Electric Folding Door Mirrors

You can just image the next RR press release:

"As from Q3 2011 all Evoque's will now be available with periscope premium panoramic roof. Due to problems with components all panoromic roofs will now not be supplied with glass, but 3 ply wood painted black. There will be a small periscope mounted above the rear view mirror to view cars/objects approaching from the sides. The introduction of this option means we are now not able to offer the surround camera view system thus compromising customer choice even more"

Landrover, the best 4 x 4 x far (in the way the least amount of kit on it!)

My 2p...... If you spec electric mirrors in the pack with memory seats you also get "reverse dipping". If you set this up properly then it is a great defence against scuffed alloys as you can set the nearside mirror to show you the kerb and how close your nearside is to it. Of course if you opt for Park Assist and surround cam then reverse dip isn't that great as with Park Assist you should never get that close to the kerb. LR20" wheels are very prone to scuffing, be warned!

Great advice Tim.

(07-05-2011 02:26pm)FullFatTim Wrote:  LR20" wheels are very prone to scuffing, be warned!

Why are they?

I don't think Tim meant that this was only particular to LR 20" wheels. Most alloys around this size will have low profile tyres fitted so won't have any side wall height to protect the rim from the curbs. My current car has 19" wheels and 35 series rubber and that is an absolute nightmare! Any curb higher than an inch is enough to do serious damage, as valet parking at Manchester Airport will testify (crunched both front wheels within 2 miles)

The 20" wheels on my last RRS had very low profile tyres, all four of the wheels got scuffed so in the winter when I ran it on 19" wheels with ice and snow tyres the 20"s got refurbed. I run the FFRR I have now on OEM 19" wheels with a higher profile tyre - not only have I never scuffed an alloy on the car, the ride is even plusher as more bumps and surface imperfections are absorbed by that extra sidewall. The only mod I have planned is to find a set of 19" wheels at my local dealer that have been cast off by somebody upgrading to 20" wheels and fitting winter tyres to them - even with 4WD they made a big difference in the last two winters to traction rather than running on summer tyres

Whilst I agree low profile tyres don't help, running x5's with 35 profile 20" wheels didn't result in one kerb mark. You just need to take that little bit more care.

Ref winter tyres: I am hoping my set of 17" alloys from my current Freelander will fit (safe bet as the running gear is identical). I echo FullFatTims's comment that regardless of 4wd, winter tyres are a definate. Afterall, the "AT" tyres fitted to the whole LR range are road tryes with just a little but of off road grip. In Germany if they don't have the snow flake symbol then even if M+S is written on the tyre it dosen't count as a winter tyre for insurance purposes. My little 2wd ford focus on winter tyres would be about 50 % grippier than any LR 4wd product in the snow with its winter tyres. Besides which I wouldn't want to trash my expensive 20" alloys on my new RR Evoque with salt and grit.