As you may or may not know - I traded my RX8 for a Discovery 3. To compare the two is a difficult task because as far as cars go they couldn't be more different. The 8 is a well balanced, lightweight, well powered sports car and the D3 is a massive heavy lump of metal with a big, fat, petrol loving V8.
Driving home after I had made the exchange, the D3 could not have felt more alien to me. It was like driving a train. The engine had to work so hard to get it up to speed and the brakes had to work even harder getting it to stop (I was driving it like I did the 8). After a few days of this I noted that my fuel consumption was about 22l/100km - this was not cool!!
Over the past couple of months I have refined my driving style and am now very comfortable in the D3. It is smooth, responsive, corners well (little bit of roll) and with the airbag suspension bumps in the road can hardly be felt. It takes a little longer to hit the speed limit and you need to brake a bit further away from things for a smooth stop, but I can still hit the round about at the end of my street at 45kph (50kph in the 8). It is now averaging 18l/100kph combined - a lot more city than h/way.
Have only been offroad with it once so far. It handled it A+ uneven rutted rocky tracks and creek beds no worries. I am taking it camping and fishing on the beach next weekend so we'll see how it goes there.
I still miss the 8 and am looking for a house with a 3 car garage so I can get another fun car, an FD maybe?
Oh and the Land Rover forums are generally boring as bat**** - you guys are heaps more interesting still, even though I don't have an 8 anymore.
In a nutshell - I highly reccommend the Discovery 3 but would get the TDV6 if you don't like spending $110 on petrol for about 400ish k's (city).
Cheers
FURY
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