Thread: Not 'loving' the car

The D3 (and similar for D4, RRS, RRV) was a massive leap forward from the D2 in terms of comfort, capability, safety and complexity. And as a result was awarded 4WD of the year. It was also a massive leap compared to the competition at the time.

Also like the L322 JLR used externally sourced motor, transmission, transfer box and probably lots of other major components. It was developed under Ford ownership, and so has basically the same motor to the Ford Territory 2.7 tdv6.

The complexity comes at a cost when things break. And show stoppers normally mean a tray top back to a repairer at a major centre. This can be expensive if your a long way from home. Many like me have RACQ ultra car or ultimate which provides a tow truck over huge distances.

The air suspension is amazing, and very reliable. But air spring/strut assembly does need to be replaced every 10 years or so. The shocks will be dead by around this time anyway. And the air compressor does need some maintenance during its life. If your handy then you can source parts overseas at a reasonable price and fit them yourself.

In my opinion you need to either accept that complexity comes with compromise and a heap of benefits (check out the YouTube reviews from 2006 to remind yourself what an amazing car you have), and put money aside for when expenses happen and they will. Alternatively, if paying for complexity/capability or travelling to remote places with aging complexity will cause too much stress then maybe consider something else (which is a different compromise).

Originally Posted by rar110

The D3 (and similar for D4, RRS, RRV) was a massive leap forward from the D2 in terms of comfort, capability, safety and complexity. And as a result was awarded 4WD of the year. It was also a massive leap compared to the competition at the time.

Also like the L322 JLR used externally sourced motor, transmission, transfer box and probably lots of other major components. It was developed under Ford ownership, and so has basically the same motor to the Ford Territory 2.7 tdv6.

The complexity comes at a cost when things break. And show stoppers normally mean a tray top back to a repairer at a major centre. This can be expensive if your a long way from home. Many like me have RACQ ultra car or ultimate which provides a tow truck over huge distances.

The air suspension is amazing, and very reliable. But air spring/strut assembly does need to be replaced every 10 years or so. The shocks will be dead by around this time anyway. And the air compressor does need some maintenance during its life. If your handy then you can source parts overseas at a reasonable price and fit them yourself.

In my opinion you need to either accept that complexity comes with compromise and a heap of benefits (check out the YouTube reviews from 2006 to remind yourself what an amazing car you have), and put money aside for when expenses happen and they will. Alternatively, if paying for complexity/capability or travelling to remote places with aging complexity will cause too much stress then maybe consider something else (which is a different compromise).

Great advice. Everyone has their tolerance and risk adversity limit (and limits to which they would risk their rare and prized holiday s). In my case I travelled with mates to Cape York. The D2, MN Triton, Hilux and 75 series cruiser had no issues through the tele track etc. The D4 had issues with sticking electric handbrake and the D3 had air suspension problems causing worry for the owner and more concerning was that it became stuck in a lock centre diff state with no warning light to the driver and caused transmission damage and ended up on a boat from Seisa to Cairns then flatbed train back to Brissy. The owner had a large part of his holiday removed and it caused him a lot of worry.

Now some people might say that with the right diagnostic tools and some knowledge these things could have been fixed. Fair enough...maybe. But in my case I decided that I didn't want to risk my holidays for such complexity and that the upside of them wasn't worth the concerns over reliability. So, whilst it may be unpopular to say, I sympathise with the OP after seeing my mates anxieties over their modern LR's. And, my D2 will be the last LR I purchase and I cherish it.

Cheers

I should add, there are also complexities and compromises with other makes and models. Ive read a few stories about the Prado 150 xenon headlights not surviving a cape trip because of water damage, costing the owners mega bucks as not covered by Toyota warranty.

I agree the D2 is a very good vehicle with minimum compromise. Again it depends what compromise people will accept. A D3/4/RRS/L322 are miles ahead as a daily driver, but complexity as discussed. Others would not even accept the electronics in a TD5 D2/110, and the threat of the 3 amigos.

Ive ended up going from a tdv8 L322, which was amazing, to the last of the diesel Subaru Outback as a road tourer/daily, and am doing a motor rebuild on a 200tdi 110 as a beach and maybe remote tourer. It’s a flash red one which even has AC. It’s probably the least complex of the land rovers in the last 30 years, has virtually no safety features, no where near as quite or comfortable as a D2. So lots of compromise there, incl having two vehicles instead of one.

Thats one of the reasons that I wont be upgrading from the BMW L322 (diesel) that I have now to a TDV8.
The complexity of the engines and the extra maintenance on them is out of my range in $$$$ terms as being now retired,
I prefer to not have large bills whenever the car needs some loving and attention.
At least with the beast that I now have, I can accomodate the various expenditure that comes with it(like gearbox service every 20thou K's,
recommended by Rhys who rebuilt 6 1/2 years ago).

cheers
DG

Originally Posted by disco gazza

Thats one of the reasons that I wont be upgrading from the BMW L322 (diesel) that I have now to a TDV8.
The complexity of the engines and the extra maintenance on them is out of my range in $$$$ terms as being now retired,
I prefer to not have large bills whenever the car needs some loving and attention.
At least with the beast that I now have, I can accomodate the various expenditure that comes with it(like gearbox service every 20thou K's,
recommended by Rhys who rebuilt 6 1/2 years ago).

cheers
DG

I reckon a M57 or MB606 with a L322 6PH26 facelift would be a nice vehicle with fairly manageable complexity. These are being done on RRC so must be possible.

We bought our D3 in Nov 19, then Covid hit and it was hardly driven. Then lots of problems - all of which have been resolved, but yes we went through the dread every time we took it out of something going wrong.
What we found - after trouble shooting for many months - chuck a new battery at it. A huge amount of the problems went away by fitting a new battery. The D3 has an early (ish) CAN Bus system and the computers do not always communicate with each other perfectly. The new battery certainly fixed a lot of that.
Drive it regularly, they get sad sitting in the drive - if it isn't your daily make sure it has a run every couple of weeks.

Now we really enjoy the car.