L405 test drives

Somebody over on RRSport spent the weekend at Eastnor in the new FFRR loads of videos posted on YouTube
best linked to from here http://www.rrsport.co.uk/forum/topic28768.html

Watch the off-road ones where the cam is on a sucker mount on the wind and when you see the cars in front going over the rough stuff then watch the camera car go through the camera hardly
moves................ that is impressive!

Just been called by Land Rover events..................... off to Gleneagles Hotel during the first week of December for my Range Rover Unleashed event half day driving the new L405!

(16-11-2012 11:22am)XFullFatTim Wrote:  Just been called by Land Rover events..................... off to Gleneagles Hotel during the first week of December for my Range Rover Unleashed event half day driving the new L405!

jammy bugger...how did u manahe that?????

You need to get a decent dealer!

(16-11-2012 05:00pm)XFullFatTim Wrote:  You need to get a decent dealer!

uhm....I know!!!!

Well............................. what a day. Get up to 5cm of snow and wonder if it is sensible to venture forth on a 50 mile trip to Gleneagles, but noticed traffic moving freely on the main road so gingerly ventured out from my drive 30 minutes earlier than necessary. Clear run up to Gleneagles in the Evoque and find a carpark completely full of Land Rover products and an awful lot (40?) new L405's in a selection of Grey's, Luxor (metallic Beige!), White and Santorini Black. There was also a Baltic Blue with Silver contrast roof which looked really good. Of course Gleneagles being the place it is there were crowds of ground staff out ploughing and brushing up snow so we punters didn't get damp through the soles of our expensive shoes! Inside reception I was asked which cars I would like to drive - settled for the least expensive and the most expensive! TDv6 Vogue with pano roof followed by a 5.0Ltr Autobiography Executive with what appeared to be every extra on the list. After a briefing where we were advised that due to poor driving conditions on the roads round the Gleneagles area that the test route had been changed and we would all drive up to Dunkeld along the A9 instead and then decamp into another fleet of 30 or so cars at the LRE centre. This was probably better than driving the back roads round Gleneagles as I'm sure most owners will use their cars on motorways and dual carriageways in the cut and thrust of everyday motoring. Loads of snow but the A9 was clear.

So Tdv6 Vogue................ fantbloodytastic - more than enough get up and go and it your car is used for commuting it's all you will need. Not silent but the engine note is muted and next to no wind noise thorugh the double glazed glass. The seats are way more comfortable that I had in my last FFRR, certainly up there with the Plus pack chairs of the Evoque. Great to have proper arm rests again but one noticeable omission - no analogue clock and the digital ones are hidden away and not obvious. Audio is what I am used to (825w Meridian) although with the bigger cabin the surround sound effect is much better. Fuel economy over the 40 odd miles to Dunkeld at some very high speeds was a great 31mpg and as soon as I eased off the loud pedal you could see it notching up to higher figures. Ingear acceleration is almost indecent for a turbodiesel! Whether it was the cold weather or high ancillary load I could not get the stop start to work when we were lined up waiting to pull away.

TDV6 Vogue Offroad - you can let the car work it out or press the TR yourself. All the cars were on 19" wheels with summer rubber and not even the compacted snow over ice could phase the TR, there was no stopping the cars. Incredibly slippery slopes (and Dunkeld LRE has a lot of them) and deep pools covered with an1" of ice where conquered with distain, it was like there was nothing out there that would hold the car back! One driver did manage to stop on an incline and end up with all four wheels spinning but a short reverse of 6ft and and he gave it some welly and was gone. Slippery cross slopes went passed almost un-noticed.

