LR3 in the Desert

[RickyRover]

Sigh........... Yes and like you said there in Panama........ Here in the United States the Land Rover name is somewhat synonymous with the upper echelon and high class. Most people who you would mention Land Rover to here in the States do not recognize its off-road heritage. Working at a dealership you don't see too many enthusiast buying any new Rovers, mostly parts and old rover Trade Ins that they want to turn into a project vehicle. I just hope that new defender they are planning to release in 2008 does justice to the Land Rover name.

[Cephas]

How many of you even own LR3's let alone take them off-road, and I mean really off-road, rocks, mud, ruts, the kind of where if you take it wrong you don't get stuck, you roll.

I have.

MY 2005 Buckingham Blue w/Alpaca leather LR3 HSE has almost half of it's 2000 miles off road, I got it in August. I have also roaded in Disco I & II's, Jeeps, Toyotas, Fords, Gm's, etc. I learned how to drive while roading with my Dad back when there were still places to get dirty within the San diego Ca. city limits.

I have never seen, been in, or owned a vehicle like the LR3. It takes horribly rutted washboarded narrow winding trails and makes them smooth. It climbs over, up, through, and down anything on the highway tires! I took it though the middle of a mud bog, buried it up to top of the tires and the sucker just pulled right through like nothing! True the spare is in the wrong place, which is why I move it when I'm leaving the pavment. The air suspension dropping at speed is fine with me, cause if I need the ground clearance I can't really go much faster than 10-20 mph.

The electronics are all made by Bosch not Land Rover. Land Rover simply supplies Bosch with the specs and software coding. This is a big part of what Ford has done to make Land Rover competitive. As far as the air supension, this is another thing that Ford has done to LR's benifit. Think about it everybody from Mercedes to toyota is using air suspension now, but only Ford has been doing it for the last 50 or more years. I'm not saying it's perfect but it does have distinct advantages over coil springs. If you read the manual you would learn that the emergency brake does have a manual override in case of failure of the either the E. brake system, or failure of the regular braking system (in case you have to use the E. brake to stop or slow down from speed). Also drive-by-wire allows for the throttle opening to change from aggressive to subtle instatly based on the terrain settings giving you the best possible power deliver for any given situation, you can not have that with a wired throttle. As for the drive system failing, please, the 97 VW Passat had the same system, this is not new technology people.

Think about it, the car goes from comfortable, manuverable (compared to any other SUV of its size) people carrier, to mountain goat with the flick of a switch. How can you complain about that?

Anybody who doubts the LR3's abilty and lives in Southern Ca. let me know when you want me to prove you wrong, all it will take is a one day trip out to Anza/Borrego. Give me 8 hours and I'll show you why 3 is better than 2.

BTW I have some photos of the 3 off road under the pics heading at my website
www.oldscratchyrecords.com. They aren't the best pictures, when I do the hairy stuff my nephew stays inside (where its fun!) so there is nobody to take the photo, but they give an idea.

Oh, and as far as Ford going after Land Rover because they make so much cash, LR has not turned a profit in a VERY long time which is why LR sold to BMW years ago, and then BMW sold to Ford. Ford bought Land Rover because they think they can make it profitable not because it is. Yes they did have to get a 3rd row seating SUV to do this, but they did not trarnish the off-roadability of the SUV in any meaningful way by doing this. Really they made it better.

[jlz999]

Hi all, it's my first time posting, so if I inadvertantly step on anyone's toes, I apologies in advance.

I have been reading your comments over the past month as I tried to make an informed decision on the purchase of my next car. Well I finally decided to buy an LR3 SE, Turbo Diesel, Buckingham Blue, 7 seater, and will take delivery in a couple of weeks. Since I live in Australia, our specs for an SE seem to be quite different from the states.

It took me 10 months to choose this SUV (I was going to call it a car, but somehow that doesn't seem right), I tried the ML, X5, X3, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Touareg, XC90, everything Nissan, Honda, Toyota and Subaru had to throw in, plus just to check out of the box, and to make sure I wasn't being a brand whore, I even checked the range of Korean made SUVs.

Some came close to the LR3 in on-road handling, the x5 was even better (but I don't like a ride that's so hard your posterior hurts after 5 minutes), some had a heap more gimmicks and toys (my SE has functional toys - air suspension and zenon lights - but no dvd, sat nav, etc) but none seem to come close as far as off road ability.

I choose the LR3, not so I could be a super hero in the bush (off road), I doubt I have the guts or ability to even get close to using 80% of it's ability, but more that when I go and see the Australian outback next year, I will an suv whose capabilities outstrip mine, so as to keep my family safe. But you know what, I'm still really looking forward to getting the car dirty and seeing that 80%.

I've always been a bit of a speed freak, always having owned sports cars of some kind, but with draconian mother state speed policing that we now suffer under, it seems pointless to have a fast car. The only thrills now available legally are to challenge yourself off road, which is much more sedate, but a whole lot more exciting than following a white line at 60mph for 10 hours.

Thank you Cephas for your photos and what you had to say. It inspires me to know it can be done, and that there are others willing to drive this car off road.

Ref PanamaDisco: we can also pretty much customize the car we want, you just pay full retail and have to wait a few months. But it's possible here as well - Diesel, manual, spring suspension, wind up windows and no electronics etc.

Ref 7 seats, It was quite a deciding factor for my wife and I. We wanted a real 4 x 4, but needed space for our dogs, kid on the way, and my elderly parents who don't drive at night (night vision is bad) so we always have to drive them when we go out for dinner. Plus the rest of the extended family.

