownership had played out exactly as the internet said it would - suspension failure in its first year, engine out to replace both turbos a year after that, numerous electrical gremlins - however I'm a sucker for British cars, I've always had a soft spot for Land Rover in general and I'd convinced myself that a new one couldn't be that bad. All the internet stories were for old, abused cars with many many miles on them, surely...
When it finally arrived in March, the first thing I noticed was that it had red callipers. I'd specifically requested grey callipers as I think the red looks daft on such a big car. Apparently the factory spec was changed so the hybrid's now all have red callipers, although I never managed to get to the bottom of that one and suspect someone was trying to shift the blame. The other small issues I had were that the lower glovebox wouldn't open and it would get stuck at 98/99% charge, rather than charging to 100%. The first trip back to the dealers fixed the charging with a software update, however the glovebox required most of the dashboard stripping down as something hadn't been connected at the factory, so I was without the car for a few days. The next issue I had was one of the keys stopped working for remote lock/unlock, then altogether, even after changing the battery. This was diagnosed as a more serious fault requiring a new key module, as it had 'forgotten' the key and could do the same for the remaining working key.
I then experienced a message that I'm sure is familiar to most Land Rover owners - 'Suspension fault detected'. This happened miles away from home whilst it was chucking it down, I also lost all selectable drive modes and the traction control. I'd tried and failed to 'fix' it by switching it off and on again and leaving the car locked for a bit but it wasn't having it. When there's a fault with the suspension its failure mode is to pretty much lock out the dampers to prevent further damage, causing a very bumpy ride and an unhappy car that I didn't fancy driving for hours to get back home. I begrudgingly pressed the little spanner button in the car, 20 mins later Land Rover assist were with me and managed to reset the car and clear the fault so I could get it home.
becoming a regular destination
Anyway, enough moaning about buying one of the most unreliable cars out there then being surprised when it lives up to its reputation. The car is absolutely fantastic and I love it. I can see why people can be serial buyers even after pretty terrible experiences, and I'm annoyed at myself for becoming another one of those. I can't really see me not having one as a daily going forward as it just does everything so well.
As for living with the hybrid - it's brilliant. Honestly. I can get to work and back twice from a single charge, I now take for granted the cabin preheating from the app which I've used a lot over summer (no more getting into a boiling car) and the economy for my usage has been really good. I prefer it in electric mode, it's smooth and silent and the instant torque is unlike any ICE car I've ever driven. It makes dad's V8 FFRR feel really sluggish, especially around town. I'm generally averaging around 80mpg as I charge it every night and do plenty of local trips on battery only. Even on a long trip with no battery it'll still manage above 30mpg which I'm more than happy with. You really don't feel the petrol engine cutting in and as long as the car is moving the engine remains almost silent, it's only if you really rev it that the facade slips and it becomes more obvious it's a 2l 4 banger working away under there.
Me and the Mrs have a Cornwall trip booked in a couple of weeks and I'm probably going to take the RRS as I don't fancy the narrow roads in the Aston. Hopefully it won't have any more wobbles before (or during) the trip, and prove itself the perfect holiday car. I'm really hoping to be able to sneak onto a beach with it as shamefully it hasn't seen any wet grass yet, let alone anything off road!
Congratulations if you're still reading my waffle at this point. I've perhaps saved the best till last.
Clio Trophy #348
This is accidental/unplanned purchase #2. As much as the Aston and RRS are a great combo, I'm still fairly young, closer to 25 than 30 and my mates are still well into their hot hatches. When we've been out for drives (where some of those arty Aston shots were taken) the Aston is not only the odd one out, but also unsuitable on some of the stony and narrow Derbyshire roads. The huge sticky rear tyres throw up stones like mad, meaning I'm always at the back for fear of pebble dashing everyone else's cars. Trackdays are also impractical and the warranty is a grey area I don't wish to find myself the wrong side of.
A fateful evening of browsing Collecting Cars threw up a Clio Trophy. It was high mileage at 120k, but looked to have had everything done, plenty of mods and extras making it perfect for trackdays and had clearly had a fortune spent on it. As I knew it would be a trackday/third car, I didn't want a pristine one I'd feel bad for driving, and the rarity and intrigue of what seems to be the holy grail of hot hatches meant I had a cheeky bid. Or five. I think by paying fairly strong money for it I inadvertently increased the market price of them, as the next one on there made £12k and there's another one on there now!
There's a great thread on the trophy owners forum detailing the car's history, but a brief list of the mods I bought it with:
Recaro 'Speed' seats
Catcams
Polished, ported and flowed head and headers
Almost new custom exhaust
Important bits polybushed
Whiteline ARB
Upgraded brakes
Remap
Uprated air intake system (air con removed to allow space)
New Sachs rear dampers
Rebuilt front Sachs dampers
It came with loads of service history and best of all pretty much all the above work was done in the last 2 years/3k miles. Result! Although the miles are high it's honestly amazing to drive. Everything that you could do to one of these has been done, I also have all the original parts so it can be put back to standard if required.
