15 days with a MY15 D4

[dmdigital]

Thought I'd post up my first 15 days with the D4. So far I've done only 6900km, no short trips and haven't been over 4500rpm (is that warp speed?). So I guess according to the manual it is run in ;) The oil gauge is now down 1/8 of a unit but that's probably to be expected. The satnav has been very good too, must say I was surprised after the negative comments I read about it. Knowing the ETA is quite handy. The privacy glass with uv tint and tinted front windows has made the car extremely good in the 40c days we've had from Townsville to Darwin. The only issue we've really had so far is the USB connectivity with the iPhone 5s. Works fine over Bluetooth but doesn't when plugged in. Put a 32GB USB stick in and use it for music and keep the phone on Bluetooth. To say I'm happy driving the D4 is an understatement, it handles beautifully on the open road at all speeds. The fuel economy has been fantastic. Well it was until we got back to the NT and set the cruise at 130kph, but even then it wasn't too bad and I was able to get 600km+. One of the best parts was driving the Alpine Way as it just pulls itself up the hairpin curves on the hills. What I miss from the defender is the front wings to rest things on. What I regret not optioning in are the surround cameras - my wife's Qashqai has them - and the rear A/C. You'll have noticed I haven't mentioned off-road driving. It will happen as will off-road tyres and sill protection. The Wrangler HP are a good road tyre but don't last long and a lousy off-road, I had them on my D2a. I'll probably replace them with Duratracs when I can get some. Jury is out on a bull bar until I see how the OL one pans out with you MY14 owners.

[LandyAndy]

Derek.
From my observations.
Once over 100kmh the fuel economy falls,astounding in commuter traffic in the city in the 80 to 100kmh area.
Duke box is AWESOME,I use a USB too:cool::cool::cool::cool:
High beam lacks distance:(:(:(:(.
SILENCE:cool::cool::cool::cool::cool::cool::cool:: cool:!!!!!!
My aircon is brilliant,seem to have to put it up to 21 or 22 instead of LO on the D2,guessing its a black VS white issue.
Brakes,boy are they strong,D2 were good,these are ballparks away.
Low down get up and fly,WOW,love it,and mine is the baby 3.0lt.
Mine only just went over 4000km:):):):)
LOVE IT!!!!!
Andrew

[dmdigital]

Hmm just corrected first post and ForumRunner app removed all pagination :(

I find under 110 kph seems to be good as 100 kph consumption. Will definitely achieve over 800km from a tank sitting under 100kph on open road.

Forgot to mention quietness. Then again 11 speaker system is very good and have managed to play a lot of Led Zeppelin very loud :)

[LandyAndy]

From the few fill ups,I think the computer tells fibs on range left.Not willing to challenge it.
Andrew

[letherm]

Knowing the ETA is quite handy.

Careful with the ETA. It is quite good if you aren't in traffic otherwise take it with a little grain of salt. I live in Sydney and it told me a trip to the airport was going to take 40 minutes. Arrived 85 minutes after I left. That was peak hour so I assumed it was optimistic. The return trip several days later was almost spot on as it was about 8.30pm so there was little traffic to contend with. Bottom line is that it quite understandably can't take into account bad traffic so you need to allow for that.

Martin

[dmdigital]

You are correct about the ETA in any traffic situation but on the open road it works very well and the use of waypoints lets you plan breaks.

As for the distance to empty, read the manual and you will see it mentions averaging. This means it will be affected by the previous fill ups until the trip is reset and then it starts again. Leaving Sydney my DTE was poor and as we progressed up the coast it improved greatly due to the 100/110 kph zones. After the NT border it nose dived again due to 130kph speeds. It takes a couple of tanks to work itself out but is a reasonable guide. I also add around 20% safety margin on fuel stops when they are several hundred km apart. So if my DTE says 800km I'd take that as 600-650km.

All these aids are only guides and common sense must be used. It's no different to the people who blindly follow the satnav into a swamp.

[d2dave]

To say I'm happy driving the D4 is an understatement, it handles beautifully on the open road at all speeds. The fuel economy has been fantastic. Well it was until we got back to the NT and set the cruise at 130kph, but even then it wasn't too bad and I was able to get 600km+.

Glad to see that you are happy with it, although I had no doubt that you wouldn't.

Why only 130kph?

[jon3950]

I also add around 20% safety margin on fuel stops when they are several hundred km apart. So if my DTE says 800km I'd take that as 600-650km.

I found the DTE reading on my D3 to be far more accurate than my D4 (MY13). I often saw a DTE of 800km on the D3, but on the D4 I've never seen a DTE of more than about 680km. I can easily push the D4 to 0km and still not be able to fill it up. I used to work on a margin of 100km in the D3 and still do on the D4 out of habit, but I find I'm only putting 3/4s of a tank.

Cheers,
Jon

[dmdigital]

I've already seen DTE of 856 and 831 km and a couple more in that range. Most of the trip it has shown in the 750+ until we started sitting at 130kph, then it stayed down in the 650-680 range.

[nat_89]

Ill agree with everything you say and i do like how accurate the sat nav is on long highway trips although around town it sent us on a goose chase or two but other thank that i never use it!!
As landyandy said the brakes are bloody amazing jeeze they pull up super quick.
I have no problems at all with the stereo but I've hardly ever used usb only use bluetooth, i have the Harmon Kardon system 11spk and i love it sounds so good along with how quiet the car is.
My fuels not to bad i dont take to much notice i just do a quick estimate with kms and litres when i fill up and thats about it i don't keep records.
So far my tyres have 31000kms on them and still heaps of tread left.

[Meken]

My cheap Chinese aftermarket satnav works out that you are not moving much in heavy traffic and adjusts the eta accordingly - so at start of a trip eta may be 30 mins, say you hit really heavy traffic (eg 10km/hr) at eta 15mins - you will see eta increasing as you only crawl along in traffic - then after you get through the heavy traffic eta drops & drops

[Graeme]

I've already seen DTE of 856 and 831 km and a couple more in that range. Most of the trip it has shown in the 750+ until we started sitting at 130kph, then it stayed down in the 650-680 range.Does it actually get that many kms from a tankfull?

[dmdigital]

I wish. Haven't really looked at range but we did do Bundy to Mackay with a couple of extra side trips
on a tank and for townsville to the isa I put 20l in at Richmond to be safe as it wasn't going to make the 900km on a tank.

[BobD]

My 2010 3l gets about 1200 to 1300 km on 160 to 170l, nothing like what you are saying. Easy to use a lot more if you put a roof top tent on top and travel at around 130 kph across the Nullabor into a head wind.


When I picked up my car in Paramatta and drove it back to Perth we did Parramatta to Port Pirie using both tanks and with an empty aux tank the car was telling me zero km to go and close to empty when we reached Port Pirie after the non stop drive. We were trying to find fuel in every town but the fuel stations were all closed at the time we went through them. I only managed to put 65l in the main tank so it was telling me a few lies.


Bob