I did my free half-day LR Experience today at Eastnor, an enjoyable 2.5 - 3 hours but of course spent mainly going through a pre-fabricated assault course. looks like the cost for two people to go on the course is £450 which seems quite a lot but I suppose is justified based on the considerable wear and tear on the car - 5000 miles, 12 months and some problems after a career at Eastnor - and the general time and trouble.

I was in an SDV6 HSE Dynamic which was pretty highly spec'd but some things stood out:

First, the quality of the leather is rather disappointing compared to the Autobiography/SVR, not so much the seats but the dash, door caps and so on. So when comparing the HSE with the AB, it's not just a question of what options are included as standard but also the quality of the interior.

On the other hand, the quality of the video from the surround cameras was much better than in my car which I think is down to it having the split screen compared to mine which is the standard screen. It seems clear that this option - for, what, £600, provides a better quality screen as well as the split capability.

The piano black trim shows every mark.

The SDV6 was more refined than I expected.

Interesting tip which I didn't know is that if you apply the parking brake while the car is moving, there's a rapid controlled stop. It would be useful if, for whatever reason, the driver becomes incapacitated. The LRE guy made the interesting observation that the Glasgow bin lorry tragedy might not have happened if it had had the same capability and people trained to use it. Mark

SVR in Estoril Blue

The parking brake emergency braking function is a great little idea. The first thing I showed SWMBO was that the parking brake can bring the vehicle to a stop. It basically uses the ABS system to apply all four brakes in a controlled manner rather like an extension of HDC I suppose. Makes a bit of noise (ABS pulse) and beeps a bit too but it is effective. I would guess it's been on the RRS / D3 since day one. 2012 SDV6 - it's missing a couple of cylinders
2008 TDV8 - it was a labour of love and is much missed

The EPB/ Emergency stopping brake is the same even on older RRS's, I was warned that is not something to use as a "party trick" but ONLY to be used as an emergency stopping device as it will severely degrade the pads on the EPB, and it will do it very quickly.Regarding the "leather" quality - I'm not sure about this but in my first RRS only the seat facings were leather, the dash topper, door cards and seat backs and bases were a very very good immitation leather, I wouldn't be at all surprised if the HSE has the same. In the 2010 onwards RRS a leather dash topper and door cards was always available in the "extended" leather pack. 2020 Pangea Green 1st Edition D240 New Defender 110 is here and loving it
2018 Melting Silver Mini Countryman PHEV - soon to be replaced
2015MY Corris Grey SDv6 HSE Dynamic, the best car I have ever owned, totally reliable only a cou0le of rattles in 3 years, now no longer in my care
Also in my garage is a 1996 TDi300 Defender 90 County HT made into a fake CSW

Only Autobiography and SVR include leather dash, door cards, facia etc. The rest are PVC/imitation leather. LR refer to it as PVC on their build sheets. For 16MY you can pay to have these bits in leather for HSE and HSE Dynamic if you wish.

Dual view screens usually reduce clarity because half the pixels are reserved for this function. 16MY has improved camera quality and screen quality in general though according to the bulletin.