Updates
Bye-bye Audi.
I mentioned in last week’s COAL that if the 2013 Audi A8 L 4.0T didn’t behave itself after another transmission-drain-and-refill, I’d sell it. Well…I decided to just go ahead and get rid of it. With VW Group cars, especially old prestige ones, you’ve got to know when to cut and run. I sold it to the dealer I bought it from. Its replacement—because you knew there’d be one—is exciting, because I’ve wanted one for a long time. I’m actually currently in the Detroit area, about to go and pick that car up. After that, it’s a 15-hour drive back to Oklahoma City. You’ll read all about that car in a couple of weeks. But for now…
Introduction
I wrote a pretty in-depth article about the L322 Range Rover, and also wrote here about my first one. There were three phases of the L322. My 2006 Supercharged was a one-year transitional model; it had the facelifted exterior and the Jaguar engines (instead of the BMW ones), but still had most of the BMW-era interior and modules. The 2010 in this article was part of the final era and was quite an upgrade.
Despite its maladies, my 2006 had been a project, so I was impressed with it. I’d always wanted to try a 2010-2012, and the opportunity came in early 2022, when my client (a Land Rover independent shop) mentioned he had one and asked if I wanted to buy it. Well, he didn’t have a working one. A customer had gotten their 2010 towed in with a bad engine. Apparently, it had overheated, and it had warped the head. Not an uncommon issue with these cars.
About the 5.0-liter Jaguar engines
Between 2005 and 2009, Jaguar had what were perhaps its most reliable engines ever, both within the AJ-V8 series and in general. These were the 4.2-liter naturally aspirated, 4.4-liter naturally aspirated (for Land Rover use only) and 4.2-liter supercharged engines. I had the 4.2-liter N/A engine in a pair of Jaguar “X350” XJs, and the 4.2-liter S/C engine in the prior Range Rover. The contemporary Aston Martin 4.3- and 4.7-liter V8 engines were also based on the AJ-V8 architecture, and the word is that they’re pretty good, too.
That all changed when Jaguar introduced the third-generation AJ-V8s in 2010. There was a N/A 5.0-liter V8 good for 385 hp and 380 lb-ft, as well as a couple of versions of the 5.0-liter S/C V8. The lesser of them had 470 hp and 424 lb-ft, while the uprated one had 510 hp and 461 lb-ft. These were deployed across the entirety of the range, from the XF all the way up to the Range Rover.
A third-generation Jaguar AJ-V8.
(Later on, in 2013/14, Land Rover replaced the N/A 5.0-liter with a 3.0-liter S/C V6. This engine was entirely the AJ-V8 block with smaller bores, an unused cylinder area at the rear, shorter heads and balancing shafts to make a 90-degree V6 work. This odd arrangement was probably to save on tooling costs.)
On the L322 Range Rover, the HSE model had the N/A V8, while the Supercharged and Autobiography models got the 510 HP S/C V8. Along with it, all of them got an uprated ZF 6HP28 transmission, replacing the prior 6HP26. Great, right?
Well, not quite. These 5.0-liter engines had some pretty major teething issues, literally. The big one is the timing chains and associated gear. At the time, Jaguar and Land Rover’s official maintenance stance was to have owners wait for the computer to tell them to change the oil. And the computer was specifying oil change intervals in excess of 14,000 miles. Whether that was a nefarious act on J/LR’s part because it was picking up the tab for maintenance within the first few years, or whether it was a mistake, we’ll never know. The problem with that, apart from the obvious, was that the new 5.0-liters used oil-driven timing chain tensioners. Naturally, as the oil got old and gunky, it would cause the tensioners to become ineffective and allow the chain to slacken. On top of that, the engines used plastic chain guides that would get worn out over time. This would eventually cause an audible amount of chain slap, but a lot of owners weren’t informed enough to notice that something had gone wrong. Eventually, the chain would skip a tooth or several, and the pistons would get really chummy with the valves.