Ref under wheel spare/small gas tank: the sales at my local dealer told me ARB should have a rear swing frame spare wheel holder available soon for the LR3, and I contacted on of the aftermarket gas tank fabricators, and I am just waiting for his quote to fabricate a second fuel tank where the spare wheel goes. This should boost fuel capacity from 80 litres to about 160 litres I thinks that's 40 gallons. That should get me about 1000miles per tank for cruising in the outback. (I'll need that kind of range).

Ref baby seat: stupid question. Does anyone know if the LR3 seats are ISOFIX compatible? As I said above kid on the way!

Anyways, thanks for your postings below, and any comments about the above, or problems experienced with their LR3, I would appreciate it

[Rovin4life]

Do you mean the ability to have a babyseat in the back yes,

Its safety standard on all vehicles in the US.

But you cant turn off the front airbag so you will have to put them in the back.

oh by the way what state are you from anyway.

I am moving in SA, at the end of Summer in February.


Actually Adelaide. Got some friends down there.

[jlz999]

Thanks Beezel. Sorry I haven't responded sooner, I've been on the road for work this past couple of weeks.

I knew about the front passenger airbag. When I was shopping around one of the LR3's I was shown by a local dealer was what they call an ADR vehicle, which means it was one of the original 10 or so imported to Australia for the authorities to check if it met all Australian standards. (I didn't buy it).

It was interesting though as it was a UK spec SE, with a heck of a lot more toys than what ours get, including heated cloth seats, front windscreen, and also everything else in the options box. I did some research and it showed the cars were all registered at the same time, so had the same prefix letters and consecutive numbers 01 through to 09. The one I was shown was 06. Funny enough all other numbers showed up in newspaper and magazine articles except 06. So I think this was the one that was wrung through to within an inch of it's life, to satisfy the authorities that it could do what LR says it could do.

One of the features it had was an ability to switch off the front passenger airbag. The switch was still there, with just a sticker to notify that it was illegal to switch it off in Australia, and the sales guy spent much time insisting that if I bought the car I would have to abide by the law??!

The big let down was that it was already a year old, had done 20000k and had many things that were irreplaceable and uninsurable in Australia (like the heated front glass and preheat engine starter for cold climates). Also LR wouldn't extend the warranty (they must know something ). In the end I went for a demo with 100k on the clock, half the options and a full warranty.

I used to own a VW, and those cars had a system called isofix, which enabled certain baby seats to just slot in and be captured by the seat back, without all the usual rigging. I was just wondering if the LR3 had the same. But since I will be picking my new LR3 on Wednesday morning , I'll just have to check it myself, I'll plenty of time for that over the next few years.

I'm based in Sydney, NSW.

Adelaide's a lovely place and if you like wine, the choices are fantastic. Though February could be quite hot!

What brings you over to our corner of the world?

All the best! Julian

[Rovin4life]

the first two thousand lr3s made were given as demos. They were not to put into the publics hands until they were thoroughly tested first. They wanted to keep the first years reliability numbers up.

Needless to say we only had two major problems in the beginning. Both were factory mistakes that werent that were caught at the time of PDI.

We had double check all the LR3s for proper coolant protection otherwise they would freeze.

[TN-LR3]

I love my LR3 i haven taken it off-road and i do like it but that damn air suspesnion speed limiter got me stuck in some mud pits around some j**ps.I had one of the first LR3's in nashville and i do get no love from other LR3 owners. When i see a modifed rover we usually wave or something but these damn soccer moms are giving the LR3 a bad name. But my LR3 doesn't look anything like anyone else's LR3 in Nashville. Plus i mean Ford should have never put that damn spare tire under the truck, now i have to pay 1100 so i can get a swing out tire carrier. Everywhere I drive i get looks from soccer moms and i sually try to find out who's driving the LR3 with the same rack as me but it's usually a mom, drinking her starbucks, yelling at the kids, on the phone, and trying to look hot. my 0.02

as you can see it ain't no mom car

[Rovin4life]

what was your retail price for the winch you bought from the dealer.

[ish]

Originally Posted by rov'n

not to bash but i have driven all the new rovers and well they are becoming more soccer mom oriented rather than off road worthy...maybe they will surprize us and come up with a completely insane new off road rig

LOL........dude 10 to 1 your beloved Disco was driven by a soccer mom the first couple of years of its life. and I don't recall D1 Discos being loved when they were new trucks. I am sure we will all find smart ways to mod the hell out of the LR3's when they are a few years old and the soccer moms in town are done with them.
This pic was posted on another thread here and I just love the way the lr3 looks here!

[ish]

Originally Posted by Searcaigh

The review and pics here

http://www.angelfire.com/trek/discov...lr3/page1.html

Thanks for the link......... as usual I enjoyed your article.....the british female voice is my favorite.....I named mine "Victoria" she's hot...and she wants me...I can tell....lol

[Rovin4life]

the new RR uses a male british voice. It is a really dry british accent.

[TN-LR3]

i think I paid around 2800 for the mount,winch, and instalation. I personally don't remember but they sell the kit at EE

[ish]

Originally Posted by beezel

the new RR uses a male british voice. It is a really dry british accent.

And you can't change it?????? I thought the 06 used the same touch screen unit as my 05?....no?
That blows....who wants some d-bag giving you driving instructions????....lol

[Rovin4life]

twenty eight isnt bad.

And the voice is for the personal telephone integrated system. basically it allows you to make calls and use the radio as well.

For example you might say Phone Home, and it may say please specify.

Its weird. If you say something wrong. It will say I am sorry I didnt catch the last phrase. Or please repeat.

The male voice is the only voice for that feature.