If 7 seats is a must then the XC90, I think. From comments I've seen it seems to be a decently reliable thing, seats are great, tech is good and works, etc.

If 7 seats plus going off road then the D5, although I'm not a fan of the styling/design and wouldn't want to spend any time in the middle/rear seats.

But if I was spending 40k at the moment, I reckon a nice L405 AB with the 4.4SDV8 motor. Looks great, is a real Range Rover, goes anywhere you want to go and fits in just about anywhere you want it to, great comfort and luxury, effortless drive.

A really nice L494 with a modern engine would tick plenty of boxes too, however, and is a great fast road drive with the added benefit of go-anywhere ability that you won't find in any other car really.

The problem is, your short list has 4 very different vehicles on it - they really aren't that comparable, funnily enough, because each ticks boxes the others don't tick. 2012 SDV6 - it's missing a couple of cylinders
2008 TDV8 - it was a labour of love and is much missed

SpiderPig wrote:

I used to have an XC60 T8. It was comfortable, practical and fun to drive in sport mode. The only real downside was the old Sensus infotainment system that wasn't great to use.

A later model XC90 should be fine though if you fancy a change from JLR.

The only things that went wrong with the XC60 were the rear wiper jet blocked up (admittedly I never got around to unblocking it), and the charging port flap cover wouldn't open and wouldn't close in cold weather. Getting it to open involved a sustained attack of firm punches.

Fuel economy on the XC60 T8 was roughly the same as the P400e I currently have although the P400e holds onto to electric motive power more than the Volvo did.

RRSTDV8 wrote:

If 7 seats is a must then the XC90, I think. From comments I've seen it seems to be a decently reliable thing, seats are great, tech is good and works, etc.

If 7 seats plus going off road then the D5, although I'm not a fan of the styling/design and wouldn't want to spend any time in the middle/rear seats.

But if I was spending 40k at the moment, I reckon a nice L405 AB with the 4.4SDV8 motor. Looks great, is a real Range Rover, goes anywhere you want to go and fits in just about anywhere you want it to, great comfort and luxury, effortless drive.

A really nice L494 with a modern engine would tick plenty of boxes too, however, and is a great fast road drive with the added benefit of go-anywhere ability that you won't find in any other car really.

The problem is, your short list has 4 very different vehicles on it - they really aren't that comparable, funnily enough, because each ticks boxes the others don't tick.

Fair enough.

You'll find the L494 has more space in the front, about the same in the rear, slightly bigger boot.

I found that the L494 is more laid back in terms of drive, but this could be due to the difference in character between the P400e and the T8 (which had more immediate access to the 400bhp). Having said that, the P400e will effortlessly overtake in Dynamic/Sport mode.

As much as you can chuck the L494 around a bit, I wouldn't call it exciting.

If you want a more involving drive, then the XC90 T8 will have more immediate power - or a Macan/Cayenne.

I used to own a Macan (3.0D) before the XC60 and it was a very involving drive. 2021 P400e Autobiography