I believe that’s the Range Rover Sport, the L320 which has a full length chassis, the L322 Range Rover uses subframes and avoids the need to split the top from the bottom when doing work
Have VAG totally lost the plot?
- Thread starter Pugglt Auld Jock
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Have VAG totally lost the plot?
Occasionally I shop for a replacement for the car...we've had 6 years at this point.
I've had a bigger a car but to be honest I enjoy the smaller one as while the bigger car was a "proper" car it added a layer of pucker factor to tight car parks, streets and small lanes I really don't miss.
One thing that caught my eye was the apparent witch craft going on with boot space in the Current Ibiza, Polo and Clio bigger than cars from the class above. Then obviously you look into it and the car is 10cm longer than our current..and has no spare wheel so the boot floor is lower. Nevermind comparisons to old cars they are nearly they are nearly the Size of a Peugeot 308 from 2 years ago.
There’s a MK2 escort I occasionally see in the main carpark at Skipton, the number of times I’ve swung in to park ‘and it’s there’!
It’s so small compared to everything around it, it looks like the space is free…like topsy, everything has grown out of proportion.
It’s so small compared to everything around it, it looks like the space is free…like topsy, everything has grown out of proportion.
Well exactly, the infrastructure hasn't changed in size, the speed limits haven't doubled etc etc.
One of the usual lines you see trotted out in reviews of various Superminis is "small back doors make fitting a childseat a pain"
Yes, if you're a journo slamming a test seat between cars I can see why that would be an issue.
In real life:
A, you'd have bought an appropriately sized seat for your car.
B, you'll likely fit it once and leave it for months at a time unless you've got a tiny baby and a travel system but that'll be inconvenient for about 6 months.
C, Those smaller "inconvenient" doors can be fully opened in a standard space whereas in a bigger car the additional width of the car you have less space to open the longer door into so you'll end up either hitting the car beside you and/or trying to post your child in through a letterbox.
But does mean the reviews end up favouring cross overs for this sort of thing...
Progress is natural but at this point it seems to getting further and further detached from the reality in which we live.
Yup…I’ve not seen a real world review, they may ‘say’ this or that has a bigger boot than a/b/c but is it a practical boot? Some are so shaped you can only fit an A4 sheet of paper in upright. The main emphasis is top speed and how quickly it gets there, really useful stuff wehn you want to know if your pushchair will fit!
I also note that the chartered architects are calling for a ban on electric cars and huge SUVs in multi-storey car parks as they’re not designed for the weights!
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Bring back old top gear where thye would look at proactical stuff too (pre clarkson trio)
Going back to the range rover discussion in looking into which one to get my understanding is that the L322 still fits in a normal parking space. The newer L405 (2012 on) is too big to park in normal spaces,
I get on fine with a 1year old in my golf, the car seat is in place and doesn’t come in and out, when he was in a carry seat we could still get him in and out in the seat from the back seat. Yes the doors are big but the space between the back of the seat and the door frame is pretty narrow. But it still fit.
I’m sure a reviewer would tell you that the car is completely incapable/impractical in taking a child seat.
the T-Roc cabriolet is essentially the closest thing to my golf, and they’ve done exactly the same thing, deleted the spare wheel well, lowering the boot floor making the boot bigger in a car that’s actually slightly shorter than the golf.
Infotainment as they call it now…in other words, the same conversations we would have in the pub, but they get paid for it
I struggle with the concept of a car that doesn't fit on a B road or in a car park being described as practical surely it's massively impractical on the basis it doesn't work in the environment for which it is primarily designed and requires many allowances and sacrifices as a result. The L322 wasn't a small car either but does at least have the advantage of when you meet a tractor coming the other way the driver won't assume you're a clueless city type and purposely force you into a hedge. Newer ones are less Cotswolds and more stag do in Dubai.
Deeper boots do very little in terms of usable space..but it looks good on a spec sheet.
If you've not seen the William Woolard sign that includes the phrases "that's another one done over as it were" and "basically in Nottingham" it's worth finding it's pretty clear they had many conversations in the pub while filming.
For a sign that we are headed the ‘wrong way’ look at the comparison between the huge US pickup and the panda Sisley…you could put the panda in its glovebox and still have room for…gloves!
