What Freelander?

Research the road tax bandings/cost of a TD4 manual against auto - I didn't and had an expensive surprise 6 months after buying an auto!
I've now got a TD4 manual, done most of the mods, Synergy2, EGR bypass etc, an enjoyable drive with 40 ish MPG on average, the auto was nice but the road tax bill and only 30 MPG "peed" me off too much!

What exactly is the difference in the Annual Vehicle Tax then?

It's not Road Tax by the way- as that was abolished in 1937 - so that the government of the day could spend the money on other things apart from the roads.

Successive governments have carried it on as they like the idea of vehicle owners paying for anything the government fancy.

It's actually called VED - Vehicle Excise Duty - and I hate it!

Singvogel.

Td4 auto band L (it was an 06) - £460 per year, Td4 manual band K (a 54 plate) - £270 per year. £190 difference and bugged the bajeezus out of me!
Its not a huge ammount but in my case the car sits idle in the drive for around 6 months a year and it seemed alot to spend on VED (I'm in my 50's and still think of it as road tax!!)

freely3 said:

Td4 auto band L (it was an 06) - £460 per year, Td4 manual band K (a 54 plate) - £270 per year. £190 difference and bugged the bajeezus out of me!
Its not a huge ammount but in my case the car sits idle in the drive for around 6 months a year and it seemed alot to spend on VED (I'm in my 50's and still think of it as road tax!!)

Click to expand...

What a shower of thieving bar-stewards - I didn't realize it was that much of a difference.

I new they had all gone up a good bit - but £190 difference is just bollocks. How do they justify that.

I do 15 to 20K a year - most of it outside the UK - and I am very ****ed off with that price hike.

I'm not going to change my TD4 Auto though - it's a fantastic machine.

As for road tax - you can call it whatever you want - just don't disillusion yourself that the money raised is designated for road improvements.

More government bollocks. Viva La Revolución.

Viva La Revolution indeed!

I enjoyed the auto but equally enjoying the manual, to be honest I'm happier with the manual, as mentioned before its only used for about 6 months of the year and somewhere around 4k miles in that time doesn't seem worth the higher VED (I'm learning!!!)

Hi, I have an FL1 04 plate TD4 Sport Premium and love it. I like all the spec it has and the fact that it is (in my opinion) the best Landie to have for dogs (back not too high for them to jump into and rear window goes down to keep them cool). I was told not to bother with the FL1 standard Sat Nav as it apparently isn't any good but I have never tested it personally to say whether this is true or not.

When it is serviced by the local Land Rover Garage I get a FL2 GS as a courtesy car and have to say that in my opinion it beats my FL1 when it comes to the actual drive but doesn't have all the gizmos. When I pick up the FL1 again after a day or 2 in the FL2 I still love my FL1 in terms of it's looks and character although it feels more like driving a bus compared to the car-like drive of the FL2.

Not sure whether any of this helps

I bought an 06 FL1 TD4 HSE at the end of June. Used the sat nav once - it's OK but way out of date - and then changed it for an Alpine Double DIN head unit with bluetooth for hands free, music and TomTom all from my phone. The car itself is great and, as has been already mentioned, great for dogs.

I've done over 5000 miles in it already.

sijwhite said:

I bought an 06 FL1 TD4 HSE at the end of June. Used the sat nav once - it's OK but way out of date - and then changed it for an Alpine Double DIN head unit with bluetooth for hands free, music and TomTom all from my phone. The car itself is great and, as has been already mentioned, great for dogs.

I've done over 5000 miles in it already.

Click to expand...

Hi sijwhite,

Your double DIN head unit sounds a good idea - but do the steering-column controls for volume and radio station selection still operate?

Can you still use the CD changer under the drivers seat?

Singvogel.

Singvogel said:

Hi sijwhite,

Your double DIN head unit sounds a good idea - but do the steering-column controls for volume and radio station selection still operate?

Can you still use the CD changer under the drivers seat?

Singvogel.

Click to expand...

Hi Singvogel, no on both counts. The CD changer isn't really a problem as I have plenty of music to choose from on my phone. There's possibly a way to get the remote controls working but I expect it'll require a little bit of finessing to do so. That said the Alpine unit I chose (CDE-W235BT) is simple to operate with a clear layout in respect of those controls.

Simon

Singvogel said:

Hi sijwhite,

Your double DIN head unit sounds a good idea - but do the steering-column controls for volume and radio station selection still operate?

Can you still use the CD changer under the drivers seat?

Singvogel.

Click to expand...

I don't know about the radio selection, but the volume controls can be made to work.....it's all in the following long thread.
http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/f9/fi...d-into-dash-133257.html?highlight=Double+dinn