Hey LR are you listening?

[SChargedRRS]

Ohhhh Alright Grommet...I will take my Rover out wheelin.... Just kidding. wife said...YEAH RIGHT....HaHa. I think Moose said best above. You have to know your equipments limitations. Do all the right things and you can do alot off road. I have seen some subaru's do some pretty impressive things I would have never considered. I will say this though, I have yet to this day witnessed a LR3 out back woods. Now maybe I should join a local club and see what they do and where they go. But one thing that I have taken in account. Sadly most of the new cars are just to expensive to abuse, Our Rover is case in point. a $4K jeep, heck I could flip it over and not give it a second thought. I was with my brothers Hummer group and one guy clipped a large branch in his 04 H2 and it scratched the paint deep and damaged the body. Problem nowadays, this repair cost is thouands of dollars. Where as a Jeep or Toyota is cheap. My reference is Older Jeeps and Toyota's here...

But that still does not answer the question of capability. Maybe these Disco's and LR3's are really good, Most may not be willing to take the chance and damge them as these are also daily drivers for most.

Again...Just my perception

 

[Moose]

I think you're undertanding now...

There is no such thing as a $4K new Jeep. If you're going to use that as your model, you have to go with a 94-96 Discovery, or an older RRC. Otherwise, take a look around and see how many brand new H2's, Land Cruisers, or Jeep GC or Commanders are getting beat up on trails. While you're doing that, look at how many H2's are breaking tie rods, compared to LR3's and RR's.

 

[SChargedRRS]

Moose,
Amen on the tie rods. What a joke design that is. Not only Hummers but any GM front end from 99 forward. The guys adding 20" wheels and 40" tires are just tearing the frontends up. There is a company that has a fix for this and they add supports, I have them on my truck and have well over 100K miles on my truck and not one steering component failure. But it took an outside company to fix it. Bad design by GM.

Naaaah. Not using $4K Jeep as model, only reference. My point was to confirm that the LR3 and RR might be very capable but few will take them out to put it to the test since the liability is too great and cost to repair not worth the escapade. I was telling my wife about this thread and how I ruffled a few feathers. she laughed and said, "we did not buy this to "Wheel" we bought it because we like it, wanted to try a different car maker to break from the norm and we know we can get back and forth in the snow". She told me she would **** me if I brought it back all muddy, with branch scratches and some dead fish in the back...Hahahahaha

But I think we can ALL agree that a good 80% of any of these SUV's/SUT's (Hummers, Tahoe's Navigator's, LR3's, RR Toyota's ML series, X series, Lexus and so on will ever see "off road duty", or what I would perceive as some light off road. Most are for the soccer Moms and daily driving. Maybe People get that fuzzy warm feeling knowing that anytime they want to go climb a rock, they can...HaHa. I am not sure why most buy them to be honest other than for the reason we bought the RRS, looks, styling, features and reasonable drivetrain reliability(Did I swat another hornets nest?). I have a friend who has a 96 RR and has nearly 200K miles on it. Still loves it. Tranny finally went after he decided to start towing his boat more with it.

Anybody have any off road LR sites with action photo's? Would like to see them... current ones, not the Serengheti deals....

 

[Moose]

Look at www.chicagolandroverclub.com, in the "recent events" area there are D90's, D110's, RR, Discos of all sorts, and a LR3 that gets beat on a little.

You're right, it's an awfully expensive vehicle to trash.

 

[roverman]

Back to the topic of "hey land rover, are you listening?"
After waiting more than 3 months for my recalled gas tank, I get an appointment for the exchange. I tell them I'd like to get a loaner so I don't have to sit around the shop for 1/2 a day. They tell me that they won't have a loaner available until late February! Now, I realize that these things are breaking at a record pace, but in the interest of providing a higher level of service than, say Kia, do you think you could put at least one more vehicle into the loaner stable? I know there are some good dealers out there. Mine used to be when it opened, but has gone downhill. It is in my opinion entirely up to corporate to push dealers towards a higher level of service.
This is a small gripe relative to most others on the board, but I have to complain about something.

 

[roverdawg]

At the very least, when they run out of loaners they should provide a free rental. The problem with my LR dealer is that they don't have ANY loaners and exclusively use Enterprise car rentals where it's strictly luck of the draw as to what they put you in Once it was a Mercedes but most times it's been a Sentra or something similar. And the rental agency can sometimes take up to an hour to provide said rental. Seems like a small matter to point out in the bigger scheme of things, but when you drop the amount of $ that most of us have to drive our rovers home, it matters. My mom has a Lexus and I've dropped her car off for routine service every once in a while and the level of service and efficiency in everything from the maintenance to providing loaners is amazing esp. when compared to (at least my) LR dealer. They (Lexus) seem to be driven by a customer service mantra. Not saying LR has to achieve that level but some progress in that area is in order... My 2 cents.

 

[grommet]

My dealer only gives you a loaner if it's scheduled "maintenance" service. Other than that, you are on your own. I assume if it's a major "can't drive vehicle" issue, I'd also get a loaner... but I haven't proved that, yet.

 

[Moose]

I know this is a little OT, but as a mod I think it's worth posting. The UK show Top Gear tested an LR3 (Discovery), and the segment can be shown here:

http://http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2537137312542453259&q=land+rover

 

[zdas04]

I have both a Lexus and an LR3 (both dealerships are 3 hours away from my house), I always schedule maintenance on both at the same time so that I can drive a decent car from Lexus instead of a stripped-down Civic (one time the Civic didn't even have a radio, another time the air conditioner blew hot air).

Land Rover has a lot to learn about satisfying demanding consumers.

David
2005 LR3