The other big issue with the 5.0-liter units was that J/LR decided to use a plastic coolant crossover pipe, where the one in the prior engine range had been aluminum. Naturally, being in the valley of the engine, this part is subject to intense heat and eventually hazes and cracks. It’s especially detrimental on the Land Rovers because a lot of them have underbody cladding that catches coolant before it can drip onto the driveway, where an owner would notice. If this issue escapes anyone’s attention, the engine will start to overheat. And, oftentimes, by the time an owner gets a message in the instrument cluster that it’s running hot, it’s too late. Warped heads.
It’s unclear when these issues were fixed. I don’t think the coolant crossover pipe ever was, though several aftermarket manufacturers offer aluminum ones that are supposed to be direct fit for the official J/LR plastic ones. The timing chain issue was allegedly fixed around 2013, but I’m still seeing people on the forums with J/LR cars as recent as 2018 claiming to have had to replace the chains and associated hardware (a roughly $6,000 job at an independent).
Back to My Story
It was that second issue that had done in the engine on this Stornoway-Grey-over-Jet-Black 2010 Range Rover Supercharged. But, because these issues are so common, engines for these—even used ones—have become fairly precious. The Land Rover dealership would sell you a factory refurbished unit for a princely $19,000, but even my independent struggled to find good cores to rebuild, or wrecked cars with good donor engines at auction, and he could scarcely get them for less than $7,000. As such, he decided to experiment with this car: could he have the engine and head re-machined and rebuild it?
Poor thing…
He let me know that this would be the plan and asked if I wanted to buy it. I told him that if he could get it running—and running properly—I’d buy it. We agreed on a price of $15,500…which was excellent at the time, considering 2010-2012 Supercharged models with dubious history were still going for $18,000 to $20,000. And this one would be picked over by a Land Rover expert, plus it would essentially have a new one. I paid him 1/3 as a deposit to motivate him, and then waited.
And waited.
And waited.
By June, 2022, frankly, I’d forgotten all about it—it’s not like I didn’t have plenty of other things keeping me occupied—when he texted me one day and said, “Kyree, your car is ready.” In fact, I remember the specific day. I’d just given up on trying to put an air strut on the A8 L and sent it on a trailer to the Audi dealership and so was feeling a bit defeated.
When I got to the shop, there sat the Range Rover, looking far better than it had when I’d last seen it, in the back of the independent’s garage. I immediately took it for a test-drive and loved what I experienced. First off, there wasn’t a warning light to be seen—rare for an older Range Rover—and second, the power was intoxicating. It was notably faster and torquier than my prior 2006 (which still had a generous 400 HP). It was like…like driving a castle.
Beautiful!
You feel like you own the city in this thing.
I went back to the shop, gave the owner a check for the remainder, and took off for home.
Over the next few days, I got to know the Range Rover better. The interior was much higher quality than my 2006, and nothing you touched felt cheap or was prone to excess wear. The seats were all-day comfy, and the driving position made you feel invincible. This one also had blind-spot monitoring, not necessary on a vehicle with so much glass, but still a nice convenience.
Drawbacks—there were a few. For one, Land Rover fitted all 2010-2012s with keyless start, but not keyless entry. At least, not in the US. So, you had to pull the key out of your pocket and unlock the doors, but then put it back in your pocket and press the start button to crank up the engine. This was the only such product in the J/LR stable; everything else (even the lowly LR2) had keyless access and start. Allegedly, this was because Land Rover was still using the BMW-era door handle mechanisms on the L322, which dated back to 2002/03. If Land Rover had included keyless access, it would have needed to fit new door latch mechanisms with a quick release, which would have required crash recertification in the US. Still, this was J/LR’s flagship vehicle, so they had no excuse.
In addition, the lovely, full-LCD instrument cluster was…pointless. When certain buttons and dials were pressed, like the one that changed the Terrain Response mode, it would briefly flash an intuitive graphic in the center, but then go back to being entirely a simulation of a traditional dial-faced instrument cluster, with a big blank area. If this was all they were going to do, I would have preferred a regular instrument cluster with a screen in the middle. If the German automakers would have done something much more useful with that technology…and they did, when they introduced LCD instrument clusters of their own a short while later. And the infotainment was pretty terrible, but it’s not like I needed the sat nav or anything.
