Replacement for Range Rover - what vehicle?

[invisible]

I know how this topic might be perceived with this community but wanted to ask regardless. Also want to note that I am talking about US/NA market.

Background and bear with me: my wife saw 2005 RR for sale at our neighborhood, fell in love and bought it. That was beginning of 2022 - if you remember what was going on in the US with used cars that time, you will get an idea - we just came back after living overseas for 10 year and did not have vehicle. This is our only vehicle in the household.

The RR cost us $7500. Repairs next 4 years - $15000. I will let these figures sink first. And if there was no problem with spending money, the problem is to find ANY mechanic willing to deal with the car- shops simply hung up when I tell model and make. I found one guy in the neighborhood who reluctantly agree to fix the ongoing problems, but if something happens to him - I am SOL.

Here we are, now more info. We are living in a semi-remote (remote - not rural) location on elevation 6500 ft. The road to the house is dirt and you must have 4wd/awd to drive up to our place any time it snows or rains. Car must also have ground clearance above 7" otherwise you risk leave your suspension on rocks on the road. We don't have garage and tools - the car is parked under deck. We drive less than 5000 miles per year - one a week going for groceries/etc in nearest city. We do not use RR driving more than 60 miles away from our place - for longer trips 1-2 times per year I rent a car.

But the main thing is - my wife says that inside RR she feels safe and comfortable with luxury - heated seats, heated steering wheel, mirrors, etc. Also, RR fills utility vehicle role several times per year - we attaching trailer to it and haul firewood/dirt off from our parcel where 4WD with high clearance is absolute requirement. Also the ability to fold down rear seats and roll them up is handy - I several times stuck 30 mulch bags inside and haul them to our parcel.

I hope that I can keep the vehicle for one, max two more years running and after that it needs to be replaced - I can't continue spending $2K per year fixing it. And here are opinions I want to hear from you what would be adequate replacement that would not require this amount of spending next several years on repairs.

So... I need something that would it the roles RR doing right now - a single vehicle in the household, in our environment, for the tasks we need it.

After some research I am thinking about 10 y/o 4Runner TRD off-road trim or Lexus GX460. Both of them can be used as is with factory stocks in our environment and if I want to take vehicle on off-road trails, I can invest some money to prepare for it.

But I never had 4Runner/Lexus GX and wanted to ask the community - if you owned both RR and 4Runner/Lexus GX - what would be your assessment? How would you compare them? What is the unique advantage/disadvantage of each vehicle based on your own experience?

Thanks

 

[joey]

I have owned a 1997 Discovery, a 2002 Discovery a 2008 RRS, and I have driven several others on top of that, now for other vehicles I have owned a 2014 Lexus GX460 and currently a 2024 Ineos Grenadier.

I would say I am sort of qualified to answer your question. So the RR will ride better than most other vehicles assuming it is still factory. The Lexus at least will ride okay, but will feel very generic compared to the RR in my opinion, will it do all you ask of it, yes and then some but it will feel like it really wasn't meant for any of the things your going to ask of it. I pulled a 7x16 enclosed trailer with mine a few times and it did the job and didn't complain, but it felt like it was underpowered and not happy about the drive. I did like the heated and cooled seat and the heated steering wheel and multi location climate control, it just never felt like it was happy with anything I didn't with it, sure it drove fine and I had almost zero issues with mine, but they can have issues please know that and rust can be an issue.

Now I don't think you want to buy a newer vehicle, but other than heated steering wheel, I really enjoy my Ineos. I pull my same enclosed trailer and it doesn't even care, I go most back roads between my house and the go kart track so 55-60 mph and I average 12 mpg while pulling at 18 when not, the Lexus 18 was a good day and 20 on the Highway was not often, pulling I think I was closer to 10-11 and I was never happy at least to me it felt like I had to put my foot down to get it up the hills where the Ineos doesn't need that.

With the above said I would also look at an older Chevy Tahoe, i.e older than 2014 (I think that is prior to the engine shutdown junk they put in them, might be older still I don't recall). Just remember buy the best version of what you can afford and always get a shop to look at it first before you buy.

Even if you go Toyota or Lexus have it looked over by a good shop, the Lexus is known for valley pan leaks and a few other expensive items. I am sure the Toyota has its bad items as well. Hopefully not $15k worth of issues in just a few years. In the 3 years I owned mine I changed the oil, and put maybe 10k miles on it.

 

[invisible]

Thanks for feedback. Question regarding Ineos - how did you buy it? Import from Europe? In last 2 years I've seen 2 of them - one in California and one in Houston. How service/parts is organized - anyone knows that vehicle in US?
I know that the main motivation to create Grenadier was to have wannabe Defender. Did it serve the purpose?

See - the main problem here with RR is that NO ONE wants do deal with it. Period. The closest dedicated LR shop is in Sacramento - 200 miles/3.5h drive away and they told me that they don't want to deal with any LR older than 15 years. And they charge $200 per hour.

The option going with 4Runner/GX is that at any place with more than 50K people you should be able to find a shop that works with Toyota cars.

Tahoe does not qualify because it is too big and does not have sufficient off-road capabilities and clearance. That's the conclusion I made.

 

[joey]

So for the INEOS, I have a dealer about 1.5 hours away, I test drove there after watching many reviews on You tube and doing a lot of reading on the INEOS forum. I didn't want new, first year or so depreciation sucks. So I started looking for vehicles and found a lot of them are available used, mostly because people go into the INEOS thinking it is a cool looking vehicle (which it is), but then they want things it doesn't have like adaptive cruise or blind spot monitoring which it doesn't or auto stop or lane assist. This isn't that vehicle. Basically if you want a modern do everything for you vehicle this isn't it.

With the above said I found a used one in Chicago at a Porsche dealership, it was the lowest mileage fully loaded model (minus sunroofs) that I could find with 7k miles and the price (64k) was on par with others I found for $70k or more and with higher mileage. So I made the deal and flew up and drove it home. Currently there are only a few Dealerships around and only they can do the oil change reset or tire rotation (there are several apps in progress and should be available soon to fix this, one of which I am beta testing and I like it a lot) It is a BMW engine, B58 and 8 speed ZF Transmission and basic electronics it only has 16 ECU's when the average modern vehicle has over 100 ECU's. I took mine to a local shop to do an oil change (local as in they have 2 locations) So yes you should be able to get it worked on anywhere.

I haven't gone off road with mine yet, but I have seen enough videos to know this is an off road beast and if and or when I do go off road I am confident it will go where I need it to.

I would call this INEOS to be way better than the original Defender and more comfortable.

Since buying mine I haven't even been to the dealership, I am sure some people will have to a some point, but I haven't yet. I do need to as there is a bug for the 2024 and 2025 MY that shows it is overdue for service by thousands of days. which is impossible, mine shows it has been due for 6 years. I just need to make an appointment at some point to get it updated. I do see 5 dealerships in California, not that it helps, I have 1 in Ohio, then next closest is Nashville TN i.e. 5 hours away from me.

Now is it a perfect vehicle, no. Does it do everything and more that I need, yes.

I find it comfortable, it tows well, mine came with front and rear lockers as well as all the extra electrical stuff including 2 internal 110v outlets. I do plan to add a built in trickle charger as it does have a draw on the system that I am pretty sure is just the ECU's trying to stay awake, so after about 2 weeks of non driving it will complain it is low on voltage.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

 

[invisible]

Very informative, thank you. Would be interesting to hear when you take it off road to see the experience how it handles different terrains. Have you used it in snow and if yes, how was the experience?