Since I've owned it, I've done a couple of minor bits. I removed the back seats (no use to me!) and replaced them with a large boot mat and some nets. I've also swapped the headunit for one that will work with my iPhone and added wind deflectors. Other than that, it was pretty much perfect.
I managed to get booked into Donington last Friday, I couldn't believe how difficult it was to find a day that wasn't fully booked! I live in Derby so good old Donny is my local, seemed the right venue for my first time out in the Clio. Before the day I had the car booked in for a coolant flush and to replace the brake fluid with high performance stuff. Everything was checked over, the geo's redone and it was ready.
I also bought some track wheels for it, Speedline 2118's in 15". The 15" tyres are much cheaper than the 16"s for the Turini wheels and the 2118's are motorsport wheels so pretty solid. My Turini's have AD08R's, which although great in the dry aren't the best in the wet. The 2118's are wrapped in Michelin PS3's, something that turned out to be a great choice as the weather was awful.
The car was brilliant, no overheating or significant brake fade to report, plenty fast enough and went round like it was on rails. In the dry it just won't understeer thanks to the ARB and polybushing, and in the wet it was planted and predictable. The day was great despite the weather, the only hiccup being that I nudged the gravel after getting greedy at Craners on one of the last laps. Luckily I got it straightened out again before the gravel so just dropped the front end in, someone in another Clio had unfortunately rolled it earlier in the day after making the same mistake, I guess they couldn't get it straight again in time. Given there were only 500 Trophy's to begin with, I'd feel pretty bad rolling one, especially one as good as this!
Gravel gets everywhere, so the next day we popped the bumper off to have a proper look around the front of the car. Thankfully no damage and just a few more stones to get rid of. We got most of them out in the garage at Donington and I'd decided not to do any more laps after that as the day was drawing to a close.
Two of these cars came into my possession kind of by accident/circumstance, however both have worked out perfectly. The one I had researched properly and spent a long time on the purchase of has actually given me the most grief so far, although I'll touch on that later (no prizes for guessing which one this is).
so, in order of acquiring them:
Aston Vantage
This was unplanned purchase #1. I 'bought' it brand new back in December on the finance deal that's now fairly common knowledge, i.e almost too good to be true. I had an F type at the time that I owned outright, had no plans to change any time soon and was all round fairly content. That was until I heard how little I could get into the new Vantage for and my brother deciding he was game for one. We both collected our cars from AM Nottingham on a cold, wet and very dark December evening, still not quite believing that we'd just been handed over these brand new cars for such little outlay. An experience perhaps never to be repeated!
Picking up a car like this in the depths of winter can be a bit of a pain as there's not many opportunities to go out and enjoy it. Just as the weather started turning and I was looking into road trips and booking car events for the summer Covid and the lockdown hit, so it ended up spending far more time in the garage than planned. So much so that I invested in a Ctek and an indoor cover. Since things have eased I've managed to spend more time in it, but haven't yet done any 'special' stuff in it as I had with the previous Jag. I'm way down on the mileage, so hopefully next year will allow European roadtrips without the pain of lockdowns and quarantines.
Range Rover Sport
This is the one I really wanted for some time and did a lot of research into. I'd been thinking about a PHEV for my next daily as my commute is 6 miles each way and I'm <5 miles from the city centre, so it was making sense for my trips during the week whilst still allowing me to take it on longer trips at the weekend. On the other hand, my dad has a FFRR, and having borrowed that a few times I fell in love and decided to start looking into one. This was around the time that some really good lease deals started to appear on the P400e hybrid Sport's, so after having a good look round a few, deciding that leasing the fancy new hybrid was a better all round choice than risking a secondhand diesel and filling out the order form the wait began.
I'm a firm believer that if you read lots of anecdotes on forums about cars having either a certain common issue or being generally unreliable then it's more likely than not true. BMW N47 timing chain? Been there, done that. Wouldn't touch a 996 Porsche with a bargepole etc. However, I broke my own rule for the RRS. Even my dad's ownership had played out exactly as the internet said it would - suspension failure in its first year, engine out to replace both turbos a year after that, numerous electrical gremlins - however I'm a sucker for British cars, I've always had a soft spot for Land Rover in general and I'd convinced myself that a new one couldn't be that bad. All the internet stories were for old, abused cars with many many miles on them, surely...
When it finally arrived in March, the first thing I noticed was that it had red callipers. I'd specifically requested grey callipers as I think the red looks daft on such a big car. Apparently the factory spec was changed so the hybrid's now all have red callipers, although I never managed to get to the bottom of that one and suspect someone was trying to shift the blame. The other small issues I had were that the lower glovebox wouldn't open and it would get stuck at 98/99% charge, rather than charging to 100%. The first trip back to the dealers fixed the charging with a software update, however the glovebox required most of the dashboard stripping down as something hadn't been connected at the factory, so I was without the car for a few days. The next issue I had was one of the keys stopped working for remote lock/unlock, then altogether, even after changing the battery. This was diagnosed as a more serious fault requiring a new key module, as it had 'forgotten' the key and could do the same for the remaining working key.
