Thread: 110 Test Drive complete - made the purchase

Well - I took my test drive today - call me nuts but I drove out to Dubbo to take a test Drive. They had the 110 that I was looking for - and I felt I needed to drive 'that one' to be sure.

It was a great experience and I am grateful for the time the Sales Rep spent with me.

I must admit I was a bit apprehensive about how the test drive would go - especially as I had no experience with a landy and I had no idea if my sales rep would do it justice.

So my first issue was getting into the passenger seat - I was hardly graceful and looked awkward to say the least - then I sat there pondering if I could ever get comfortable in the seat and sitting position.

Anyway - my Sales Rep was brilliant - he really knows Defenders and how to drive the 110 - before long we were having a chat travelling down a country road at 100kph with a car that looked easy enough to drive - and by now I was starting to warm to my seating position.

We stopped to take a look around the car - and then it was my turn. I have to admit to another awkward entrance and I found myself sitting in a drivers seat feeling a bit perplexed - asking myself if this will behave and will I ever find it comfortable? The Sales rep realised this and was actually very helpful and supportive.

It took no time to be doing 100kph down a country road and I was feeling quite comfortable - with all the undulations and unevenness that a country road provides. What a great way to test drive a car rather than on a perfectly even road.

We did a U-Turn using the unmaintained shoulders and I got to feel the anti-stall feature at play - very nice.

I must say that the trip to the dealer was a really great experience. The Sales rep gave me the confidence the vehicle would perform - all I needed to do is learn to drive it the way he did. It wasn't long before I was driving around and feeling quite happy - it is not a hard vehicle to drive!

I will be picking up my Montalcino Red 110 with White roof 110 in due course. I am getting a Hayman Reece hitch and tinting done

Cheers,
Col.

Originally Posted by TasD90

Nice to hear a good Land Rover agent story rather than the bad ones we have been reading lately.
Cheers,
Peter.

I did have a positive experience which was nice.

To paint the picture - I had just driven 4 hours in a Holden Crewman 5.7 Cross8 (AWD) auto that I have owned for 11 years - I got there and after a quick chat we then went out in a Defender 2.2 Diesel (totally different driving experience)

I have never driven a diesel before - and it has been a while (11 years) since I have driven a manual for any period of time.

So the support from the Antony to guide me through the gear changes at the start of the drive (when to change up and down) - and just the way he handled the situation was really easy. We did plenty of changes in speed and gears to look at what the vehicle can do in different situations i.e. a slowdown to 80 and then get back to 100 - just simple stuff but effective in raising confidence.

It could have gone the other way if it wasn't for the fact that the drive out in the 1st place was so smooth that I stopped worrying about the vehicle and started to think about how I could drive it the same way.