The LCD instrument cluster in question. This is your view, most of the time.
Since I like to listen to Bluetooth audiobooks and music, I got on the forums and found out there was a device called a Bovee that plugged into the factory iPod 30-pin cable and then allowed you to control your Bluetooth-connected phone like an iPod through the factory radio, including the ability to see song titles and change tracks. I ordered that and a special dash clip that would allow me to specifically mount my phone at eye level on the L322, to the right of the steering column.
Finally, this car was on mud tires, and they were noisy. I resolved to replace them…and did. I went to Discount Tire and bought a full set of Michelins—including for the full-size, matching spare at the back. Those were $1,300, with coupon. Then, I sold the mud tires for $600 on the local Land Rover group.
The tires it came with.
And the tires that replaced those.
A few weeks later, I had an issue. I noticed the L322 appeared to be sitting crooked. It was like the right side was lower than the left. It was only somewhat perceptible, but just in case I wasn’t seeing things and fearing an air suspension issue, I went ahead and dropped it off with the mechanic. He called me back that same day and let me know the yaw sensor was bad. $800, including labor, but he’d cover half, since he sold it to me. Very good. While it was in his care, the left HID headlight bulb gave up the ghost, and he replaced it with one he had on hand, free of charge. When I got it back, it was sitting properly.
I though the Range Rover, with its 25-gallon tank, would make an excellent road trip car if it had adaptive cruise. That was pretty rare on HSE and Supercharged models, but standard on Autobiography models. I found a guide in the forums on how to retrofit it. You needed a long- and a short-range sensor, the different button pack with the extra buttons to lengthen/shorten the following distance, and (for 5.0-liter engines), a separate ECU that would go in the cargo hold to control it all. Finally, the tool everyone was using was GAP IID, a Bluetooth-enabled OBD2 module that was specifically for J/LR products and whose interface was your phone. Among other things, it could change the car configuration files (CCFs) so that the car would know it had the additional equipment and recognize the adaptive cruise hardware and functionality.
Believe it or not, the hardest part was the button pack on the steering wheel. The part was out of stock at Land Rover parts distributors. I found one on eBay, but the seller was only willing to part with the entire center airbag assembly with both button packs, and not just the one I needed. I didn’t know what I’d do with the extra stuff, but when it arrived, I harvested the button pack I needed and then threw the rest in an anti-static bag and stored it in the attic. The radars were dearly priced, at $600 for both, but not especially hard to find. The body computer with a code that matched my model year wasn’t hard either.
I got the steering wheel off after disconnecting the battery and letting it discharge in order to not have the airbag deploy, and was amused to find a BMW logo on the clock spring (there were plenty of BMW parts still left in the L322 even at the end of its run. I surmise the entire steering column was a BMW component). But it was straightforward to add the new button pack. While I was in there, I also retrofitted some paddle shifters, off of a kit I’d gotten from a UK specialist dealing in Land Rover upfitments. It was child’s play getting it all back together.
Note the BMW logo.
The disassembled steering wheel, with newly fitted paddle shifters.
Definitely a BMW part. Anyone with an E38 or E39 ought to recognize this part.
When I got to the part where you needed to plug the adaptive cruise ECU in at the back of the cargo area, that’s when I ran into trouble. Unlike the Germans, J/LR didn’t always have the money to develop fifty-leven separate wiring harnesses for vehicles with different configurations, in the name of cost efficiency. Oftentimes, they’d do one harness for major configurations (like engine and vehicle type) and then cap off whichever connections weren’t used. That’s how it was for the radars at the front. All late-run L322s had the connectors on the harness, but those that didn’t have the radars just had those connections capped off. And that’s how I thought it’d be for the ECU. Not so. My car had neither the mounting bracket nor any connector back there that plugged into the ECU.
This would require more work.
