Thread: Disappointed in the D5 / waiting for the Defender

Originally Posted by johntins

Nope. Not if you approach it with any sense. There are all sorts of conditions you, or they, can make the contract "subject to". "Subject to finance" is the most common from the purchaser's perspective. If any of the "subject to" conditions cannot be met then the contract is void, and therefore deposits are refundable. At least, that's the case in Vic.

Pays to think hard before you sign something pertaining to $100,000.

"Subject to the vehicle not looking like an onroad toad"

Originally Posted by veebs

I've said my piece about the D5 - now I await the real world users to prove me as wrong as the initial haters of the D3. I do find it interesting that most reviews I've read lament the loss of some feature of the D4 though.

Well, as I said in another post, I suspect that with time views on the D5 may soften, and the weight loss, potential fuel economy and apparent handling improvement be seen as positives, but actually, compared to the D4, the third row really isn't as nice a place to be and for the driver the vision out of it really isn't very good, including working out where the front bumpers are ... I suspect that it will appeal to a different sort of customer and maybe be less of a family favourite.

Originally Posted by Arapiles

Well, as I said in another post, I suspect that with time views on the D5 may soften, and the weight loss, potential fuel economy and apparent handling improvement be seen as positives, but actually, compared to the D4, the third row really isn't as nice a place to be and for the driver the vision out of it really isn't very good, including working out where the front bumpers are ... I suspect that it will appeal to a different sort of customer and maybe be less of a family favourite.

I'm contemplating a 5-seater. That extra space in the back could be put to good use with carrying water or something. So any degradation in the comfort of the 3rd row seats doesn't concern me.

As for the front vision, have you seen videos of the surround camera system in action off road? There are a couple of examples in this one:
Off-Road Capability and Composure: 2017 Land Rover Discovery HSE Luxury on Everyman Driver - YouTube

The feature is called "Drive Assist":
Land Rover Owner Information

I know it's not exactly the same as having a regular-rectangular body that you can see the corners of with your own eyes, but I reckon that in a lot of circumstances those cameras would be as good as having a spotter guiding you.

Originally Posted by TB

I'm contemplating a 5-seater. That extra space in the back could be put to good use with carrying water or something. So any degradation in the comfort of the 3rd row seats doesn't concern me.

Agreed, the claustrophobic third row won't matter if you don't need 7 seats. But I don't think that my kids will be very happy about it ... in fact my youngest told me that she liked the Patrol (Y62) the most ... sorry ....

Originally Posted by Arapiles

Agreed, the claustrophobic third row won't matter if you don't need 7 seats. But I don't think that my kids will be very happy about it ... in fact my youngest told me that she liked the Patrol (Y62) the most ... sorry ....

Might effect resale,many will want the rear seats,remember sometimes the whole kids soccer team needs to go places.

Originally Posted by scarry

Might effect resale,many will want the rear seats,remember sometimes the whole kids soccer team needs to go places.

There seems to be two distinct markets for the Discovery: those who care about the e-diff, and those who don't. One of those groups is much larger than the other.

If I end up buying a D5 it will have the capability pack including e-diff. Ideally I would hold on to that car for at least 5 years. At the end of that time it's not going to be very appealing to any soccer mum regardless of how many seats it has. But I reckon there'll be somebody from a forum like this one who'd be very interested in one of the rare examples which can lock the rear diff.

I was travelling home from Perth today and saw my first D5 on the Mitchell freeway.
The first thing that struck me about the car was how small it is compared to the D2,D3 and D4's and how similar it was to all the other little city SUV's.

Sure it wasn't a Discovery Sport ?
had a look at them at Southerns this week and they look much bigger in the flesh than in the pictures.

i believe they are also physically bigger in size ( length ) than the D4.

jack