Originally Posted by
cartm58
l have read the thread with interest
most people live in Oz dont live in the outback
the great majority of people who are going to buy a D3 wouldn't live outside the metropolitan areas of Oz
the majority of D3 driving time wouldnt be more than couple of hours outside the metropolitan areas of Oz
Majority of people dont have the ability tools or experience to repair a vehicle of any make type or description or technology
Anyone who can afford a D3 will take out comprehensive insurance, would be likely to have RAC breakdown service cover and would be covered by LR Road side assist so besides some inconvenience of having a total vehicle failure on there once a year out back safari it isnt going to be a major issue for them and believe it or not total failures happen to every make and model l know of and l regular speak to people who have had to wait couple days for parts to be shipped to them etc.
So in my mind the arguments against the D3 are based on some pretty weird assumptions of 100% reliability and complete robustness which simply doesn't exist.
The real question is does the D3 have a higher failure rate than other comparable/type manufactured vehicle and so far l dont think there is any reliable statistics to say it has.
if l had a lazy $80,000 to spend
cartm58
1993 range rover
You're right of course - most people in Australia live as they always have in the capital cities and nearby, and don't venture far from them.
But I think you are missing the point as well - while any car can have a total failure as you correctly point out, a large proportion of non-electronic types of failures can be repaired, if not on the spot by the driver, at least by any qualified mechanic (or even unqualified) in the nearest town or perhaps even station, even if they have to wait for parts. Electronic problems which can only be diagnosed by a dealer, compounded with Landrovers lack of dealers, means that the few days repairs turn into shipping the vehicle perhaps halfway across Australia to a dealer to diagnose the problem - which may in fact only require a trivial repair. There was a recent case noted in this forum where a Defender in NW WA had to be shipped back to Perth for a faulty throttle potentiometer to be diagnosed - it took about a fortnight to get the vehicle back due to shipping problems. The increased use of electronics in the D3 have undoubtedly improved its capability, and almost certainly its reliability, but have also increased the possibility of faults that can disable the vehicle not just for days but for weeks in remote areas, even if it is not a serious problem. As I said above, this is not an inevitable result of electronics, but is the unintended result of making the vehicle serviceable only by dealers plus the long distances between these in this country.
As an example of a similar effect in the past, the lack of service capabilities in remote areas was one of the factors that slowed the adoption of diesels in offroad vehicles in Australia - these remained rare until well into the seventies, and part of the reason they are almost universally used today is that you can get diesel service virtually anywhere. Plus it has been realised that they really are a lot more reliable than petrol engines. (quite apart from fuel economy). I am confident that the same will happen to electronic systems in cars eventually, but I don't think we are there yet.
And of course, there is the cost - but wait a few years and there will be plenty on the market at affordable costs, almost all never used off bitumen. But whether we can afford to run them may be another matter - look at Ron's problems with his P38A. One hopes that Landrover learned from that how to make them more repairable.
John
John
JDNSW
1986 110 County 3.9 diesel
1970 2a 109 2.25 petrol
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