Supercharged Executive - I was chauffuered back to Gleneagles in this. The seats are amazing and the headrestraints are more like pillows as your head sinks back into the deep soft padded cushioning. Seats that can heat, cool, recline, massage in any combination are a must for the plutocrats who will travel in the back, BUT ticking this option means you cannot fold the rear seats forward to extend to boot. The S/C was silent until my driver pushed his right foot into the shag pile and then there was a distant whoosh as we accelerated away from the junction. The gearbox appeared to just go straight from 2nd to 8th and it stayed there, acceleration is mind boggling for a Range Rover and it doesn't fall over in the bends and do we have potholes and speed humps on our roads - not if you are travelling in an L405 the suspension tuning is really good. The guy driving us did comment that after the TDv6 he could tell the S/C was shod with 22" wheels with a huge foot print, the feeling of the steering was totally different.

I think I have found the car to replace my Evie and it's the base L405 TDv6 Vogue, the next RRS is really going to have to be special to persuade me to spend my hard earned on it now I'm afraid. I don't need the 20mm extra length of the new FFRR over the old one (it looks way bigger but it's a trick of the eye) but as a way to travel there really is nothing to beat any L405, basic spec or top spec they really do rank up their with the very best cars in the world.

Photos to come

Good to see you had a good day. The TDV6 is the engine all the journalists are talking about. If I was in a position to buy one it's the engine I would have.

"You're spending that much and you only want the weedy engine?" is a quote from someone on here

+1 there with J77, I read the same they loved the TDV6.

Double glazed glass, seriously.

"Clear run up to Gleneagles in the Evoque and find a carpark completely full of Land Rover products and an awful lot (40?)" Did you see something you weren't allowed to comment on yet Tim?

Looks like you had a good day.

Pictures

There were a lot of these




I think a lot of us are familiar with this screen.......


The TFT dash


The bigger satnav screen with a button marked Stealth on the extra functions menu


Arriving at Dunkeld LRE


Evoques are only slightly less thirsty and this is after a 90mph blast


Luxor Metallic Beige in the snow


Video at the offroad centre






A proper Range Rover with no blingy bits


But look at the miles - one very careful driver! 2800 only if you cannot see in the photo


Even the display car had been offroaded the day before......

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Improvements over the Evqoues common systems - all the interior lights appear to be LEDs, the front ones where we have three huge pads are tiny slits that give out way more light because they are LEDs BUT I drove all the way from Gleneagles to Dunkeld without noticing the front courtesy lights were still on all the way there!

The satnav/ main screen appears to be much higher definition than ours and the shortcut "buttons" on the sides are touch sensitive not press/press.

Still no daylight running tail lights

The electrically deployable towhook retracts very neatly sideways into a plastic moulding

The motorised tailgate is very neat and can be closed from the remote as well as the dash or pressing the button

I'm waiting for a reply from the technical guys regarding whether or not there is an always live socket somewhere.

The guys driving the 4.4TDv8 reckoned it didn't seem to be as powerful as their current model cars, yet on paper it is more powerful.

The Blindspot monitoring is just as sensitive to overhanging shrubbery as the Evoques.

The Panoramic roof has an opening front section, but I didn't realise I hadn't fully closed it and the wind noise was incredible with it just ajar.



Softclose front and rear doors are a nice touch - you cose them most of the way and then they gently pull themselves onto the seals.............. how lazy can you get!

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(03-12-2012 09:42pm)Evo-king Wrote:  Double glazed glass, seriously.

Yes RRS and FFRR have had this since 2010, it reduces the influence of wind noise, it isn't actually double glazing as in domestic style - it is more like two panes with a laminating sheet between them, but it works as I had it on my last FFRR and saves on a lot of aerodynamic modelling on the A post and around the mirrors so you don't hear the wind noise.

I don't think there were any toys on it that I would really need to see on a future RRE, the above side glasses possibly but one thing I didn't notice was if there was a Dynamic setting on the TR........... all the L405's have what was called Dynamic response on the RRS and 4.4TDv8 FFRR's - it's the next generation and is the more sophisticated version of the the AD in the Evoque but designed for air suspension.

The wing mirrors are only about 3/4 the size of the Evoques, but then the view out is also a lot better with all that glasshouse

How well did the Terrain Response 2?