New Disco III

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A

Andy Sargeant

Guest
Went to one of the many launch's of the Disco III Thursday night down at
Gatwick Landover in Crawley, West Sussex, not a very good turnout I thought,
sales persons were a little embarrassed about the fact that both passengers
front door handles were falling off on both models they had in the showroom
also a lot of negative comments about the split rear tailgate.

As for carrying seven six foot two inch adults in comfort I would dispute
that claim, mind you I was very impressed with the V6 diesel engine, goes
very,very well and is very quiet, what about all those electrics, I think it
will pay to sit back and wait till the gremlins are ironed out, what do you
think ????

What a fantastic engine and gearbox to put in a Defender, at least you can
hear yourself think unlike the TD5.

Andy.


 
> ... also a lot of negative comments about the split rear tailgate.
>

That's one of the features that might well sell it to me - eventually.
The numerous advantages of the split tailgate on the RR and, for me, no
disadvantages has so far kept me away from the Discovery.


 
On Sat, 30 Oct 2004 14:22:51 +0100, Dougal
<DougalAThiskennel.free-online.co.uk> wrote:

>> ... also a lot of negative comments about the split rear tailgate.
>>

>That's one of the features that might well sell it to me - eventually.
>The numerous advantages of the split tailgate on the RR and, for me, no
>disadvantages has so far kept me away from the Discovery.
>

`
You obviously don't have to load stuff in and out of the back of your
car. Imagine having to lift every load over and past the tailgate into
the load bay !

Peter R.
 
We have had Range Rovers in the past and now have a Discovery. I actually
prefer the split tailgate to a door even tho we use the rear seats in the
Disco. Just a pity I cant afford a new Range Rover


"Peter R." <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On Sat, 30 Oct 2004 14:22:51 +0100, Dougal
> <DougalAThiskennel.free-online.co.uk> wrote:
>
>>> ... also a lot of negative comments about the split rear tailgate.
>>>

>>That's one of the features that might well sell it to me - eventually.
>>The numerous advantages of the split tailgate on the RR and, for me, no
>>disadvantages has so far kept me away from the Discovery.
>>

> `
> You obviously don't have to load stuff in and out of the back of your
> car. Imagine having to lift every load over and past the tailgate into
> the load bay !
>
> Peter R.



 

"Peter R." <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> You obviously don't have to load stuff in and out of the back of your
> car. Imagine having to lift every load over and past the tailgate into
> the load bay !
>
> Peter R.


But the tail gate in the Rangie is the same height as the floor... and if
thats still a problem then it's very quickly resolved with a sliding false
floor having tracks on the floor and also on the tailgate assuming you'd use
it that much.

I've both the Rangie and Disco (amoungst others) and both have there
advantages however for a keen DIY'er its the Rangie that gets most use from
it's rear end.

Lee D

--

www.lrproject.com

Workshop photos from Landrover repairs
& other such tinkerings.
Home of Percy the Jag powered Landrover


 
As someone who actually uses his 4x4 off road I'm not looking forward to
crawling about in a muddy and rocky field to get at the spare every time I
get a puncture or a damaged wheel. I mentioned this to the LandRover rep at
the Birmingham motor show - his reply - call LandRover Assistance to do it
for you !!! Obviously he'd been drafted in from a different planet just for
the show.

The new Disco is apparently going to be built in a brand new factory with a
brand new production line - and probably a lot of brand new manufacturing
problems .. The last brand new Disco I bought (T reg) spent 32 days of it's
first six months back with the dealer being fixed so I'm going to wait and
see.

I'm also a bit unsure about this twiddle the knob and let the vehicle choose
the height and traction settings. I would much rather choose my own height
and traction setting independantly of each other.

It also appears that you can't get a petrol version with a manual gearbox .
The diesel might be bigger than that in the Td5 but the vehicle is
heavier,so I assume it's going to be sluggish - although I haven't had my
test drive yet so I may be wrong on that. . I think it's been designed
primarily for the US market and the UK buyers have to like it or lump it.

--
www.micromountain.com

"Andy Sargeant" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Went to one of the many launch's of the Disco III Thursday night down at
> Gatwick Landover in Crawley, West Sussex, not a very good turnout I
> thought,
> sales persons were a little embarrassed about the fact that both
> passengers
> front door handles were falling off on both models they had in the
> showroom
> also a lot of negative comments about the split rear tailgate.
>
> As for carrying seven six foot two inch adults in comfort I would dispute
> that claim, mind you I was very impressed with the V6 diesel engine, goes
> very,very well and is very quiet, what about all those electrics, I think
> it
> will pay to sit back and wait till the gremlins are ironed out, what do
> you
> think ????
>
> What a fantastic engine and gearbox to put in a Defender, at least you can
> hear yourself think unlike the TD5.
>
> Andy.
>
>



 
On Tue, 2 Nov 2004 00:29:19 +0000 (UTC), "Ian"
<[email protected]> wrote:

>As someone who actually uses his 4x4 off road I'm not looking forward to
>crawling about in a muddy and rocky field to get at the spare every time I
>get a puncture or a damaged wheel. I mentioned this to the LandRover rep at
>the Birmingham motor show - his reply - call LandRover Assistance to do it
>for you !!! Obviously he'd been drafted in from a different planet just for
>the show.
>


Of course you could just put a spare in the boot when you go
off-roading. How frequently have you changed the wheel on your
current Disco? I've done one tyre in 5 years, and that was on the
Volvo.