I then experienced a message that I'm sure is familiar to most Land Rover owners - 'Suspension fault detected'. This happened miles away from home whilst it was chucking it down, I also lost all selectable drive modes and the traction control. I'd tried and failed to 'fix' it by switching it off and on again and leaving the car locked for a bit but it wasn't having it. When there's a fault with the suspension its failure mode is to pretty much lock out the dampers to prevent further damage, causing a very bumpy ride and an unhappy car that I didn't fancy driving for hours to get back home. I begrudgingly pressed the little spanner button in the car, 20 mins later Land Rover assist were with me and managed to reset the car and clear the fault so I could get it home.
becoming a regular destination
Anyway, enough moaning about buying one of the most unreliable cars out there then being surprised when it lives up to its reputation. The car is absolutely fantastic and I love it. I can see why people can be serial buyers even after pretty terrible experiences, and I'm annoyed at myself for becoming another one of those. I can't really see me not having one as a daily going forward as it just does everything so well.
As for living with the hybrid - it's brilliant. Honestly. I can get to work and back twice from a single charge, I now take for granted the cabin preheating from the app which I've used a lot over summer (no more getting into a boiling car) and the economy for my usage has been really good. I prefer it in electric mode, it's smooth and silent and the instant torque is unlike any ICE car I've ever driven. It makes dad's V8 FFRR feel really sluggish, especially around town. I'm generally averaging around 80mpg as I charge it every night and do plenty of local trips on battery only. Even on a long trip with no battery it'll still manage above 30mpg which I'm more than happy with. You really don't feel the petrol engine cutting in and as long as the car is moving the engine remains almost silent, it's only if you really rev it that the facade slips and it becomes more obvious it's a 2l 4 banger working away under there.
Me and the Mrs have a Cornwall trip booked in a couple of weeks and I'm probably going to take the RRS as I don't fancy the narrow roads in the Aston. Hopefully it won't have any more wobbles before (or during) the trip, and prove itself the perfect holiday car. I'm really hoping to be able to sneak onto a beach with it as shamefully it hasn't seen any wet grass yet, let alone anything off road!
Congratulations if you're still reading my waffle at this point. I've perhaps saved the best till last.
Clio Trophy #348
This is accidental/unplanned purchase #2. As much as the Aston and RRS are a great combo, I'm still fairly young, closer to 25 than 30 and my mates are still well into their hot hatches. When we've been out for drives (where some of those arty Aston shots were taken) the Aston is not only the odd one out, but also unsuitable on some of the stony and narrow Derbyshire roads. The huge sticky rear tyres throw up stones like mad, meaning I'm always at the back for fear of pebble dashing everyone else's cars. Trackdays are also impractical and the warranty is a grey area I don't wish to find myself the wrong side of.
A fateful evening of browsing Collecting Cars threw up a Clio Trophy. It was high mileage at 120k, but looked to have had everything done, plenty of mods and extras making it perfect for trackdays and had clearly had a fortune spent on it. As I knew it would be a trackday/third car, I didn't want a pristine one I'd feel bad for driving, and the rarity and intrigue of what seems to be the holy grail of hot hatches meant I had a cheeky bid. Or five. I think by paying fairly strong money for it I inadvertently increased the market price of them, as the next one on there made £12k and there's another one on there now!
There's a great thread on the trophy owners forum detailing the car's history, but a brief list of the mods I bought it with:
Recaro 'Speed' seats
Catcams
Polished, ported and flowed head and headers
Almost new custom exhaust
Important bits polybushed
Whiteline ARB
Upgraded brakes
Remap
Uprated air intake system (air con removed to allow space)
New Sachs rear dampers
Rebuilt front Sachs dampers
It came with loads of service history and best of all pretty much all the above work was done in the last 2 years/3k miles. Result! Although the miles are high it's honestly amazing to drive. Everything that you could do to one of these has been done, I also have all the original parts so it can be put back to standard if required.
Since I've owned it, I've done a couple of minor bits. I removed the back seats (no use to me!) and replaced them with a large boot mat and some nets. I've also swapped the headunit for one that will work with my iPhone and added wind deflectors. Other than that, it was pretty much perfect.
I managed to get booked into Donington last Friday, I couldn't believe how difficult it was to find a day that wasn't fully booked! I live in Derby so good old Donny is my local, seemed the right venue for my first time out in the Clio. Before the day I had the car booked in for a coolant flush and to replace the brake fluid with high performance stuff. Everything was checked over, the geo's redone and it was ready.
