D3 offroad

We all know that now there are almost no LR dealers left outside the capital cities or the few larger inland towns like Dubbo. There are many country towns that no longer have a motor dealer of any kind. Winton (Qld.) is one. Central Motors is the only one still trading of the full hand that once existed. Central's sell Honda & Yamaha ag. bikes and quads, and stationary engines for pumps and gen. sets, etc. They are supposedly Ford parts and service dealers but have no specialised equipment. Longreach, 110 miles away, is the next town. There is only one motor dealer left in Longreach, sells Ford & Toyota, usually has a Falcon or a Camry on the floor. The other way, the nearest motor dealers are in Mt. Isa. Now these towns are on the bitumen, mobile 'phone coverage is poor, no LR dealers for hundreds of miles, and going by comments on this site, the LR dealers are not real good at diagnostics even with the test bench. My experiences with electronic systems in cars dating from the first electronic ignition systems in the late 60's, early 70's, has not been good. The multiple and repeated failures in my late model Falcon ute convinced me to get the County-Isuzu I now drive. I can not imagine living back in Winton, working in the bush, and having to rely on electronic systems not to suddenly fail. All electronic singing & dancing cars are not suited to genuine outback work. After nearly forty years of use, these systems are still not reliable enough for remote work. The systems do not like heat, shaking, and dust or water entry.

I live 400km from the nearest T4 testbook.

I drive approximately 800-1000km a week, of which around 400km is on corrugated gravel roads. I've driven over farms and through washouts. Up sand dunes (and sometimes around, eh Andy & Craig;) ) and into the sea.

My Discovery 3 has now completed 65,000km.

Since the compressor and steering angle sensor were replaced in the first two months of ownership, I have never looked back.

This car handles heat, dust and shaking like no other car I've had.

On some occasions, I've actually had to jack up and remove individual wheels in order to clean the dust and mud out from the rims and wheel arches.

If anything, i think that LR has not responded sufficiently (if at all!) to bad press about reliability.

As has been said many times before, electronics are far more reliable than mechanicals. I don't need to buy one of those aftermarket low collant warning systejms, 'cause my car's already got one. The onboard software constantly monitors everything. In my old falcon, if the oil light comes on it's too late! I don't have to worry about that stuff now! (Although please note I still do my daily and weekly checks of fluids, pressures etc. Once you've been taught to 'first parade' a vehicle, you never stop)

Reliable, I rely on it for my business and my life (one of the reasons I bought this car was for it's safety features). I'd say it's one of the most reliable vehicles available today.

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Originally Posted by Jamo

If anything, i think that LR has not responded sufficiently (if at all!) to bad press about reliability.

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Have they ever responded to bad press??

ha ha....good point!

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Originally Posted by dm_td5

Have they ever responded to bad press??

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No they havent and thats a large part of the problem. Matt

The point here is that its really easy to bash the little guy who puts up no defence. (he who is absent is wrong law).

A cetain Jap manufacturer has legions of devotees who help maintain a certain myth ( and they do have remote dealers helping their cause ).

There was a story (was it here?) sometime ago about a MB ML320 that had a flat tyre north of Port Augusta and it took the owner three days to get a new one. (Apparently the spare is a spray goo).

Once upon a time, half of all cars sold in Oz were Holdens, and so many were in the bush, would we have a new VE Commodore as the workhorse, if living in say Boulia or Bourke?

GQ