Thankfully, the person who’d sold me the ECU had provided part of the plug along with it. With a factory wiring diagram, I could splice into the existing harness and make the connections I needed to truly retrofit this, and I was all about to do that, when…
Late at night, on November 2, 2022–a year, to the day of this writing–I was on my way back home from visiting my godchildren. For whatever reason, I decided to take the poorly lit backroads instead of the usual highway to get back home, about 30 minutes away. And that was my undoing. I was in the aptly named Deer Creek area, when a deer jumped out in front of me. I panicked, swerved, caught a rut, and became very intimate with an oak tree just off the roadside. It smashed the Range Rover’s front end in, deployed the steering wheel and knee airbags (thank goodness I’d plugged the airbag back in correctly), and triggered the inertia cutoff switch that killed the fuel pumps.
Sad day.
Sadder day.
I immediately called my insurance company, who dispatched a tow truck. I left the key in it and took an Uber home, since they said it could be three hours until the truck arrived. As predicted, within a few days, they let me know the car had been totaled, and offered me $14,000 for it. After I provided some receipts of recent maintenance and repairs, including the new engine and the new tires, that offer went all the way up to $18,000…which was more than I had in it. I gratefully accepted, and that was that. The only thing injured was my pride.
I was sad that this well-sorted Range Rover had met such an untimely demise and considered buying it back for $2,500…but decided I didn’t need that sort of project and let it go. Alas. Fortunately, the insurance company declared it a not-at-fault accident, and even lowered my rates the next month. And hopefully, someone got a good donor engine.
Somebody I know has one of these now he has disabled the GPS its fine, with GPS enabled it had a mind of its own.
Sad ending, but glad you weren’t hurt physically or financially! That was a bold move to take a chance on one of these at that age. I had a neighbor with an identical model they bought new, they parked it in a shopping center with a for sale sign on it about a year ago. Everyone in the neighborhood knew the car, and knew it was a one owner, owned by people who could and did pay for the best care for it. They were swarmed with calls, and told my wife they were not going to sell it to anyone they knew, because they didn’t want to damage friendships!
Our 2011 LR4 we bought new (a prior COAL), had a flawless engine up to 110,000 miles or so when we sold it. Maybe we were just lucky, that would have been an early 5.0 N/A. Never had a coolant or timing chain issue. I do recall the OCI was 15,000 miles and the dealer told me to cut that in half, which we did. Changed it every 7,500 with name brand 0w20 synthetic.
Our 2018 Range Rover Supercharged (another COAL) with the same 5.0 had the coolant crossover pipe crack, still under warranty fortunately. We allegedly got the “improved design” pipe, but it’s still not metal. Very common on the supercharged engines, Jaguar and RR, because of the heat cycling it is exposed to between the valley and the supercharger. Your point about the splash shield/skid plate makes me think I’ll leave it off the next time I change the oil. Aside from that, it’s an amazing, powerful, buttery smooth engine. It’s a blast to drive. It calls for 16,000 mile OCI, but I have been doing it about every 10,000 miles.
I thought of you since I wrote this, since I knew you had the L319 LR4 and the late L405 Range Rover with 5.0-liter engines. Some of the very early 5.0s were actually okay, because they had a different chain design and a different set of tensioners that came from a different supplier. As far as I know, though, those were only installed in the Jaguars (XJ, XK, XF). Beyond that, yes, I think you disregarding the oil-change interval on your LR4 saved it, but even if it didn’t, it took 120,000 or more miles for some of them to develop audible chain slap…long enough that they would have passed into secondhand ownership (as yours did).
That said, I cannot believe they are *still* specifying those long-ass oil-change intervals; what the actual hell?
This is a fascinating, must-click series for me for a number of reasons. It dispells a lot of the myths about superior European engineering because beyond power specs and instrumented test results these vehicles are garbage. Plastic chain guides that kill the engine, plastic coolant pipes that fail and kill the engine, too cheap to switch out old BMW handles so you can have keyless entry. It’s nuts. I’ll be impressed with the emgineering when it’s durable enough to last awhile.
