P
Paul S. Brown
Guest
Just back from this.
I was given a TDV6 SE which had (in true dealer fashion) been given all of
the optional extras to bring it up to HSE spec.
The handbrake is a pushbutton - it will only disengage if the footbrake is
on. I'm not best happy about not having a manual brake in the event of
everything going pear shaped.
While they may have increased the legroom available, they've narrowed down
the footwells - I tend to drive bow-legged and this was rather tight and I
kept barking my knees off the sides.
They've still got the inside door handles just where they'll dig into your
thighs - not nice.
The interior mirror doesn't have a wide enough field of view to cover the
entire rear window.
The 6 speed manual gearbox has rather short gear ranges necessitating a lot
of up changing moving off - takes some getting used to.
On the plus side, the road handling is excellent - not as good as my Rover
75, but better than almost any other car I've ever driven. The engine has a
lot of punch - it's got more go than the D2 V8 had and is dead quiet inside
the car.
The turning circle has to be seen to be believed - it will out turn any
other landrover I've ever seen - the only cars I've ever driven that turned
tighter were a Vauxhall Viva and an LTI FX4S.
It still catches the wind like a bugger and gets thrown around, however it's
no worse than any other Disco that way.
I agree with Clarkson about the rear seats - they are a pain to get into and
not easy to put up - I was right at the limits of my reach (I'm 5'9") to
raise the back and it took about a dozen attempts to get the base to latch
into the back.
The load space has a short fuzzy lining which will be destroyed if you load
too many sharp objects onto it, like cardboard boxes for example. This is
in contrast to the heavy duty load lashing eyes recessed into the loadbed.
The dashboard is busy. There is far too much going on with all the
indicators, switches and lights - to coin a phrase "This car is like Darth
Vaders Bathroom".
The car does not have forward parking sensors, but it needs them - the end
of the bonnet is at least a foot ahead of where you can see.
I'm not happy about the electrickery level of this car - it depends far too
much on electronics which *will* go wrong and be difficult to fix. It may
be nice to see what your transmission is doing in realtime, but I
personally find it damn distracting to watch the diffs lock and unlock in
realtime along with the wheel positions on the dash display changing with
the steering wheel - even out of the corner of my eye.
It's a nice enough car to drive on the road, it's supposedly good offroad,
but at 14" longer than any previous disco (body length as well as
wheelbase) it's going to be a bugger to get into most parking bays.
I probably won't be buying one.
P.
--
If Mind over Matter is a Matter of Course
Does it Matter if Nobody Minds?
I was given a TDV6 SE which had (in true dealer fashion) been given all of
the optional extras to bring it up to HSE spec.
The handbrake is a pushbutton - it will only disengage if the footbrake is
on. I'm not best happy about not having a manual brake in the event of
everything going pear shaped.
While they may have increased the legroom available, they've narrowed down
the footwells - I tend to drive bow-legged and this was rather tight and I
kept barking my knees off the sides.
They've still got the inside door handles just where they'll dig into your
thighs - not nice.
The interior mirror doesn't have a wide enough field of view to cover the
entire rear window.
The 6 speed manual gearbox has rather short gear ranges necessitating a lot
of up changing moving off - takes some getting used to.
On the plus side, the road handling is excellent - not as good as my Rover
75, but better than almost any other car I've ever driven. The engine has a
lot of punch - it's got more go than the D2 V8 had and is dead quiet inside
the car.
The turning circle has to be seen to be believed - it will out turn any
other landrover I've ever seen - the only cars I've ever driven that turned
tighter were a Vauxhall Viva and an LTI FX4S.
It still catches the wind like a bugger and gets thrown around, however it's
no worse than any other Disco that way.
I agree with Clarkson about the rear seats - they are a pain to get into and
not easy to put up - I was right at the limits of my reach (I'm 5'9") to
raise the back and it took about a dozen attempts to get the base to latch
into the back.
The load space has a short fuzzy lining which will be destroyed if you load
too many sharp objects onto it, like cardboard boxes for example. This is
in contrast to the heavy duty load lashing eyes recessed into the loadbed.
The dashboard is busy. There is far too much going on with all the
indicators, switches and lights - to coin a phrase "This car is like Darth
Vaders Bathroom".
The car does not have forward parking sensors, but it needs them - the end
of the bonnet is at least a foot ahead of where you can see.
I'm not happy about the electrickery level of this car - it depends far too
much on electronics which *will* go wrong and be difficult to fix. It may
be nice to see what your transmission is doing in realtime, but I
personally find it damn distracting to watch the diffs lock and unlock in
realtime along with the wheel positions on the dash display changing with
the steering wheel - even out of the corner of my eye.
It's a nice enough car to drive on the road, it's supposedly good offroad,
but at 14" longer than any previous disco (body length as well as
wheelbase) it's going to be a bugger to get into most parking bays.
I probably won't be buying one.
P.
--
If Mind over Matter is a Matter of Course
Does it Matter if Nobody Minds?
