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Thanks Mike, this is the sort of info I was chasing.
It sounds like the D3 has a few weaknesses, like ball joints etc but nothing compared to D2's.
I believe they didn't sell the V8 in the UK so I'm guessing I can only get feedback from Australian owners. Hopefully there are a few high mileage V8's out there.
cheers,
Terry
Sorry 'TerryO', this won't be much help to you, but I just wanted to say that I totally agree with the comments made by 'Disco4SE' and disagree with 'Neil P'.
I spent a long time looking at Rangies and was surprised how some people presented them for sale. Worn tyres, panel damage (without mentioning it when discussing the vehicle on the phone), overdue servicing etc etc.
After a lot of advice from friends (some of whom work at LR) I gave up the idea of the Rangie and bought a D3 TDV6 HSE. It is an ex tour vehicle (I think this may be the vehicle 'Sniegy' refers to in his post) and was pretty much the first one we looked at.
It's been exceptionally well maintained and hasn't missed a beat during the trip from Melbourne to the Sunshine Coast. (The owner was also a gent).
230,000 kms and it feels and looks new.
The fact that the vehicle was his business meant that anything that needed to be done, was done.
Not sure this would be the case for a private vehicle, given what I'd inspected up until a couple of weeks ago.
Again, sorry 'TerryO', not what you're looking for but I just wanted to say my piece. :)
No problem :)Quote:
Originally Posted by TerryO
The 4.4 petrol V8 was sold in the UK, but only for about the first 18 months of production through to the end of 2006 I think, (I've certainly seen 06 registered V8's) so there aren't many of them about. Those that are available are generally very cheap when compared to the TDV6, due to the high cost of fuel here. A lot are being converted to run on LPG.
Same went for the RRS, my G4 car is the 4.4 V8 petrol but again, for the UK market that engine was dropped in favour of the supercharged. After 2006 I think it was only you guys and the US that got the 4.4 normally aspirated engine (and now the 5 litre normally aspirated V8).
Even though I'm running my car on LPG, I'm still finding it to be OK in the mechanical department and it's now done 52k miles (bought a year ago with 22k miles on), so barely run in. I'm expecting it to cover at least 150k miles in my hands at a rate of about 30k per year. Like all LR products it has its off days and pops up the EML but that's to do with the LPG conversion, they're really sensitive to it and in general it's accepted that the V8 shouldn't be run on LPG without some modifications to the cylinder heads. I do think though that all these cars are better when they're used, rather than used sparingly. I've heard many a horror story about how unreliable the car has been when it's just used for taking the kids to school or the shopping run. Use them for plenty of miles and they're generally fine is my & my colleagues experience. Matey has an 06 RRS HSE TDV6 that he bought 3 years ago with 20k on the clock, it turned 115k miles last week and has only ever had routine service items (I include the 2 sets of balljoints and ARB bushes as service items :p ). He has however had the 'sealed for life' boxes drained and flushed, as have I. The oil was filthy in them, so I'm pleased I did.
I think Caver's mentioned the D3 website in the UK, it's your best source of information on them to be honest. As ever, read between the lines of the horror stories and you'll find a wealth of information there (and the sister rrsport site) www.disco3.co.uk
Mike,
Thanks again for all the feedback especially about the V8's as I have a bit of a soft spot for V8 petrol engines over rattlers even though I want a D3 for towing a 2.5 caravan, one question are you actually quoting miles or k's in distances travelled?
cheers,
Terry
All in miles, so 115k is 115,000 miles (or 184,000 km's)
Never have been one for all this metric km's bollox :p
I tow a caravan with mine, which is about 1.5 tonnes and it doesn't struggle. Fuel economy is 'interesting' though, at 50mph (80km/h) it'll do about 280 miles to a tank of fuel. Push that up to over 65mph (100km/h+) and it's down to 180 miles total range. It's steady as a rock at 65+ though, doesn't struggle at all. I've towed our old boat, which was 2.5 tonnes and it certainly knew it was there !
Thats interesting about the weight of the boat and performance (the fuel economy difference given wind resistance at 60mph does not surprise me). My D2 V8 tows a 2 tonn dual axle boat trailer. It does it well, but certainly I know its there and I am working the V8 off the line (on the highway it sails along). But it sounds sweet working...Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike_S
So the 4.4 bells and whisltes V8 in the D3 sounds like it does about 500kg more than my load before it knows its there...but the 4.4 is massively high tech with ****eloads more power and a fair bit more torque (although perhaps the torque comes in a little peakier...I dont know)...so it must be down to the extra 500kg of weight that the D3 carries - ie you are really asking that 4.4 to carry 1 tonn more than my D2 towing a 2 tonn boat.
Cheers