Range Rover L322 Experience

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douglasgdmw
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Range Rover L322 Experience

Post by douglasgdmw » Thu Oct 22, 2020 6:41 pm

Hi,

With the Defendee sold and awaiting for the Series 2a to be delivered, we have been looking around for a vehicle that would allow us to enjoy the country life a little bit more plushly than the Defender did, transport the dogs easily and not have to worry about luggage space for a week or 2 away?

On the hit list is a Range Rover L322, either the 3.6 or 4.4 diesel as they are looking excellent value at present - albeit with more expensive running costs than the usual alternatives.

Just wondering whether any S.Elise'r have run an L322 and advice they could offer ?

George

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Broon
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Re: Range Rover L322 Experience

Post by Broon » Fri Oct 23, 2020 3:09 pm

Hi George

I had a L322 3.0 D for a few years - 2006 model. It was and still is the best driving position of any car I have been in. It is also the most comfortable. My wife loved it and still bangs on about why we don't have a heated steering wheel any more. The 'warm it up from the house' function was brilliant in winter. Press a button in the fob from inside the house and the car heating came on, front and rear windows defrosted, heated seats came on, side mirrors defrosted and have i mentioned the heated steering wheel ? In 10 mins the place was toasty and ready to go. Plenty of punch from the engine when it was needed and drives brilliantly. Air suspension is superb.As is the tailgate for impromptu picnics. The rear heated seat function is great for getting noisy kids off to sleep on a long trip.

On the negative side there is a lot to go wrong with them. Electrics (and there a lot of them) do go wonky. Hill descent control warning kept coming on (several attempts to get that fixed) Steering column retract mechanism went a bit iffy. Rear wiper / washer gets clogged up due to the shape of the car and positioning of rear wiper. The air suspension bags can get pierced and as a result the compressor has to work overtime which eventually kills it - expensive to fix.

I'm sure Top Gear described the RR as the world's most unreliable car. I wouldn't disagree entirely but I would, and probably will, have another.

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Re: Range Rover L322 Experience

Post by jj » Fri Oct 23, 2020 4:51 pm

I had a 3.6TDV8 for a year / 15k miles in about 2014. It was atrocious, bits fell off (literally, both of the motorised side steps fell off at different times), and overall it was so poorly engineered I swore then I would never have another LR product. Mr Rolfe had a late one so may chip in with some thoughts.

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Andy G
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Re: Range Rover L322 Experience

Post by Andy G » Sat Oct 24, 2020 4:20 pm

I had one for eight years and ended up clocking up 120 thousand miles on it before I sold it. It was superb. It was a 3 L diesel and I had it remapped to make it a wee bit quicker. Absolute weapon for towing but as others are pointed out things can go wrong on them which can be quite expensive. I had to replace the gearbox on mine and the air suspension.
Having said that I have never kept any other car as long as I kept that and even as it got older my wife used it as a station car when I wasn’t using it for towing and apart from killing the battery every three years we loved it.

The new range Rover is such a step on the only thing it has in common is the name.

If you can find one that has been maintained regardless of cost it could be a good option but bear in mind they do weigh three tons and the petrol ones are atrocious for fuel economy.
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GregR
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Re: Range Rover L322 Experience

Post by GregR » Fri Nov 13, 2020 10:51 am

I ran one for about three years and got it up to 155k miles. One of the best cars I ever owned - the only problem I had was one of my own making, accidentally driving it into a ditch after golfing one day with jj. That resulted in a £6k insurance repair but I *think* that was the only problem I ever had with it. Perhaps one of the heated seats stopped working, but maybe that was in my P38 .. can't remember.

Anyway, they are bloody lovely places to be and I still miss mine, the Disco 5 HSE Lux I replaced it with is a poor relation.
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douglasgdmw
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Re: Range Rover L322 Experience

Post by douglasgdmw » Fri Nov 13, 2020 2:14 pm

Thanks for all the replies.

Had a looķ at one in a dealer in Falkirk with low mileage (73k miles) and just 2 owners. Then once we dug deeper the dealer thought it was ok that it only had 2 service stamps in the book as it had a 6 month warranty - with a max claim limit of £1k. Time to walk away !!!!

In the end, all the horror stories about gearbox's getting destroyed with £2k bills meant it put Sandra off owning one.

So in the end, budget has been upped and getting Sandra's preferred choice of Range Rover next week from Land Rover dealer in Leeds.

George

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