Review after 3 weeks of ownership, covering some 2,500 miles, across 5 countries (UK, France, Switzerland, Germany, Italy), over peaks of 2,200m high and over some pretty rough steep terrain, whilst towing a 1.7 ton expedition trailer.
I got the chance to weigh the car and trailer (both fully loaded) on a weigh bridge and it came in at 4,700kg.
This was generally the laden weight for the whole journey although the trailer carries 130 litres of water and a declining wine store might have lowered it on parts of the journey, but that was generally the norm.
I would firstly start by saying the vehicle overall, is everything it should be and more, and i am delighted with it.
My normal drive would have been in a modified 110 Defender and it would beat it by a country mile.
Motorway driving at 70 mph is a dream and i would compare it to towing with my Disco 4, effortless.
Acceleration, particularly between 40mph and 70mph, even up long inclines, is impressive.
A well balanced load just sits behind and is easy to forget it is there.
We towed in low ratio up some very steep, off road tracks, gravel and mud, to peaks of over 2,200m effortlessly. So effortlessly i only locked the centre diff a few times and had no need to lock the front or rear.
The torque in the 3LT diesel, power distribution, grip is just superb for a heavy vehicle.
I have the the 18” BFG AT’s and would consider my usual BFG MT’s if going into muddier conditions.
Putting the box from high to low and to diff lock and off became less stiff and assume like most things, it improved with use.
A lot has been made of the steering and foot rest positioning but in my experience it is a total non issue, even over long distances.
The seating is generally extremely comfortable although the only thing i would criticise it on is not having an adjustable lumbar support. On some days we covered some 500 miles and it is only on these trips would i say i would have liked more support.
Our overall fuel consumption on the whole trip was 20.2 mpg (uk gallons) or 14.1 litres per 100km. I would stress the load and terrain we covered would have severely hampered this and will be monitoring it over more normal conditions.
Ad blue consumption was probably about 8 to 10 litres but didn’t monitor properly.
On to some of the not so good points which are generally all electrical glitches: -
Twice it failed to select reverse and once drive after stopping into park. Both times it corrected after switching off and on again.
Whilst the expedition trailer has P/V charging, I would normally charge the 2 x 100 amp lithium iron batteries on the road through a DC/DC charger at a rate of 30 A/H, powered from the car. The NATO hitch plug should do this easily and whilst i could get it to engage and charge a few times, it generally after a short time travelling clicked out the relay and showed the fault of “power socket shutdown” - very annoying!
The apple car play disengaged for no reason on a number of occasions. A few times i was able to reconnect but at least twice i had to delete the device and reconnect. It doesn’t like the connected device to walk away from the car whilst connected.
The parking sensors have a mind of their own and i got into the habit of switching them off before i set off.
The seat belt warnings on occasions kept going despite the two occupied front seat belts done up and even the empty rears done up. Again having to switch ignition off and on to solve. Off road button didn’t resolve the seat belt warning either.
Trailer light fault warning was virtually continuous despite the lights testing fine.
The drivers air bag sign is constantly on and not sure what this means. Really need to look into this a little more.
TPMS, climate control, power steering, gearbox in N despite in D, and numerous other warnings were pretty much continuous.
The power “on” switch in the overhead panel only leaves the rear seat plugs live and not the front cubby box whilst car switched off. I need to look into this as i think this is wrong.
The altimeter and compass are unreliable.
One point i would make is having been back for a few days i have not had a single warning up??
The steering wheel is probably 4 or 5 degrees off centre, to the right.
One of the rubber roof bars was missing on hand over.
Still not got the roof rack or rear table.
Oh and one further point being i managed to crack the windscreen. Will be interesting to ring my insurance company to find out how long it will take them to get a new screen.
Still love the car and will continue to rave about it, hoping the next software update will solve the above issues.
A couple of photos: -
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