Hi all, I'm looking to dip into your collective experiences here.

I have placed an order for a RRS SE with a couple of packs as extras – keeping it (relatively) cheap/simple as this is the first LR I will have owned and I don’t know if I will want it to be a keeper yet. It’s replacing my current daily drivers, mainly a Jag XK but also a Merc E250, which means it will be doing around 20-25k miles per year, solo.

So, not having a ‘reserve vehicle’ (apart from the lad’s Polo and the chances of me getting to borrow that are laughably small) I’m hoping for a car that is reliable (acknowledging that anything can break at any time) and won’t leave me stranded. Are there universal issues, or just 'monday morning / friday afternoon' cars (build date is scheduled for a Thurs btw )?

More to the point, I don’t know what to keep an eye open for with regards to known issues, niggles, breakages and the like. I do hear an undercurrent of how ‘unreliable’ these vehicles are, but I heard the same about TVRs and I had 3 of those, not one of them causing me grief or letting me down with each of them doing at least 12k per year.

So, really, just how ‘bad’ are RRS’s?

…and (there’s always an and) I have averaged 27.8mpg in the Jag over the last 7000 miles, used primarily on a 40 mile each way country road / A34 commute which I think is great for a 4.2 V8 – what should I look to be getting out of the 3.0 V6 RRS?

many thanks!

mpg I'd expect you to return pretty much the same as the Jag

Reliability? There are good cars and bad cars. I have 3 friends each with RRS's and all have had trouble free motoring... One is up to 260k miles on a 56 plate HSE TDV6. RRS gone
Audi SQ5...Gone Audi Q7 S-Line 240 3.0TDI Gone
Audi A6 Allroad Sport 270 3.0TDI

Congrats on the new RRS order
MPG wise, I think you'll see a slight uptick from 27.8, but dependant on how you drive.
I've said on here before, but I get around the 27-28 marker with town driving and 30-34 on m/ways, and I'm averaging around 30 at the moment.

Re: "how bad are they", I've had mine 10 months now and had no problems to speak of (wheel alignment needed doing, but very minor issue). I love it.
Others on here are the same, .....but some have had a nightmare (check our Muddywheels post.......grab a few coffee's though )

Don't fprget to stick up some pics when you get it  ON THE WAY: BMW F21 M140i
MERCEDES GL350 - Metallic Navy Blue w/Grey interior

GOING: BMW F31 335D MSport+ xDrive Touring
GONE: Land Rover Discovery 4 HSE - Stornaway Grey w/Black Interior (wish we'd kept it )
GONE: BMW F10 520D MSport - Carbon Black
GONE:MY12 RRS SDV6 HSE Sumatra/Ivory/Grand Black Privacy glass

You'll enjoy it.

Like many car forums its a biased group where people feel strongly and so its the complaints that rise to the top!

The Sport is not the most reliable car but then I've not had bad experiences - got 32mpg out of my TDV8 on 50 miles up the A34 yesterday.

Suspension issues have arisen but (IMHO) I think many drive these cars hard and expect a car weighing almost 3tonnes to corner like a Porsche - tyres and suspension components will then obviously complain.

A 40 mile 'commute' will allow everything to get to the right temperatures and comfortable, including your self. You may not be as cosseted as your Jag but its pretty dam close. I know every one says tehre is no need to 'runin' a new car but if you are patient and treat it gently for 5,000 miles and allow everything to bed-down you will be repaid with a smooth running and reliable motor.

Have fun.

32mpg from a TDV8? Wow! I've never had better than about 28mpg.

Perhaps I should buy some TSL?  2012 SDV6 - it's missing a couple of cylinders
2008 TDV8 - it was a labour of love and is much missed

^^^  ON THE WAY: BMW F21 M140i
MERCEDES GL350 - Metallic Navy Blue w/Grey interior

GOING: BMW F31 335D MSport+ xDrive Touring
GONE: Land Rover Discovery 4 HSE - Stornaway Grey w/Black Interior (wish we'd kept it )
GONE: BMW F10 520D MSport - Carbon Black
GONE:MY12 RRS SDV6 HSE Sumatra/Ivory/Grand Black Privacy glass

32 is probably achievable... but where is the fun in that..