It also demonstrates that you wither have the time and energy to deal with this or you don’t. Dual-working household with kids? Forget it. Lease-and-chuck if you can afford it, or buy something designed to last rather than impress the country club crowd.
Glad you’re ok after the wreck Kyree, and that thebRover didn’t roll at speed.
I largely agree but then JLR are in a league of their own. They consistently rank at the bottom of any long term reliability surveys.
I dunno about that…only because it looks like J/LR has a competitor vying for its unreliability crown. Stellantis engineers set out to create an American Range Rover with the new “WS” Grand Wagoneer…and, by golly, they did. It and the Wagoneer (and, frankly, the new “WL” Grand Cherokee, too) are plagued with quality issues galore. And without even the white-glove customer service experience you’d get in the Land Rover lounge.
I have a friend who is a service advisor at a CJDR dealership, and he says substantially more than half of the Wagoneers and Grand Wagoneers (like, 3/4 of them) end up back at the dealership within 10,000 miles, with some kind of crippling, no-start/no-drive problem. I think even J/LR does better than that.
I was referring to brands, not specific vehicles. My Promaster has been flawless, going on seven years. But yes, that sounds pretty ugly, about those Jeeps.
Haha, thankfully, I don’t know if anyone here is deluded into thinking these high-end Euro cars are actually better-engineered when it counts. Well, they’re engineered to 12/10ths specification–when 8/10ths would’ve done–and are absolutely glorious when everything works, but that’s scarcely the case. And when they die, they die disgracefully. And that’s more true of the German cars than anything. The British cars, like this L322 Range Rover, don’t even have *that* going for them. But they usually have some blend of design, luxury and pedigree that’s difficult for me to ignore. Frankly, there’s nothing quite like a Range Rover. It’s a charming, flawed vehicle.
Some of the other British cars are kind of pointless. The XF, for example. I’ve always liked the XF, but have never bought one. It’s pretty, but I can’t think of any reason why someone ought to buy any version of any XF versus what else was out there in the RWD-midsize-sedan space at that time…other than the brief period (2009-2012) when the XF had standard V8 engines and no one else did.
At the other end, you have Toyota and Lexus, whose cars are charmingly flawed in a different kind of way…usually for being old-school. The outgoing 4Runner and GX 460? Older than Methuselah, at this point, with uncompetitive-on-paper features, ride quality and interior space. But people can’t get enough of them, and their resale value reflects that at every point. To say nothing of the Land Cruiser and LX 570. For which a ten-year-old, high-mileage example will still cost uncomfortably close to $30,000.
I think, for me, the key is to be self-aware about what you’re buying. I include myself when I say that no one here is delusional enough to think these cars are the superior option. I just like them and am willing to carry one or more of them a year on my budget as “entertainment.” It’s like having a casino budget, frankly.
“It’s like having a casino budget, frankly” LOL love it! So true, but at least you do it with eyes open, and evidently have the time, wherewithal, and willingness to put up with them. RR charm cannot be denied, and, despite their many flaws, as a “car person” one must be glad that they exist, to set the standard for panache, if nothing else!
Kylee, you never fail to impress and amaze me with your automotive adventures. Digging into the wiring harness to add radar and adaptive cruise? That’s the equivalent of brain surgery. And you almost invariably come out whole. This series has been a real eye opener.
I’m bound to lose my shirt at some point. Read on. Next week’s is going to be a real doozy 🙂
Wow. First thing was when seeing that you left an Audi for a Range Rover, was “out of the frying pan, and into the fire” – in terms of maintenance, manhours and $$$.
Love your stories, and it’s good that you weren’t too impacted financially and did get something out of your (short) tenure with the RR.
Well, the Audi only left us a couple of days ago (Thursday). I owned the cars concurrently, and they complemented each other. So it didn’t replace the Range Rover.
And you’d be surprised, too. The Audi, with its tight engine bay, odd layout, complex electronics and extremely questionable design choices (like timing chains on the back of the engine, and turbos nestled in the hot valley of the engine)…is quite a bit more expensive to work on.
