Thread: Decision - SDV6 HSE v's Landmark

Originally Posted by Disco4Dave

My wife and I want to buy a new Discovery 4.

Our planned usage is commuting, trips, towing a car trailer, towing a caravan (approx 2200 kg), and soon, a bigger caravan of up to 3K kg. We have no plans to go anywhere rougher than maintained dirt roads.

Ideally we want an SDV6 HSE, with a few options. I have included the eDiff in those options, not because I think we have plans that would require it, but mainly because it would be a nice-to-have for a relatively small incremental cost, and I have read that it may assist with resale later.

So far I have asked a lease manager for a quote, plus independently approached a few dealers.

We have been offered a deal on a showroom Landmark for about the same price as our ideal built-to-order HSE. This Landmark as std includes all the options we want, such as better leather, vision assist, elec adjust steering wheel, but does not include the eDiff. It does also include a few extra luxuries that we don't really want, but which might occasionally be handy, such as the cold climate pack.

So now my question. I am trying to put a value on the eDiff, given our intended usage.
In which performance profiles is the eDiff actually useful, and is it more likely to assist with resale in either price or desirability to a potential buyer, compared to the Landmark options?

When I bought my HSE in 2013 I wanted the EDiff but it was a nice to have rather than a must have. I don't have an EDiff. The car I took was an excellent deal and that more than compensated for any potential resale value. The Ediff is not really needed in the last few models unless you want to do some serious off road work. Basically LR have changed the software and the standard car is as good as, if not better than, the older EDiff models. The other upside from what I've read since joining this forum is that it is stronger than the regular diff which would be better if you pulling a heavy van but is not strictly speaking needed as the non EDiff vehicle will cope with it ok. I'll leave it to more knowledgeable guys to explain the detail. The other bonus is that you don't have to wait for the car to come from the UK if you take the showroom one.

Martin

Hi. I concur with Martin, as an off-road assistance it does not sound to me like you would get any real benefit from it, but the side issue advantage is that some of the other bits in an E-Diff vehicle's diff are heavier duty so as a van tower, you might be influenced by this.


I'd go with your gut, your brain doesn't have sufficient skin in the game. If you secretly like the bling of the landmark (and it is nice, I saw one at the dealer) then treat yourself and let the E-Diff go. If your guts are going to play havoc because you did not stick with Plan A, then stick with Plan A.

Originally Posted by Disco4Dave

My wife and I want to buy a new Discovery 4.

So, from your name I assume your wife is called Dave? ;-)
Welcome to the forum, a place where useful info, and not so useful info can be found.
As the gents above have said, the E-Diff may help if you're going serious off-road, for normal road towing - non ediff will be fine.
As said above, the choice may be influenced by availability time and then price!
Whatever your choice, enjoy the Permagrin!

I have a MY12 HSE Luxury which is very similar spec to the Landmark and I was in a similar position when we got it. Several years later we are still enjoying all the extra shiny things that came with the vehicle that we would not have normally gotten and the lack of an ediff has not stopped us from using the car off road at all.

I went through the same thought process as you! I really wanted the ediff and there were a few cars around with it that I could have got. Then I thought for the few times I may or may not use/need it, I went with a car with tech pack, cold climate and blind spot. (This was on an SE model) I will use those more day to day. Again this is what suits me and others will have their opinions. I quite like the blind spot feature and (yes I'm getting soft) the cold climate pack has been awesome. The heated seats and steering wheel have been great. Lol. I'm from Melbourne so it has been used nearly every day for the last 2 or so weeks. Sydney climate you may not need this as much. My 2c worth
Dave.

Disco4dave.. I do some some fairly rough off-roading in my D4, far rougher than it sounds like you will ever do and i have not yet needed an E-diff.

if the ground is particularly tricky the traction control very quickly steps up to the plate to coincide with the centre diff lock and the car rolls on.

On re-sale, having said the above I would buy an e-diff version but only if the car was otherwise the same and the price difference was negligible.. the vast majority of D4's don't have it and an even higher percentage of D4 drivers don't need it.

I'd be interested to know if anyone has ever been out done by another D4 simply because it had an e-diff?

My D4 (MY10) does have the e-diff and while I can't comment on how an open diff one performs, I have noticed that it takes a lot for TC to activate, as it seems the preference with the e-diff fitted is to load up the diffs before using the brakes. I know this is the "old" Terrain Response, but in mud it remains composed without any application of the brakes (in "normal" setting, not mud & ruts), whereas my father (Graeme) tells me that MY12 L322 with much more aggressive tyres and open diff in the same situation relies a lot on the traction control.

I have the cold climate pack and an e-diff. I use the cold climate pack a lot more than the e-diff.