I also bought some track wheels for it, Speedline 2118's in 15". The 15" tyres are much cheaper than the 16"s for the Turini wheels and the 2118's are motorsport wheels so pretty solid. My Turini's have AD08R's, which although great in the dry aren't the best in the wet. The 2118's are wrapped in Michelin PS3's, something that turned out to be a great choice as the weather was awful.
The car was brilliant, no overheating or significant brake fade to report, plenty fast enough and went round like it was on rails. In the dry it just won't understeer thanks to the ARB and polybushing, and in the wet it was planted and predictable. The day was great despite the weather, the only hiccup being that I nudged the gravel after getting greedy at Craners on one of the last laps. Luckily I got it straightened out again before the gravel so just dropped the front end in, someone in another Clio had unfortunately rolled it earlier in the day after making the same mistake, I guess they couldn't get it straight again in time. Given there were only 500 Trophy's to begin with, I'd feel pretty bad rolling one, especially one as good as this!
Gravel gets everywhere, so the next day we popped the bumper off to have a proper look around the front of the car. Thankfully no damage and just a few more stones to get rid of. We got most of them out in the garage at Donington and I'd decided not to do any more laps after that as the day was drawing to a close.
What a fantastic trio! Really fancy one of those trophy’s so go alongside my Giulia V.
Those RR hybrid really are an intruiging proposition! Such a shame they can’t make them reliable, they’d be perfect! Love the idea of a small battery for the commute alongside an ICE for the range.
Also, also younger than 30? Wow! Congrats - what do you do and how do I do it? Especially as I’m already considering a career change after the week I’ve had! I’m in the same age bracket - it’s not too late to change right? 😂
Those RR hybrid really are an intruiging proposition! Such a shame they can’t make them reliable, they’d be perfect! Love the idea of a small battery for the commute alongside an ICE for the range.
Also, also younger than 30? Wow! Congrats - what do you do and how do I do it? Especially as I’m already considering a career change after the week I’ve had! I’m in the same age bracket - it’s not too late to change right? 😂
Land Rover/Range Rover's seem to have that effect. Most people I know that own them have had similar problems to me but keep going back as there's allegedly nothing better. I do love the look of the new Aston DBX and will hopefully be getting a test drive soon more out of intrigue than anything else, unfortunately something like that just wouldn't work for me as a daily drive (and an SUV is never a weekend car!)
I use the RRS for work, which means occasionally visiting customers. I can just about get away with it as it's a hybrid and the '80mpg Range Rover' is a good smalltalk point, however it's definitely pushing it. There's no way I'd drive a DBX or even an SVR RRS anywhere near work or customer car parks. The Aston stays firmly in the garage most of the time as it is (and most people think the Clio is a chavvy 'crisis' - little do they know!)
If I can get the last minute roadtrip pulled together next week I'll be able to get some good pics and report on that, it'll likely be Wales now restrictions are a bit easier there. I genuinely haven't done anything really worth writing home about in it yet, I was saving that for what turned out to be the summer that never was this year. I'm at least booked in to be on the Driver's Union stand at Salon Prive in a few weeks time, so if nothing else at least I'll have managed an event with it this year!
The Aston deal was around £1k deposit, £1k per month on a 24 month PCP deal. They had excess stock last November/December and couldn't shift them so put the deal on to clear out inventory. I used to work at Gaydon and still know some of the guys well so got wind of it early on, hence getting a really highly specc'd car in a great colour - the 'Q' Elwood Blue paint was an £8k option alone! It didn't last long as all the cars were understandably snatched up, probably a once in a lifetime type thing and genuinely the only reason I have one, I couldn't have afforded one at full RRP.
I use the RRS for work, which means occasionally visiting customers. I can just about get away with it as it's a hybrid and the '80mpg Range Rover' is a good smalltalk point, however it's definitely pushing it. There's no way I'd drive a DBX or even an SVR RRS anywhere near work or customer car parks. The Aston stays firmly in the garage most of the time as it is (and most people think the Clio is a chavvy 'crisis' - little do they know!)
If I can get the last minute roadtrip pulled together next week I'll be able to get some good pics and report on that, it'll likely be Wales now restrictions are a bit easier there. I genuinely haven't done anything really worth writing home about in it yet, I was saving that for what turned out to be the summer that never was this year. I'm at least booked in to be on the Driver's Union stand at Salon Prive in a few weeks time, so if nothing else at least I'll have managed an event with it this year!
The Aston deal was around £1k deposit, £1k per month on a 24 month PCP deal. They had excess stock last November/December and couldn't shift them so put the deal on to clear out inventory. I used to work at Gaydon and still know some of the guys well so got wind of it early on, hence getting a really highly specc'd car in a great colour - the 'Q' Elwood Blue paint was an £8k option alone! It didn't last long as all the cars were understandably snatched up, probably a once in a lifetime type thing and genuinely the only reason I have one, I couldn't have afforded one at full RRP.
