Hi all,

This might get long winded so appologies in advance!

I own a couple of boats, dive alot and live in the middle of know where so i have always owned a 4x4 as a second car. (Apart from when i made the mistake of buying a ML270 cdi.. what a pile of pooh!)

In the past friends and friends of friends have owned range rovers but the horror stories i have heard from them have put me off buying one, expecially second hand. but during the summer i got itchy feet and wanted to change my car (350z) and figured that as i had been using my old £1400 pajero more than the 350z i would look at getting a nice 4x4 again.

I loved the look of the new RRsport and the "normal" rangy even the new disco so went down to see my local dealer. My first question was about reliabilty. He was very straight with me and said they had a few back with electronic issues but in general they have not had to many problems.

So first off i booked a weekend test of the new disco TDI, it was top of the line demonstrator. After leaving the dealer i was tryingto get the radio working and couldnt make it work for love nor money, so went back to see if i was doing something wrong.. turns out the top of the line £2000+ optional radio was blown up. The car only had 1000 miles showing. Anyway I carried on with the test and found that although it was a nice car it was just to sluggish, probaby the 3 ton weight.

Next was the RR sport, they had just sold the demo so had to wait a few weeks for them to get a new one. So i was first to take a RRsport HSE, full option list in Buckingham blue out. It had 5 miles on the clock! and looked stunning, i recon its the colour id get! So set off to pick up a new prop for my boat, on the way home with a mear 21 miles showing there was a "ping" sound telling me the airbag warning light had come on.. I reset the ignition and it cleared but came on 3 miles down the road.

I was totally gutted, i loved the car, everything about it! but the warning light after 21 miles made me feel phyisically sick! if i had just paid 47000 for that car and that had happened i simply do not know how id have felt!

So i didnt even keep it for the whole weekend, i took it back first thing the next morning.

This experience put me off the LR range and didnt bother testing a RR, I ended up buying an M5 and a 1996 shogun diesel to tow my boats etc...

But ive been following them closely since and still really want one, so i was wondering what you guys who have been running them think? do you recon mine was an isolated incident? should i expect to have the car back to the dealer every few months?

Any advice or experiences you can share would be great.

Tom

Hi Tom,
I've had my RRS TDV6 HSE since Christmas and I'm really happy with it. It's very different from my previous RS4 and RS6 Audis but just as enjoyable.
I've had a couple of software gliches, but turning off and on again has cleared them and they certainly haven't dampened the pleasure of ownership.
I've also had it chipped (JE Engineering) and I think it is fair to say, it has transformed the performance.
Overall, I'm very pleased with my purchase.
I hope that helps.
Paul RRS TDV8 - Stornoway Grey, Irory Leather with Dark Zebrano, Privacy Glass, Tow Pack.
1967 Cobra 427 S/C
1951 Vincent Comet
2001 Harley Davidson Fat Boy

Being the current owner of a TDV6, which has had some minor electrical hiccups and some very minor works done to it. I would say that this is the best 4 X 4 by far. Never has the car left us stranded, never has it been imobile, when you look around all cars have faults and problems, from every manufacturer worldwide.
I Know personnaly the owners of three Disco 3 and one Sport owner as well as my own. All are impressed with the cars, with how they tow, with how they run, with the comfort, with how they operate in two totally different environments, etc, one of the discoverys has covered almost 40,000 miles in ten months and had one washer fuse blow and had to be re tracked on the steering.
You find that most people on forums are those looking for anwers to problems they may have had yet I see on this forum more people talking about how happy they are with the sport and the forum members seem to spend more time rib tickling each other and arranging events and the such like than they do about problems. Says it all for me.  Its out there somewhere. Second V10 Treg on the drive at the moment.

Thanks for the replies so far guys, the dealer did say pritty much what you two have said, minor software glitches were the most common fault. But he said they were getting new software updates for LR every few weeks so once the new software was installed the issues were going away.

I suppose this is to be expected with a new range.

The worst/best horror story i heard about a £72,000 Range rover was all the air suspension failing, then 10miles on the lights all went out, then to top it off the power steering failed.. All on the motorway at 70mph.

I am so glad that there have been no reported incidents like this with the RRsport..

I happened to be at my local dealer earlier today to have the wife's Freelander brakes replaced and the service advisor there let slip that the RRS has had nowhere near the amount of post-purchase service activity that the D3 underwent. I suppose we're lucky in that the D3 has done a lot of the initial testing for us so the RRS has gone to market with less problems from the word go.... Sales chap knew nothing of new SC SE model or the V8 diesel though, which I thought was odd given it seems some dealers are now taking deposits. I pointed him towards here of course and suggested he might learn something  

2009 Outstanding Contribution Award - Joint Runner Up
2009 'Tech-Head Of The Year' Award - Runner Up

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4 months, 2500 miles, no software issues, no major problems AT ALL, love the vehicle, (I had a '03 RR HSE for three years prior), and it tows my 5000 lb boat and double trailer like they're not even there. Highly recommended.
Bish '06 RRS S/C Bonatti Grey/Ebony/Cherry with RSE; PTI; Electronic Rear Diff and Sirius Sat Radio.