28 is nearer my motorway average.. if I can be bothered to zero the counter that is....

TBH I'm happier to let the long term average pan out with my short commute (less than 10 mins) and odd motorway trip to Bristol/Worcs RRS gone
Audi SQ5...Gone Audi Q7 S-Line 240 3.0TDI Gone
Audi A6 Allroad Sport 270 3.0TDI

^^^ 32mpg - perhaps I should have added that A34 was congested so most of journey was at about 55 mph stuck behind HGVs with dynamic cruise control switched on (and brain switched off) !!

T'was going north and so the prevailing SW wind was also helping - just shows how unreliable one journey's mpg figures can/might be.

28 and a bit is where it sits on a day-to-day basis! - which for all that grunt pushing close on 3 tonnes of 'shed' I think is pretty good.

Sounds good to me - and much in line with what I was hoping for!

Any particular RRS foibles I should be aware of (or beware of)?

The new ones are supposedly much better than earlier versions. So don't look for issues just enjoy it and sleep at night.

84l tank bet that's a joy to fill up? Currently about to swap my M3 for a RRS so should be more economical

Not that that is a reason to swap!

32mpg.... I drive my V8 conservatively and I'm on 23-24mpg according to the computer.

Do you think I have a problem ? 2009 3.6 TDV8 HSE Santorini Black

mjbrr wrote:

32mpg.... I drive my V8 conservatively and I'm on 23-24mpg according to the computer.

Do you think I have a problem ?

I'm slightly better than you average 25 mpg but most journeys are short 13 mile drive to work - quick thrash in open countryside before joining a queue for the last mile or so, slightly better on the way home as leave later.

Often go to Bristol 130 round trip & then average climbs up to circa 28 depending upon when I last hit the reset.

DOB enjoy your RRS its a superb allround car, for me covers a good car for work, used on occassional weekends to tow a horse box if not that then collecting bales of shavings for said horse, excellent in the snow - managed to collect my dauighter from the stables she worked at when we had the very heavy snow a couple of years ago, when most people were stuck & that was with standard road tyres and then excellent to use for holiday plenty of room to take all sorts of stuff, effortless to drive & put two kayaks on the roof. To be fair the above would also apply to the FFRR I had as well.

As mentioned above some have problems with them but I think that applies to all marques Paul

L405 Loire Blue
Swift Conqueror 645
Abarth 500c

Whilst I am not aiming to delve into your finances, did you consider an HSE rather than SE?

Its just that an SE with some extra packs quickly gets close to an HSE price and the residuals on an HSE are better so the overall cost can be pretty much the same (particularly if it is financed and there is a balloon value)

My MY12 3.0 V6 happily does 32mpg when I am in dawdle mode. As an overall average its showing 27mpg but I do tow a small boat a lot. 2016 RRS 4.4 TDV8 Autobiography Dynamic in Montalcino Red and Stealth Kit

Indeed we did, in fact all the first discussions/negotiations with the Dealer were based around the HSE.

Then we had a think over the weekend and whilst the finance itself wasn’t really an issue as such at first, the caveats that came up went along the lines of… “we’ve never had a LR before, will we like it – so shld we keep the outlay as low as possible?”, “mmm, skinny spare on the HSE as opposed to full size on the SE (hate skinny spares!)”, “why won’t they do full blue seats on the HSE (that’s the missus)?” , “do you really need the dynamic pack (the missus again)?”, “so you won’t be wanting the TV then (that was me!)?” and all pointed us towards the SE rather than the HSE

Ultimately, we’ve gone for the SE with the Memory and Vision Assist packs, some mood lighting (got that on the Merc, quite like it) and Siberian metallic (with the Ocean blue seats, of course!).

So, to our minds, we’ve nicely spec’d up a vehicle which for us is going to be equal to or better than our current XK at a cost we’re comfortable with and which has sufficient gear to keep us happy.

You’re quite right, finance wise, there was not a lot really in it at the end - but "just over £50k" sounded safer than "just under £60k" - and as we're new to LR it’s been a case of ‘let’s approach LR ownership cautiously’ – if we like it, we can keep or renew/upgrade, if not, then at least the cost was minimised….