Shrimpvende said:
Land Rover/Range Rover's seem to have that effect. Most people I know that own them have had similar problems to me but keep going back as there's allegedly nothing better. I do love the look of the new Aston DBX and will hopefully be getting a test drive soon more out of intrigue than anything else, unfortunately something like that just wouldn't work for me as a daily drive (and an SUV is never a weekend car!)
I use the RRS for work, which means occasionally visiting customers. I can just about get away with it as it's a hybrid and the '80mpg Range Rover' is a good smalltalk point, however it's definitely pushing it. There's no way I'd drive a DBX or even an SVR RRS anywhere near work or customer car parks. The Aston stays firmly in the garage most of the time as it is (and most people think the Clio is a chavvy 'crisis' - little do they know!)
If I can get the last minute roadtrip pulled together next week I'll be able to get some good pics and report on that, it'll likely be Wales now restrictions are a bit easier there. I genuinely haven't done anything really worth writing home about in it yet, I was saving that for what turned out to be the summer that never was this year. I'm at least booked in to be on the Driver's Union stand at Salon Prive in a few weeks time, so if nothing else at least I'll have managed an event with it this year!
The Aston deal was around £1k deposit, £1k per month on a 24 month PCP deal. They had excess stock last November/December and couldn't shift them so put the deal on to clear out inventory. I used to work at Gaydon and still know some of the guys well so got wind of it early on, hence getting a really highly specc'd car in a great colour - the 'Q' Elwood Blue paint was an £8k option alone! It didn't last long as all the cars were understandably snatched up, probably a once in a lifetime type thing and genuinely the only reason I have one, I couldn't have afforded one at full RRP.
And why not, enjoy it! I keep looking at an old V8 Vantage but a big bill would probably ruin me. Maybe I’ll treat myself for my 30th.I use the RRS for work, which means occasionally visiting customers. I can just about get away with it as it's a hybrid and the '80mpg Range Rover' is a good smalltalk point, however it's definitely pushing it. There's no way I'd drive a DBX or even an SVR RRS anywhere near work or customer car parks. The Aston stays firmly in the garage most of the time as it is (and most people think the Clio is a chavvy 'crisis' - little do they know!)
If I can get the last minute roadtrip pulled together next week I'll be able to get some good pics and report on that, it'll likely be Wales now restrictions are a bit easier there. I genuinely haven't done anything really worth writing home about in it yet, I was saving that for what turned out to be the summer that never was this year. I'm at least booked in to be on the Driver's Union stand at Salon Prive in a few weeks time, so if nothing else at least I'll have managed an event with it this year!
The Aston deal was around £1k deposit, £1k per month on a 24 month PCP deal. They had excess stock last November/December and couldn't shift them so put the deal on to clear out inventory. I used to work at Gaydon and still know some of the guys well so got wind of it early on, hence getting a really highly specc'd car in a great colour - the 'Q' Elwood Blue paint was an £8k option alone! It didn't last long as all the cars were understandably snatched up, probably a once in a lifetime type thing and genuinely the only reason I have one, I couldn't have afforded one at full RRP.
Fantastic collection! The Aston looks really incredible in that colour. Hopefully the Range Rover behaves itself a bit more now, not sure I could put up with the idea of such a flaky brand new car from a mainstream manufacturer, but clearly plenty can so they don't bother to sort out the QC. I'd love a Clio Trophy, but think I've missed the boat on one at a justifiable price.
Not wanting to piss on your chips but the Range Rover Sport was voted the least reliable car in the UK for the second year running by Which? Followed by the Disco Sport in second last.
LR can't manage consistency with their build so the issues are very common. Team that with a relative small R&D budget and more and more tech, its inevitable.
Having said all that you can see why people still buy them. There's nothing else like them. What else are you supposed to get? All the German brand SUVs just feel like big estates and Japanese luxury SUVs dont have anything like the feeling. Youd have to spend big for premium luxury SUVs to get comparable car.
LR can't manage consistency with their build so the issues are very common. Team that with a relative small R&D budget and more and more tech, its inevitable.
Having said all that you can see why people still buy them. There's nothing else like them. What else are you supposed to get? All the German brand SUVs just feel like big estates and Japanese luxury SUVs dont have anything like the feeling. Youd have to spend big for premium luxury SUVs to get comparable car.
I did have a 2007 Vantage a few years ago, however although I didn't lose anything between buying and selling it (both private, owned 6 months) it cost me a fortune in maintenance and put me off ageing prestige cars. I replied to a thread recently along the lines of 'have you ever regretted buying a car' listing the faults and general trouble I had with it. I had a Jag XJ at the time as my daily (long term loan from my Dad!) which was the worst car I've ever owned and further put me off second hand cars, this one was only about 6 years old at the time but something new and expensive went wrong every week.
