Disomania
26th March 2010, 06:37 AM
So, here's Day 3 about to start of ownership of the D4.
Picked the car up Wednesday (made mention of this then) and drove home the long way doing a bit of off road on a nice long and steep hill. Yesterday (day 2) was mainly running around and back to th dealer report one fault on the way past.
Yes, my D4 has an ISSUE. The handle on the drivers height adjust was not made correctly and it is loose on the lever so needs replacement. It's a Landrover so it has to have a few quality control things - adds character.
So, never having had all the electronics before, what where my thoughts? Well, the mud/snow/grass setting is probably going to work well on those surfaces. On the test hill, it was not the best as it took 4 - 5 seconds after pressing the thottle for it to start accelerating. The next two settings seemed similar on the hill I was on, and the rock crawl mode I could hear (not feel) the traction control working a little more - guess it was the brake system 'pre loading' the brakes to reduce the reaction time (got that from the LR site).
Down hill it didnt' matter if the car was in Drive, or manually held in 1st or 2nd, the car was great going down hill. The HDC works a treat and I like th way it's adjustable using the cruise control. Seemed funny to be on bits that were really steep and tapping the - button on the cruise to slow the car gently. This same hill used to make some cars struggle to get up/down. It's just steep enough to show up the not so low range in some of the other 4wd's out there and they will spin a wheel in spots getting up the hill and require some careful brake work on the way down not to run away - as usual though, some parts of the down hill when I was in 2nd, I had to drive the car down as it was too slow but still too steep for 3rd gear (would have been too fast in 3rd and I'd still prefer to be in control without relying on the HDC).
Road use? What can I say. Super comfortable, keeps up with the traffic really well - and this is with the 800km/3000rpm limit imposed for 'running in' . I'm more than happy with this level of performance so will be interested when I can 'stick the boot in' to see how much more it will go. Then again, I may not as it really is good enough as it is.
According to the trip computer, I'm gettign 10.6l/100km around town in Canberra - lots of 80kmh sections and few lights to have to move away from where I've been driving. Happy with that for a 295km 'old' car of the size/weight of the D4.
I'll trickle fill today and start some proper figures as we are doing a run from Canberra to Binalong and back this afternoon and will do the odd side visit to friends (have to show the beast off).
I did drive the 3l disco and it's phenominal, but honestly for me the 2.7 is really enough for now. Maybe trade up in the D5 in 5 - 10 yrs time.
Picked the car up Wednesday (made mention of this then) and drove home the long way doing a bit of off road on a nice long and steep hill. Yesterday (day 2) was mainly running around and back to th dealer report one fault on the way past.
Yes, my D4 has an ISSUE. The handle on the drivers height adjust was not made correctly and it is loose on the lever so needs replacement. It's a Landrover so it has to have a few quality control things - adds character.
So, never having had all the electronics before, what where my thoughts? Well, the mud/snow/grass setting is probably going to work well on those surfaces. On the test hill, it was not the best as it took 4 - 5 seconds after pressing the thottle for it to start accelerating. The next two settings seemed similar on the hill I was on, and the rock crawl mode I could hear (not feel) the traction control working a little more - guess it was the brake system 'pre loading' the brakes to reduce the reaction time (got that from the LR site).
Down hill it didnt' matter if the car was in Drive, or manually held in 1st or 2nd, the car was great going down hill. The HDC works a treat and I like th way it's adjustable using the cruise control. Seemed funny to be on bits that were really steep and tapping the - button on the cruise to slow the car gently. This same hill used to make some cars struggle to get up/down. It's just steep enough to show up the not so low range in some of the other 4wd's out there and they will spin a wheel in spots getting up the hill and require some careful brake work on the way down not to run away - as usual though, some parts of the down hill when I was in 2nd, I had to drive the car down as it was too slow but still too steep for 3rd gear (would have been too fast in 3rd and I'd still prefer to be in control without relying on the HDC).
Road use? What can I say. Super comfortable, keeps up with the traffic really well - and this is with the 800km/3000rpm limit imposed for 'running in' . I'm more than happy with this level of performance so will be interested when I can 'stick the boot in' to see how much more it will go. Then again, I may not as it really is good enough as it is.
According to the trip computer, I'm gettign 10.6l/100km around town in Canberra - lots of 80kmh sections and few lights to have to move away from where I've been driving. Happy with that for a 295km 'old' car of the size/weight of the D4.
I'll trickle fill today and start some proper figures as we are doing a run from Canberra to Binalong and back this afternoon and will do the odd side visit to friends (have to show the beast off).
I did drive the 3l disco and it's phenominal, but honestly for me the 2.7 is really enough for now. Maybe trade up in the D5 in 5 - 10 yrs time.