Thread: P38--L322 moving over

Interested in your comments on the L322 V8 petrol. I could have bought an '03 HSE L322 TD last week but reneged because it's a carbon copy (driveline wise) to my BMW X5. Might as well stick with that one for the cheese and kisses.

Ah the BMW X5, repeat winner of Top Gears "comedy 4wd of the year"

Love the shot in one of the older ones where it won't even hold on the handbrake and a deefer goes straight past it up the hill

Steve

Originally Posted by p38brickus

Interested in your comments on the L322 V8 petrol. I could have bought an '03 HSE L322 TD last week but reneged because it's a carbon copy (driveline wise) to my BMW X5. Might as well stick with that one for the cheese and kisses.

Not quite - engine and gearbox only are the same. Engine is bullet proof, trannie is made of cheese. Transfer case, diffs and suspension are all different on the L322. I think it would be unfair to compare the off road capabilities of the X5 with the L322 - they are completely different. The L322 is a VERY capable off road machine, and the X5 can get about as far as my Commodore.

Originally Posted by SteveFarmer

Ah the BMW X5, repeat winner of Top Gears "comedy 4wd of the year"

Love the shot in one of the older ones where it won't even hold on the handbrake and a deefer goes straight past it up the hill

Steve

Tyres perhaps??

X5 is just an AWD - no low range, so you can't ask miracles of it off road - maybe a bit of wet grass or a dirt road...

Originally Posted by bacicat

Not quite - engine and gearbox only are the same. Engine is bullet proof, trannie is made of cheese. Transfer case, diffs and suspension are all different on the L322. I think it would be unfair to compare the off road capabilities of the X5 with the L322 - they are completely different. The L322 is a VERY capable off road machine, and the X5 can get about as far as my Commodore.

Perhaps my "driveline" comment was misleading. I meant the engine and tranny. I use it to tow our horse float and caravan not for 4WDing so it's fine. No doubt my P38 and possible L322's would eat it off road.

Hi

Yeah top gear were doing their smart arse stuff, IMO you can't really compare a 4wd with Low Range to one without, they are different purpose vehicles.

It was pretty funny to see a deefer drive steadily past a slipping and sliding BM though

Steve

We have two cars, a P38 (4.6 HSE) and a BMW X5 (3.0d), the two are completely different beasts.

The X5 has no low range or diff locks and only has short travel stiff suspension with wide low profile tyres, it sends drive to all wheels so that it can get power to the road and go round corners faster on sealed roads. Its a fantastic car to drive on the road and blows the P38 away on performance and economy, however, it's not designed to go off road and no design compromises to on road performance have been made to allow it to.

The P38 is designed to go on and off road and has a number of compromises to it's on road performance to allow this. The L322 is also a compromise vehicle but I think more in favour of on road performance than the P38 and lots of electronics to try and keep the off road performance.


Personally I prefer to drive the P38 over the X5 but for my daily commute the 8L/100k that the X5 can deliver is a big saving over the 18L/100k from the P38, plus the X5 is still a really good car to drive on the road.