Oh, I have no illusions of an Audi being the paragon of reliability. I once owned a C5 A6 (MY2000) with the 2.8L V6, which is supposed to be a bit more reliable than the turbo version. Still spent a lot of shop time and $$ keeping it going, despite maintainng it religiously.
In any case – I’m glad that you are safe and sound. Cars can be replaced. You can’t.
Thanks for the insight regarding the Jaguar v8 engines from the nougthies.
It is good to see that for such a modern car, you have the courage to do / repair / upgrade things yourselves. I am sure that most people would be afraid to even start working on these cars.
I have only limited experience working on modern cars (2000 onwards is modern for me!) and while eventually I get things done, I get not the same amount of pleasure finishing it compared to working on older cars. So complicated, so much investigation is needed.
Sorry for you to lose this car, it seems you had a fine example. As always I am looking forward to your COALs, very well written and researched.
I was always a tinkerer. Thankfully, I have graduated beyond my childhood habit of taking things apart and then being wholly unable to reassemble them…especially since those things usually belonged to *other* people, who I had scammed into letting me do it under the promise of some sort of upgrade. “Sure, I can retrofit your IBM ThinkPad 600 with a trackpad!”
As for the crash, it was an untimely end, for sure.
Yeah I forgot to comment on the electronics work, that’s mind blowing! The closest I have come to that is bypassing failed parts of the fiber optic infotainment systems in two Mercedes. The analog phone unit in one failed (which was of no use anyway nowadays) and the nav unit failed in another. To avoid the constant error messages on the dash, I found a fiber optics “jumper” kit that let’s you bypass the failed unit. But that was pretty much plug and play. Accessing the units was the hardest part. I sent the stereo amp in the 2007 S550 COAL out to be rebuilt, but that was just wrenching.
Engineered to 12/10 when 8/10 would do explains a lot about these cars and SUVs like RR, the A8, S Class and 7 Series. It’s that last 4/10 that makes them great when new, but a gamble with age.
Yep. A lot of those mid-aughts European cars (including the L322) have MOST electrical busses, whereby all the components are daisy-chained together in a ring and so rely on each other to pass data around and even to receive power. When a component fails, it will either take down the whole ring and *nothing* will work, or will produce a slew of errors that appear to be wholly unrelated. You end up having to bypass a unit that’s on the network and not powering up or responding.
I’ve always liked the W221 S-Class and have had the opportunity to buy them multiple times, but never pulled the trigger. Realistically, I’d want the coupe version, the C216 CL-Class.
Our own reaction to so many tales of woe from owners of these 12/10ths kind of cars was to go in the opposite direction. We’ve owned a series of Japanese SUVs: Montero, Trooper, 2 xTerras (and would buy another) due to their relative simplicity, sacrificing “bells & whistles” and luxury for reliability and durability. I like keys, rotary dials for hvac, cloth seats, and the less screens the better. These vehicles are more than comfortable for us on the frequent long trips to our summer place, and this approach has led to high satisfaction and a low hassle factor, a tactic which has worked very well for us. However TEHO, and as they say… YMMV.
Btw must say the series has been well written and very enjoyable, and we are glad you have come out intact, literally and figuratively. And surely watching the metaphorical crash and burn by owners of these kinds of vehicles there is a kind of a “there but for the grace of God go I” fascination. Look forward to the future installments.
I lost a lot of confidence in the overall European engineering back when BMW first introduced their “free” maintenance program and perhaps not so coincidentally at that same time doubled the recommended length between oil changes. This was around the same time that “lifetime” fluids came to be in vogue, of course the lifetime would be that of the component not of the car or the owner, and of course the warranty would not extend to covering that same component’s actual perhaps now shortened lifetime as long as it extended past the normal warranty period.
The one takeaway from many of your, uh, “adventures” is that I for one have zero concerns about the long-term reliability or repairability of most any electronic component of modern cars, especially stuff like touch screens etc. They are mostly simple plug and play, there are plenty of spare units available, there are more and more actual upgraded components available, and there are people such as yourself who aren’t even in the actual auto repair field willing and able to delve into the innards and correct and/or improve situations as necessary or desired. And YouTube for the DIYers. I’m more concerned about if going forward it’ll be as easy to find someone to (correctly and economically) rebuild a carburetor for example.
