USED Land Rover Range Rover 4x4 (02 - )

My car

I bought the TD6 Vogue and do I feel like the king of the road its by far the real deal.

Forget the X5, Cayenne, XC90, Toureg and the rest of them.

If you have a choice get the Rolls-Royce of 4x4s.

Good luck

My car

Took me a while to come around to the look and feel of the new RR, previously owned 3 in a row of the earlier incarnation. However, now that I have finally come around andgot one of the new generation RR, it is just superb, both on an off road.

It is quite substantially bigger than the last model, both in feel and in reality and can take a little bit of getting used to, but the Park Distance Control is a real boon.

There are a couple of minor features from the previous model that did not carry over to the latest incarnation, like locking ride height at motorway settings, or not being able to change between radio, CD and tape without taking your hands off the wheel. These are very minor points but it is always a bugbear to lose something which I considered useful.

The dealer (Rossleigh in Cupar, Fife) is excellent, providing real country service, with friendly staff and superb facilities. Never a problem to obtain a test drive, courtesy vehicle or advice - highly regarded.

On the downside, the car has so many toys that there are inevitably a few niggles - nothing actually goes wrong, but there are warning lights and beeps which makes you think it has.

All in all, the Vogue is a worthy successor but the BMW influence is very obvious - I hope Ford do not feel the need to meddle too much in the company, or with the designs, and certainly not with directions to the Ford Parts Bins.

My car

I am always amazed at how magazines scoff at the price of the Range Rover. It is the Rolls Royce of the 4x4 market, yet price never seems to be an issue when reviewing top-end luxury cars.

The 2003 Range Rover model I currently drive is my seventh to date (since 1989). For the past eight years I have lived in the United States and despite the huge (and I mean huge) selection of SUVs (I hate that term) that are available here, the Range Rover is head and shoulders over the domestic competion.

The void is immense. It seems that the American auto makers were actually caught cold with the popularity of the SUV and in an attempt to cash in instantly, redesigned their exisiting truck and pickup lines to accomodate back seat passangers.

The Ford Explorer and Dodge Durango are clasic examples of this. Early models of both had the same old leaf-spring technolgy as the pickups, which meant lots of roll-overs.

So Range Rover may be twice the price, but you get four times the value. I know of course that Ford owns Land Rover. This is simply because building a vehicle to truly compete with the Range Rover would never sell with a Ford Badge on it.

Solution - can't beat em, buy em. It's the American way.

My car

This is a quantum leap over the previous version, which I own, but oh so big.

It has tremendous refinement and an eager performance. The interior is great, but not as intuitive as I would like. I found myself searching for controls.

It's still the king of image and style, if not road performance.

And off-road? Absolutely awesome.