The trials and trbulations of trying to order a new car....

This morning my car was in the dealership for it's 2nd Service at LPR .............. so having nothing else to do I hopped onto the Tube out to the far away reaches of the Tube network out at High Barnet to visit my good friends now working at Hadley Green Land Rover, James, Matt, Jeremy and Mike and have a coffee and natter about Land Rover and Jaguary things. They were all busy selling Bentleys, Range Rovers and Land Rovers, organising demo drives of new RRS's and not wanting to get in the way I went wandering round the showroom and the car park outside.... Oh how I love the new RRS, but what disappointment when I finally got Matt to myself to have a chat about buying one. Availablity - nil for months and months into the future unless you want one without a panoramic roof. So try another topic - new RRE, 2014 MY and the changes. Let's spec one up! So Matt prints off the 2014 PDF of about 30 pages length and we sat down to work out the dream (read loads of money!) spec..........
Some impressive stuff in that document so out comes the pen and a sheet of paper and we work out a nice spec
5 Door Dynamic Lux in Havana with the Accolade (Ivory to you and me) interior having decided that the new Tan Plus interior may be a bit OTT on a Havana exterior. Add a few extras like heated rear seats, heated steering wheel, LR In Control pack 1 & 2, Plus Pack, Intelligence Pack, TPMS, Adaptive Xenons and Privacy. Price was good............. then feed it into the LR configurator and it's all accepted - then I and Jeremy mention that we thought Havana has been discontinued for 2014MY, but no, according to all LR literature it's still available but Matt decided to make absolutely sure and lo it HAS been discontinued. By this time the "steering committee" at home has been advised by SMS and given by return the SMS of approval. Back to the drawing board - how about Firenze with White Contrast Roof (I saw this at the Gaydon Event on Cardiff Evoque's car )and with the Ebony Plus Pack interior looking good............... except her indoors didn't approve of Red and White, Red or White but not both!
So then I'm getting desperate - maybe I should reduce to one car, buy a Disco4 and sell the Defender but still have the offroad ability wih fantastic onroad manners and a moving van out the back. HGG has a black with Ivory HSE in the showroom and a Corris Grey HSE with all black interior in their storage depot. Nope I really dont want such a huge car for day to day use even with the offroad credentials of the D4. Then out the back of the showroom I spied a Ipanema Sand 5 Door Dynamic with Santorinni Contrast and Pano roof, ebony interior. A couple of photos sent back to base and a very positive set of replies back to the effect of "wow that is a great colour, yes you can have it!".

So it's bye bye Fuji White BabyRR Coupe bye bye and welcome to the new Baby on the street in mid November when a 2014MY Dynamic Lux in Ipanema with Santorinni contrast + Pano roof 5 door is delivered. Spec is (huge!) :-
2014MY Dynamic Lux 5 door
Ipanema Sand
Santorinni Contrast Roof
Plus Pack in Ebony
9 Speed Auto
Intelligence Pack
Privacy Glass
Adaptive Xenons
Aero Flip
Heated Rear Seats (unfortunately the climate controlled seats aren't available on Plus Pack only on the Premium pack seats)
In control Remote
In Control Secure
Intelligence Pack
TPMS
Cuddly Toy....................

It will look like this car but have Privacy - this is one of HGG's cars

Thanks yet again for your business Tim...... it was good to see you and apologies that I was shackled to Bentley this morning!

Sounds like a great spec, loving the colour combo........... I think contrast wheels would look good too!

James

That was discussed at length with Matt (well about 3 seconds!) and we both agreed that while they look good, it's only until you scuff one and they cannot refurb one they have to do the set - I've just been through it with the Anthracite ZU's on my 90 and it isn't cheap to have a full set done, I ended up getting the damaged one done and then using it as the spare hanging off the rear door rather than pay for 4 wheels to be done unnecessarily

Good to see you at lunchtime - hope the presentation goes well - did the "mystery" shopper work out OK?.

Great to see you as always! Looking forward to seeing the new car in the flesh!

And good to see you again Jeremy, you guys will get to see it before I do......... although I would love to be able to see the car in build at Halewood if you get the VIN early enough so I could arrange it with the centre there. I see at Solihull you can (if you are a sufficiently important customer) take delivery of your new car from the factory, now that I would really love to do!

VIP handover is just L405 Autobiography currently (I will tell you why off-line as it will spoil the experience for anyone collecting a RR from there)

With a bit of careful planning we should be able to arrange seeing your car go down the line. I'll speak to Jeremy and Matt to try to organise. I'd love to meet you up there and have a bite to eat.

James

Thanks James, I know that The Valeter has managed to see both of his Evoques go down the line with a bit of organising with the LRE Centre at Halewood

Tim, did you talk about the active driveline( the disconnect of 4wd on motorways etc when cruising)by any chance? I was under the impression it was standard on the si4 and would be an option on the sd4. I spoke to a dealer yesterday but he was under the impression it's only available on the si4 only. Seems a bit odd as driving down the motorway in 2wd should make a fairly large impact to fuel economy I would of thought, and that's the main critism of the Evoque. Couple that with the 9speeder and I think it could have a big impact.

Sorry, forgot to say congrats on the new car. i Saw an ipanema sand with black contrast roof a few months back. Looked v smart. Nice combo. And you don't see that combo that often as I think the configurator undersells that colour, so fairly exclusive

Congrats Tim! I've unfortunately just left the Evoque club as I'm relocating with work. I'm sure I'll keep an eye on the forum and can't wait to read your views on all the new MY14 toys!

Exciting times Look forward to hearing your comparisons between old and new.

Ali.