Thread: Thoughts on the D5

Originally Posted by Nicky

Getting my 2015 D4 serviced, the dealer generously loaned me a brand new HSE D5. My impressions continue below:-
Getting seated in the comfortable leather seat, the steering wheel seemed too skinny cf the D4. Started up OK and moved up. Surprise, the fuel saving stop/start had me fooled. Gentle pressure on the throttle allows the car to remain stationary, more and the engine stops. anyhow off the brake and onto the throttle, and the restart is instant. The cruise controls have moved to the right on the steering wheel and are mixed with the lane-change controls and the adaptive cruise, somewhat fiddly and too close together. Following vehicles on approach set off little indicator lights in the nice large rearview mirrors. The rotary gear selector seems too forward to reach easily. EPB now is totally automatic. The indoor handles have a strange capturing handle to hook your finger into. There is no longer a shelf over the glove-box. Seated, the forward and rear view is good, and of course the rearview camera, with ridiculously high resolution. The 6 turbo diesel seems smooth enough, and yet strangely thirsty (hence the stop start stuff I guess). There is an add-blue port under the bonnet. The info screen is fussy and not always intuitive. Deleting other phones was tricky, as was finding contacts.Bluetooth connection was lost with the Ac on max.
Now moving to the middle row. These seats are definitely too low in the rake, with no upper thigh support. The third row I didn't try, but they have nice electric controls.
The real deal-breaker for me is the one-price tailgate, especially those dangerous sharp lower corners. Coming from the offset spit tailgate of the D4, with it's multifunctional ability, the loss of all this in the D5 is significant. To me this is major design flaw and the devaluation to D5s MK1 will be expensive for LR to rectify in any update. What a blunder!

Yes I looked at it also and I must say backward move LR! The mechanical engineering may be great but design wise , nah too much like the discovery sport

This is now like the 3rd thread on this very topic....

Originally Posted by AllTerr

This is now like the 3rd thread on this very topic....

In the D3 D4 section.

Originally Posted by Bobc163

Yes I looked at it also and I must say backward move LR! The mechanical engineering may be great but design wise , nah too much like the discovery sport

If only the D5 looked better, more like the unloved but more attractive Disco Sport…..

Originally Posted by AllTerr

This is now like the 3rd thread on this very topic....

And they all seem to follow the same theme,those that have a D3/4,don't seem to impressed with the D5.........

Oh well

Originally Posted by scarry

And they all seem to follow the same theme,those that have a D3/4,don't seem to impressed with the D5.........

Oh well

Think that there might be a reason for this ;-)

Fascinating. ...I wonder how the official D5 sales figures are looking?

D4 is becoming more of an icon every day by the sound of it. I'm sure the D5 is beautiful to drive, but if, as it looks and sounds, it's lost its practicality - it just becomes another elitist expensive SUV amidst the plethora of others from every manufacturer.

i must say I agree re the tailgate! It's massive and almost gave me an uppercut when I opened it in the showroom. ...I was curious and there for reasons other than D5, but I was disappointed in how luxurious it was, with no real base model and no provision for bullbar, standard rubber, etc.

Originally Posted by Zeros

Fascinating. ...I wonder how the official D5 sales figures are looking?

D4 is becoming more of an icon every day by the sound of it. I'm sure the D5 is beautiful to drive, but if, as it looks and sounds, it's lost its practicality - it just becomes another elitist expensive SUV amidst the plethora of others from every manufacturer.

i must say I agree re the tailgate! It's massive and almost gave me an uppercut when I opened it in the showroom. ...I was curious and there for reasons other than D5, but I was disappointed in how luxurious it was, with no real base model and no provision for bullbar, standard rubber, etc.

I suspect the next Defender will be a stripped out D4, that will bring a lot of fans back to LR. They have all the presses, tooling, production line etc, and it must be soon. The LR selection has been in my view "feminised" and they have realised this.