While your cars are very nice (when they work) I realize that you are paying heed to a budgeted allowance in all of them, i.e. you’re not playing with what you’re not prepared or able to lose, as you said it’s kind of a discretionary entertainment budget and it’s how you amuse yourself. I’m all for that. As with traditional gambling, in European Automotive Roulette the house will assuredly always win over the long term, so to quote Joshua “the only winning move is not to play” if it’s only about the dollars and cents to someone. But experiences are extremely worthwhile as well, be it for example playing golf, traveling to exotic locales, indulging in fine food, or sampling various “interesting” automobiles, none of which generally offer an actual monetary return, but something perhaps of even greater value to the one enjoying that pursuit.
Indeed, your series has been VERY interesting and informative. As much as I admire the styling of these LRs, my olde 1957 Triumph 650 (simplicity itself compared to your Land Rover!) cured me of ever wanting another “British” vehicle, 2 or 4 wheeled. My 2 old Porsches did the same for ever wanting another German automobile.
As my wrenching days are certainly over, reliability, comfort and economy rule my automotive “ta$te$” now. Therefore I’m very satisfied with my ’20 Accord EX, 1.5L turbo despite the “rubber band” (CVT) transaxle. OTOH, the consistent high 30s to low 40s mpg i$ a pretty good tradeoff. 🙂 Comfort, handling, ride and power all are perfectly adequate for my driving needs now, altho at times I do still miss my ’95 Miata’s and ’02 C5 coupe.
However, vicarious thrills from reading your very well written COAL’s will now do for my enjoyment of relatively high end machinery! Looking forward to your next one!! 🙂 DFO
Thank goodness your run-in/drive-in with that oak tree ended ok. Including large repair bills when filing an insurance claim is genius and something I’ve never thought to do. Hopefully I won’t ever have to but I sure will try if it does. So strange yet not really that LR/J specified a 14,000 mi/ 22,530 kms oil change interval for a 500 horsepower engine. Stereotypical NEW owners use these like jewelry and change them just as frequently. I guess when your businesses is to sell trend setting luxury and image then products with a much shorter than average lifespan makes perfect sense. Something a pleb like me still can’t fully embrace.😄
On behalf of wealthy needy orphans everywhere, I say bless you Kyree. I’m envious of your appetite and sense of adventure with your toys. I’ve had several European cars (‘79 Audi, ‘80 Fiat, ‘99 Volvo and my current ‘04 Saab); I guess owning a litany of Japanese cars has spoiled me regarding maintenance and reliability (side note exception: my Outback, which I’ve been limping along for the last 15 months as I wait on my nearly-made Maverick, has been needing all the maintenance love lately). There’s no doubt that many European vehicles are superior in manufacturing, materials and drivability. But having zero mechanical repair abilities, I get frustrated. The Maverick will (hopefully) be my last new car, but I still harbor a deep desire to get a lightly used 2015-16 E-Class down the road in a few years. Always loved that design.
You never fail to leave me in awe. It is not so much the technical prowess (though that is impressive) but the steely nerve you exhibit in your willingness to tear into these modern high-end cars that look like a big black box to me. Kudos!
For the first time in my life, I just hit a deer this past week (and had a near miss with a second). You might think that you would come out ok with a big enough vehicle, but apparently a Freightliner is not a big enough vehicle. It turned out to be a tow-away too, due to the bad cooling system leak that followed.
Sad that your time with this Rangie was short, but very glad you’re ok after the accident! JLR and their engineering choices are a constant source of fascination to me, with so many interesting features and good on paper specs, but woeful reliability.
My cousin and another very good friend work at JLR and they constantly get defensive about the reliability aspect. Allegedly the newer stuff is better, but logically I can’t see how that can be, with even more tech that was still developed on a shoestring budget.