>The new Disco is apparently going to be built in a brand new factory with a
>brand new production line - and probably a lot of brand new manufacturing
>problems .. The last brand new Disco I bought (T reg) spent 32 days of it's
>first six months back with the dealer being fixed so I'm going to wait and
>see.
>


Yes, brand new line in a brand new building. State of the art
technology, but all rather too 'new' for me to want to buy one. But
that isn't a Land Rover thing - I wouldn't buy the first year of any
vehicle.

>I'm also a bit unsure about this twiddle the knob and let the vehicle choose
>the height and traction settings. I would much rather choose my own height
>and traction setting independantly of each other.
>


Is there no manual override? That seems like a bad plan, like cameras
that only have a 'Full Program' mode.

>It also appears that you can't get a petrol version with a manual gearbox .
>The diesel might be bigger than that in the Td5 but the vehicle is
>heavier,so I assume it's going to be sluggish - although I haven't had my
>test drive yet so I may be wrong on that. . I think it's been designed
>primarily for the US market and the UK buyers have to like it or lump it.


There's no reason to expect it to be sluggish. The engine has had
good reviews in the Jaguar S-Type and and it offers about 30% more
power than the old engine. I don't think the new car is 30%
heavier...


--

Tim Hobbs

'58 Series 2 88" aka "Stig"
'77 101FC Ambulance aka "Burrt"
'03 Volvo V70

My Landies? http://www.seriesii.co.uk
Barcoding? http://www.bartec-systems.com
Tony Luckwill web archive at http://www.luckwill.com
 
I tried one yesterday, a diesel automatic.. I had previously only seen
pictures of the Discovery 3 (as the brochure calls it) and thought it
looked bulky and a bit ugly. Well, I found it blends in so well that
when I got to the dealers I didn't immediately notice it standing in a
group of Series IIs. On examination it does look very different to the
Series II but it is still clearly a Discovery and nothing like as
bulky-looking as the latest Range Rover. As for being a bit ugly, I
don't think so, in fact I like its looks.

My Discovery II Td5 is great to drive but this one struck me as being
superb. I covered about 20 miles, through town, along country roads and
a fast dual carriageway and immediately felt completely at ease and
experienced none of the trepidation I sometimes feel when driving a
strange vehicle for the first time. Great ride and handling, a sweet,
quiet, responsive engine and a very smooth 6-speed automatic box. . As
to the question of to what extent the greater output of the new engine
is counteracted by the vehicle's increased weight, it certainly felt
lively although I didn't notice the dramatic improvement suggested by
the brochure figures of 0-60mph in 11 seconds, compared with the Td5
brochure's 15.8 seconds.

My wife and I frequently stack our Td5's loadspace with heavy items, so
the matter of loading over a split tailgate concerns us. We used to
manage well enough with a Range Rover Classic but that was years ago.
The salesman's response was that the lower flap is cut away on one side
to make loading easier, but it would seem to make more sense for the
flap to be short all the way across, with a straight-line joint between
the lower and upper sections. I tend to think it is just a designer's
attempt to show a family resemblance with the odd-shaped tailgate window
of the previous models.. A sliding loadspace floor is offered as an
accessory but I assume this would prevent the third-row seats from being
used and, with an increasing number of grandchildren, we do need these
seats to be readily available.

The salesman demonstrated how all the second and third-row seats can be
individually folded flat into the floor. Very neat (although the
mechanism seemed to be a bit stiff) and a vast space can be created but,
thinking about it since, I wonder whether comfort, particularly in he
second-row where it matters most, has been compromised by making the
seat bases and backs thin enough to fold away flat.

A thought has also occurred to me about the spare wheel - is it properly
secured against theft or will it suffer the fate of underfloor mounted
spares on many of today's cars?

Two big questions remain for me. First, have Ford done what BMW failed
to do completely, and managed to enforce rigid quality control at LR?
And secondly, where can I get the money from? The SE model I drove is
priced at UK pounds 36,995 plus 1,495 for the auto box and 495 for
metallic paint. Takes a bit of thinking about, particularly as it seems
that discounts will be hard to get, for a while at least.
--
Peter

 
>And secondly, where can I get the money from? The SE model I drove
>is priced at UK pounds 36,995 plus 1,495 for the auto box and 495 for
>metallic paint. Takes a bit of thinking about, particularly as it
>seems that discounts will be hard to get, for a while at least.



I agree.

Drove the V6 HSE and a Manual SE V6. Both were stunning cars.

If I had the cash I would have bought one on the spot.
--
Marc Draper

Forsale

Landrover Defender 90 300tdi county hardtop 1996 72K
Landrover Discovery comercial 300tdi S reg 70k
Landrover Discovery Comercial 300tdi R reg 62k
Toyota Hilux surf 2.4 AW/AC/EW/SR

Super winch X9 + genuine Landrover fitting kits for 200 Disco.
 
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