Willie Woolard testing a morris marina…it’s the future, if you really wanted a morris minor in disguise
@StevenRB45 most of the range and land rover drivers round here will just sit in the middle of the lane, as they don’t want to scratch their status symbol on a hedge. They would wehn they saw me coming the opposite direction in a Gaz66
Dunno round here a supermini on a bansai charge tends to make them fully anchor up when it's coming the other way at speed.
Obviously I know how wide the car is and where it'll fit...they don't. If the gap isn't big I'll slow and stop... but doesn't happen that often.
I went off to out into the country the other week got stuck behind a sprayer. It was worth it for the popcorn moments of watching all the SUVs coming the other way being forced to drop a tyre into the dirt/hedges to get past.
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the original idea of the Range Rover was something you could use during the day lugging rubbish to the tip moving a sheep or a hay bale from one field to another during the day, then take it to the theatre in the evening.
The L322 was very clearly still designed to be used in this way, but the L405 is very much a high end luxury car with a slight nod to its history.
I am sure it is very capable off road, but that’s clearly not who the target demographic is.
Same with the latest defender, it’s a car that is capable off road but it’s not designed for those old defender buyers who want something utilitarian and basic that will last in the face of serious abuse and rough use.
The ineos grenadier was supposed to plug the hole left by the old defender but ended up being another £60k+status symbol
These days people who want a utilitarian car that you can sling things like sheep and hay bales in the back and drive it across a field, are all buying crew cab pickups like the Ford ranger, they might not last as long but they’re cheap
Few years ago now I took an off road driving course up on the moors near Barnard Castle (yes those moors near Barnard Castle...I could see them clearly). They did off road driving courses and off road trailer training.
Great day to be fair, bloke was cracking, we started off well when as his opening on after completing the safety brief when his opening question was "you know what a diff lock is?" And he got the answer "have you got 1, 2 or 3?" Looked somewhat surprised given I'd turned in my Suzuki in a pair of vans. At that point he decided to explain he'd had to special order his defender with only 1 which was a mechanical centre differential. Customer cars had one mechanical centre and effectively 2 electronic cross locks via the ABS. Because he did a lot of training for oil companies where they might be provided with an 80s Land Cruiser he had to make sure the trainee could drive the car and was not relying on the systems.
Even in 2009 to get rid of hill decent control and ABS needed to go via Land Rover Special vehicles.
Great fun it was, not so much training as pissing about in a Defender learning random factoids. At one point we were doing some axle articulation..he says "stop it here and get out" so we do, or try to, 3 shoulder barges into the driver's door and eventually it opens. Which was the whole point to demonstrate that a Defender surprisingly bendy.
So what is the point of this ramble? Well this bloke has just recently bought a Grenadier I'd imagine for the same reason. It'll be built to his spec and i'd bet cheaper than the new defender when you do that that and a lot less low plastic for him to replace.
Our old Merc dealer is now an ineos dealer…it’s still not built to anymore spec than the old, standard, mediocre, super…yes you can order ‘extras’, but then you can do that ordering a pizza…except it’s a pound for every extra topping on a pizza, not a sliding scale of ‘**** you don’t need’, so it fits in exactly with the ‘we love LR, but we’re rich hipsters, so we’ve bought retro’
I shouldn’t really knock it, as it’s everything I expected it to be, but it really is just that…
If you look at speccing a commercial spec Ineos, you will see front and rear cross locks are an option and a manual centre locker is standard. As well an old school transfer case.
On a new Defender it will have all sorts that it would not be possible to delete in terms of off road aids.
On a new Defender it will have all sorts that it would not be possible to delete in terms of off road aids.
I’ll stick with my iveco daily 4x4…it’s falling apart but I’m not forking out 60k on taking my kids to school
I suppose the point here is..he's not spent 60k to take his kids to school.I’ll stick with my iveco daily 4x4…it’s falling apart but I’m not forking out 60k on taking my kids to school
It's a business vehicle...
To be fair I had a look at the MOT history of the Defender I drove, it appears to have had a short and violent life...given it was first MOT'd after I drove it at 6 months old 2009 in 2011..and was never MOT'd or presented for a test again.
I should say on Andy's point...he also has a Ranger for trailer training.
I suppose it’s 50/50 round here on LR products vs the usual Japanese pickups, and that includes things like the ranger, at the farmers auction market.
The village school has more modern LR/RR offerings but is probably outweighed by Merc, VAG, BMW, Volvo SUV’s
The village school has more modern LR/RR offerings but is probably outweighed by Merc, VAG, BMW, Volvo SUV’s