I actually had my name down for the new Yaris GR prior to lockdown, same thinking as the Clio that a hot hatch would be better for the stuff I was doing with my close mates and for track work. It looks like it might be one of the last true hot hatches built, and when I saw the early pics I loved it. Unfortunately, I work in retail IT and our sector has been hit hard by the lockdown. By April when I needed to put a deposit down I decided it was best to back out, I'd intended on buying one and keeping it forever but couldn't justify tying up £35k in a car I didn't really need when the future had become so uncertain.
I think buying the Clio worked out for the best, it's so old school and analogue and I love being able to work on it myself. I'm probably too young for nostalgia as it was only 10 years ago I had my first car, but this shape Clio was what most mates had back then and we used to stick subs in the boot and generally fiddle with/repair them as we couldn't afford to go to a garage back then! I'll be keeping it for good, it's never going to be an investment grade example and it's the only car of the three I actually own!
The Clio gives me exactly what's missing with the Aston and RRS - I can't modify or work on them or really do anything. Both have been detailed, but as I wanted them doing properly I didn't even do that myself, it really has been a case of just driving them with the occasional wash. We had a good laugh about me sticking the Clio in the gravel at Donington and no harm was done...I can't imagine how that would have gone if it was the Aston. The speed I'd have been carrying down Craners alone means the old hairpin wall would have been all but inevitable.
Some more pictures of 'Papa Smurf'
With a couple of mates' hatches and a 330 Beemer
And a blast through the Peaks back in January with my brother in his
I actually had my name down for the new Yaris GR prior to lockdown, same thinking as the Clio that a hot hatch would be better for the stuff I was doing with my close mates and for track work. It looks like it might be one of the last true hot hatches built, and when I saw the early pics I loved it. Unfortunately, I work in retail IT and our sector has been hit hard by the lockdown. By April when I needed to put a deposit down I decided it was best to back out, I'd intended on buying one and keeping it forever but couldn't justify tying up £35k in a car I didn't really need when the future had become so uncertain.
I think buying the Clio worked out for the best, it's so old school and analogue and I love being able to work on it myself. I'm probably too young for nostalgia as it was only 10 years ago I had my first car, but this shape Clio was what most mates had back then and we used to stick subs in the boot and generally fiddle with/repair them as we couldn't afford to go to a garage back then! I'll be keeping it for good, it's never going to be an investment grade example and it's the only car of the three I actually own!
The Clio gives me exactly what's missing with the Aston and RRS - I can't modify or work on them or really do anything. Both have been detailed, but as I wanted them doing properly I didn't even do that myself, it really has been a case of just driving them with the occasional wash. We had a good laugh about me sticking the Clio in the gravel at Donington and no harm was done...I can't imagine how that would have gone if it was the Aston. The speed I'd have been carrying down Craners alone means the old hairpin wall would have been all but inevitable.
Some more pictures of 'Papa Smurf'
With a couple of mates' hatches and a 330 Beemer
And a blast through the Peaks back in January with my brother in his
I'm going to Cornwall for a week away, and although the weather's looking to be great I've decided to take the RRS over the Aston. We've got AirBnB's with decent parking but I don't fancy the crappy narrow roads in the wide Vantage. Add to that the RRS is more comfortable and has a much better stereo, along with having a much bigger boot for all the other half's hair products and it's a done deal.
As the RRS is a plug in hybrid, I thought I'd try a bit of a test with it. I'd like to think I could get a full electric car next time round for all the positives mentioned above, but I hate avoidable hassle and inconvenience. So, I've bought myself a (surprisingly expensive!) cable that should allow me to plug into the fast charger network whilst out and about. I'm going to see if I can a) charge the car out and about at all, given the many providers and different subscriptions, and b) manage this with little or no inconvenience.
What I mean by that is I'm not driving say 10 miles out of the way to sit in a supermarket carpark for 40 minutes whilst it charges. However, if we're visiting somewhere that has a charger, I'll try and use it if possible. We're already planning to have breakfast at Gloucester services on the way down where I can hopefully give it a quick recharge. The reality is if I can't charge anywhere it doesn't really make any odds, I can just stick some more petrol in, but if I did have say, an i-Pace, after driving from Derby to Cornwall I'd have to plug it in somewhere or I'd be stuck.
We're staying near St Ives, according to ZapMap it looks like there's a few in the area so we'll see how it goes. I'm sure there are others that aren't listed also.
I've only managed to charge out and about the once. That was at Bicester and I was really impressed, the EV area is by the valet parking bays nearest the shops, was completely free and they even provided the cable. Since that, I've tried other places but haven't managed to charge for various reasons. The other slightly annoying thing is that it can't handle charging over 7kw so takes around 2 hours.
If I'm honest, I think judging by how many show on ZapMap as unavailable or have the wrong type of connector I'll be surprised if I manage to charge it at all, but I'll hold out hope and report back.
As the RRS is a plug in hybrid, I thought I'd try a bit of a test with it. I'd like to think I could get a full electric car next time round for all the positives mentioned above, but I hate avoidable hassle and inconvenience. So, I've bought myself a (surprisingly expensive!) cable that should allow me to plug into the fast charger network whilst out and about. I'm going to see if I can a) charge the car out and about at all, given the many providers and different subscriptions, and b) manage this with little or no inconvenience.
What I mean by that is I'm not driving say 10 miles out of the way to sit in a supermarket carpark for 40 minutes whilst it charges. However, if we're visiting somewhere that has a charger, I'll try and use it if possible. We're already planning to have breakfast at Gloucester services on the way down where I can hopefully give it a quick recharge. The reality is if I can't charge anywhere it doesn't really make any odds, I can just stick some more petrol in, but if I did have say, an i-Pace, after driving from Derby to Cornwall I'd have to plug it in somewhere or I'd be stuck.
We're staying near St Ives, according to ZapMap it looks like there's a few in the area so we'll see how it goes. I'm sure there are others that aren't listed also.
I've only managed to charge out and about the once. That was at Bicester and I was really impressed, the EV area is by the valet parking bays nearest the shops, was completely free and they even provided the cable. Since that, I've tried other places but haven't managed to charge for various reasons. The other slightly annoying thing is that it can't handle charging over 7kw so takes around 2 hours.
If I'm honest, I think judging by how many show on ZapMap as unavailable or have the wrong type of connector I'll be surprised if I manage to charge it at all, but I'll hold out hope and report back.
Just a quick couple of guesses on those charging points from a local - looks like the Tesco at St Ives or Helston, Asda at Hayle or the point at St Erth Station would be your best bet.
St Erth Station doesn't have much around it to look at while charging, but Asda at Hayle is close to the town and you can take a nice walk around there while waiting.
St Erth Station doesn't have much around it to look at while charging, but Asda at Hayle is close to the town and you can take a nice walk around there while waiting.
Shrimpvende said:
As the RRS is a plug in hybrid, I thought I'd try a bit of a test with it. I'd like to think I could get a full electric car next time round for all the positives mentioned above, but I hate avoidable hassle and inconvenience. So, I've bought myself a (surprisingly expensive!) cable that should allow me to plug into the fast charger network whilst out and about. I'm going to see if I can a) charge the car out and about at all, given the many providers and different subscriptions, and b) manage this with little or no inconvenience.
What I mean by that is I'm not driving say 10 miles out of the way to sit in a supermarket carpark for 40 minutes whilst it charges. However, if we're visiting somewhere that has a charger, I'll try and use it if possible. We're already planning to have breakfast at Gloucester services on the way down where I can hopefully give it a quick recharge. The reality is if I can't charge anywhere it doesn't really make any odds, I can just stick some more petrol in, but if I did have say, an i-Pace, after driving from Derby to Cornwall I'd have to plug it in somewhere or I'd be stuck.
I'll be interested in how you get on. What I mean by that is I'm not driving say 10 miles out of the way to sit in a supermarket carpark for 40 minutes whilst it charges. However, if we're visiting somewhere that has a charger, I'll try and use it if possible. We're already planning to have breakfast at Gloucester services on the way down where I can hopefully give it a quick recharge. The reality is if I can't charge anywhere it doesn't really make any odds, I can just stick some more petrol in, but if I did have say, an i-Pace, after driving from Derby to Cornwall I'd have to plug it in somewhere or I'd be stuck.
We looked at waiting for the Evoque PHEV for my wife, but went for a diesel as it was immediately available. I've started modifying my GT86 more for the track (and the wife never liked it much anyway) so we've been using her car for a lot of our journeys.
Given the use it has, when we replace the Evoque I might look at a bigger 'family' EV - I like the idea of electric day to day (we both work mainly from home so it's a 26 mile school run and not a lot more most weekdays) but don't want to constantly take diversions and stand around car parks on longer journeys.
Edited by Mark Benson on Wednesday 9th September 14:46
Jimmy No Hands said:
Whats the mileage allowance with something like this? Supercar finance fascinates me for some morbid reason.
6k per year. Due to lockdown etc I've only managed 2.5k this year, when I used to own my cars I'd be fairly happy with that but it feels like a bit of a waste currently, I don't get a refund if I don't do the mileage so hoping for a big Euro trip next year if Covid foxtrot oscars by then. Made it back from Cornwall in the Rangie, had a great trip and the car was perfect. We only had 1 hiccup with narrow roads, I ended up down a road that was barely wider than the car on the way to our second hotel. It's seriously painful hearing the hedgerow scraping along a near new car, however it doesn't seem to have done any damage that won't polish out.
So, onto the hybrid/charging experiment. In short, it wasn't very successful. We managed to charge at Gloucester services as planned, getting around 40% battery in the time we had breakfast. This is the first time I've charged at a services, although it's pretty pointless in a PHEV without rapid charging in all honesty, I certainly wouldn't hang around especially for a charge during a long trip.
Cornwall in general was pretty busy and parking anywhere touristy was a nightmare. Just getting a space was a fight, let along trying to find and park in any charging spots. The next time I tried to charge was a few days later in Hayle Asda. This wasn't successful as for some reason we just couldn't get the charger (PodPoint) to work. The car knew it was connected but it wouldn't start charging, so we reported it at faulty on the app.
Our second hotel was near Tintagel, which is pretty out in the sticks. There were no chargers anywhere near here, so that was it for trying to charge and use it as an EV. It's a shame, as the slow low mileage trips around Cornwall would have really suited the EV mode. Probably too small of an experiment, but it's this that puts me off buying a full EV. We would have had to sacrifice holiday time/plans to find a suitable charger then wait while it charged - not much fun.
Even without any battery charge, the car always regens enough to have the full 400hp available. It felt every bit of that too, easily getting up some of the steeper hills and threading through steep, narrow village roads. At no point did it feel like a 2l petrol engine, with the battery providing instant torque always, meaning it wasn't really revving much to get up even the steepest hills. I really couldn't fault it, having the higher ground clearance came in handy a few times and meant we could get down dirt tracks to carparks I wouldn't have been able to go near in the Aston.
The only downside is the fuel consumption. Without the battery, it's pretty terrible. What really got me was the cruise down there and back again. The only longer trips I'd done before this one were mainly on smart motorways so around 70-75 cruising, which returns about 30-34mpg. With the M5 being nice and empty and without scamera gantries we made good progress, which resulted in <25mpg, even with the cruise on for mile after mile. Driving around cornwall going up the steep hills it was even worse, generally sub 20mpg. Although that's not good, it's not too bad either. It's still a 400hp petrol SUV, and this trip is a bit of a one off for it. For the rest of the year, I can plug it in every night and get 80mpg, whereas with the V8 I'd be stuck with that economy all the time.
I'm taking the Aston to Salon Prive at Blenheim Palace next weekend, so there will be some more Aston content next week. I'm also having a test drive in the new DBX after seeing it in person for the first time yesterday at AM Nottingham, it really does look the business!
So, onto the hybrid/charging experiment. In short, it wasn't very successful. We managed to charge at Gloucester services as planned, getting around 40% battery in the time we had breakfast. This is the first time I've charged at a services, although it's pretty pointless in a PHEV without rapid charging in all honesty, I certainly wouldn't hang around especially for a charge during a long trip.
Cornwall in general was pretty busy and parking anywhere touristy was a nightmare. Just getting a space was a fight, let along trying to find and park in any charging spots. The next time I tried to charge was a few days later in Hayle Asda. This wasn't successful as for some reason we just couldn't get the charger (PodPoint) to work. The car knew it was connected but it wouldn't start charging, so we reported it at faulty on the app.
Our second hotel was near Tintagel, which is pretty out in the sticks. There were no chargers anywhere near here, so that was it for trying to charge and use it as an EV. It's a shame, as the slow low mileage trips around Cornwall would have really suited the EV mode. Probably too small of an experiment, but it's this that puts me off buying a full EV. We would have had to sacrifice holiday time/plans to find a suitable charger then wait while it charged - not much fun.
Even without any battery charge, the car always regens enough to have the full 400hp available. It felt every bit of that too, easily getting up some of the steeper hills and threading through steep, narrow village roads. At no point did it feel like a 2l petrol engine, with the battery providing instant torque always, meaning it wasn't really revving much to get up even the steepest hills. I really couldn't fault it, having the higher ground clearance came in handy a few times and meant we could get down dirt tracks to carparks I wouldn't have been able to go near in the Aston.
The only downside is the fuel consumption. Without the battery, it's pretty terrible. What really got me was the cruise down there and back again. The only longer trips I'd done before this one were mainly on smart motorways so around 70-75 cruising, which returns about 30-34mpg. With the M5 being nice and empty and without scamera gantries we made good progress, which resulted in <25mpg, even with the cruise on for mile after mile. Driving around cornwall going up the steep hills it was even worse, generally sub 20mpg. Although that's not good, it's not too bad either. It's still a 400hp petrol SUV, and this trip is a bit of a one off for it. For the rest of the year, I can plug it in every night and get 80mpg, whereas with the V8 I'd be stuck with that economy all the time.
I'm taking the Aston to Salon Prive at Blenheim Palace next weekend, so there will be some more Aston content next week. I'm also having a test drive in the new DBX after seeing it in person for the first time yesterday at AM Nottingham, it really does look the business!
Janosh said:
Did I spot you and your brother in the peaks yesterday? You were parked up on one of the view points, we blasted past in a convoy of M3’s, a C4S and my Holden..
Yeah that was us, I'm the bald one that was having a good look at your cars as you drove past. Loved the Holden, don't see many about...it was a great sounding convoy from the outside!Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff