X5 and Range Rover pros & cons

[Bozz]

Deutch100,
I find your comments truthful, very fair and to the point congrats on your choice of the car. I am still a big fan of Land rover & Range rover having driven just about every model they produced between 1965 and up to 2006, including driving Rangies in the military in England and Germany for many years. They truly are great vehicles to drive, glad that I didn't have to pay for the maintenance or parts though as we used to punish them with serious highway and off road driving. I hope you get the chance to put your range rover in to the situation that it was really built for, then you will really know what you have purchased. Well done and thanks for the writeup.

Bozz.

[deutsch100]

Originally Posted by Bozz

Deutch100,
I find your comments truthful, very fair and to the point congrats on your choice of the car. I am still a big fan of Land rover & Range rover having driven just about every model they produced between 1965 and up to 2006, including driving Rangies in the military in England and Germany for many years. They truly are great vehicles to drive, glad that I didn't have to pay for the maintenance or parts though as we used to punish them with serious highway and off road driving. I hope you get the chance to put your range rover in to the situation that it was really built for, then you will really know what you have purchased. Well done and thanks for the writeup.

Bozz.

Thanks a lot Bozz!! Appreciate it!

[deutsch100]

Originally Posted by BGM

Deutsch, I'm with you drive what you like and I'm glad you like LRs. But if you have had 25 cars in 15 years you are increasing the odds enormously of problems arising. That's like Russian roulette car buying. I bet you if you had even 25 Lexus (or is it Lexi ?) you would run into issues. It's just a numbers game at that point. I've had 2 cars in the past 15 years--I'm on year 8 on my e53 with no major issues. Congrats and glad you are happy.

Yeah BGM, had our small share of problematic Mercs and BMWs (and a horrible '06 Rover I still stand firm ground though, that the worst were my '07 and '08 E70s...although the '06 Range Rover Supercharged I had was a pretty big nightmare. I had 2 Lexi ...they were flawless, yet beyond boring (RX400h). It was basically like having a mattress on wheels. I'll take a problematic X5 or Range Rover any day over a perfect Lexus! My god, the Lexi were so boring! Here in L.A., you have to Love what you drive, because you spend A LOT of time in the car.

[grover432]

Originally Posted by deutsch100

It sounds like your friend's experience with his Range Rover(s) was just like my experience with my '07 X5 3.0si and my '08 X5 4.8i and our 2007 750Li and my 2006 330i! Honestly out of the 25+ cars my spouse and I have had in the last 15 years, my 2 E70s were the most problematic, troublesome cars I have ever had. Nonstop warning lights, failures, electronic freezes/glitches, malfunctioning transmission, multiple repair "attempts" for the same problem again & again. I'm not saying, nor do I believe, my new Range Rover HSE is perfect, nor do I believe it will never see a Service Dept. What I do know, is that so far in the 40+ days I've had the Range Rover, I've had NOT one warning lamp or message, no electronic glitches, no breakdowns, no rattles or anything else that seems "off". With both my E70s, the first month of ownership saw multiple WEEKS of Service Dept. visits (with most problems not being resolved). With my '07 E70, I drove a Dealership X3 3.0si longer than I was able to physically drive my own X5. Serious!! Yeah, Land Rover is not known for their flawless reliability, but since 2006, especially 2008-2009, Land Rover (especially The Range Rover) has had superb reliability. Yes, I agree that The Full Size Range Rover has horrible resale value. Oddly, their LR3 has pretty good retained value, but yeah the retained value on my Range Rover will be absolutely dreadful. Honestly, though, I buy and/or lease because I love the car, and don't worry about 2-4 years down the road. Life's kinda short, and not everything can be practical, and financially perfect

Like I wrote earlier, if you don't mind blowing the dough with no resale, then enjoy. haven't owned a BMW since 2004 (540iA) and that car was close to perfect while the earlier ones were problematic in one way or another. It seems that BMW does a fair bit of R&D at the ownership level, which is too bad. The current HSE has alot of british engineering in it, some BMW dna and a change to Ford and now Tata. With all of that bouncing around and lack of resources to continue to R&D the product and improve it, the Range Rover has little hope of seing major improvement as time goes on. BMW on the other hand is well positioned in the current environment and the E70 of today is much beter than it was a few years ago when it was re introduced. I don't see too many major complaints on this board compared o the Range Rover forums.

It's a great driver though, so if it doesn't spend too much time in the repair shop I'm sure you'll enjoy it!

[kwX5]

Great review I actually have the opposite experience from yours, problems with RR and now happy with the 09 X5 4.8i, zero problem for 4 months, go figure....

[Flowerfred]

I went the exact opposite way as well.

My 07 RR TDV8 Vogue SE (the top model in the UK) got stolen and I just replaced it with an E70 35d Msport.

Although the Rangie was cosie and comfortable, it feels dated to the 09 X5.
The touch screen, although a nice feature, is too far away for comfort and always covered in finger prints. The X5 feels technologically a lot more advanced. More importantly, everything works. Bluetooth paring, ipod connections, things like that just work so much better.
I am not sure how it is in the US, but here in the UK the dealerships and their service departments are amateuristic at best. At BMW everything is so much more professional.

Plusses and minusses:

The RR had more interior space and the ride was more comfortable. Off road the RR is far, far superiour.
On the downside, rear passengers in the RR were forever getting car sick from the body roll. The front seats are not that comfortable.

The BMW handles so much better, there is no comparison, especially with the adaptive drive option. The comfort seats are the best I have ever sat in. I had them on an E60 and they were the main reason for getting another bimmer (bad back). And it is a far prettier car.
On the down side, the runflats are way too loud and too expensive. The other big issue is the options list on the BM. On the rangie everything came as standard and therefor does not depreciate as badly. To get a decent spec X5 you need to fork out an extra 50% over base price (in the UK at least). The moment you drive off the forecourt the options depreciate to zero.

Just my 2 pence. Enjoy your car!

[deutsch100]

Originally Posted by Flowerfred

I went the exact opposite way as well.

My 07 RR TDV8 Vogue SE (the top model in the UK) got stolen and I just replaced it with an E70 35d Msport.

Although the Rangie was cosie and comfortable, it feels dated to the 09 X5.
The touch screen, although a nice feature, is too far away for comfort and always covered in finger prints. The X5 feels technologically a lot more advanced. More importantly, everything works. Bluetooth paring, ipod connections, things like that just work so much better.
I am not sure how it is in the US, but here in the UK the dealerships and their service departments are amateuristic at best. At BMW everything is so much more professional.

Plusses and minusses:

The RR had more interior space and the ride was more comfortable. Off road the RR is far, far superiour.
On the downside, rear passengers in the RR were forever getting car sick from the body roll. The front seats are not that comfortable.

The BMW handles so much better, there is no comparison, especially with the adaptive drive option. The comfort seats are the best I have ever sat in. I had them on an E60 and they were the main reason for getting another bimmer (bad back). And it is a far prettier car.
On the down side, the runflats are way too loud and too expensive. The other big issue is the options list on the BM. On the rangie everything came as standard and therefor does not depreciate as badly. To get a decent spec X5 you need to fork out an extra 50% over base price (in the UK at least). The moment you drive off the forecourt the options depreciate to zero.

Just my 2 pence. Enjoy your car!

Yes, the E70 handles much, much better than the Range Rover. Yes, the RR is much, much more comfortable (in terms of ride comfort) than the E70. I find the touch screen to be the right distance for my arm length, and once a week or so, I just swipe the screen with a small microfiber cloth sitting in the glovebox...and shiny & smduge free! I find the touch screen much easier and simpler for radio, settings, navigation and satellite than the iDrive (the iDrive actaully annoyed the hell outta me!).

I do agree that BMW Service is generally better, although here it varies radically from dealer to dealer. Our 3 local Land Rover/Jaguar dealers are all very pleasant, offer delicious lattes and fresh baked goods, pay for and provide loaners (Landies and Jags if available), wash the car after every service visit...but they are not as good as BMW. I wouldn't say amateur, but a little outdated, and not top notch. I think it comes down to BMW having a HELL of a lot more money than LR/Jaguar.

I do apperciate that almost every item was just standard on the Range Rover. You can choose HSE or Supercharged and Luxury interior package...that's really about it. Navi, backup camera, heated seats, satellite radio, cooled seats, 6 disc changer, bi xenon, f&R park distance control, etc, etc, is ALL just standard on the Range Rover. It makes it SO much easier buying and locating the colour combo one wants!

Congrats on your '09 X5. The E70 is visually a stunning car!

[kyhaynes]

I am debating on switching out my 07 3.0si for the new 2010 RR. It appears that the technology has improved dramatically in terms on navigation and incld. an aux ipod port. I rode around in my friends 09 RR this past weekend and was quite impressed with the ride comfort and interior room. There are certain dealerships now taking $20M off of MSRP. (RR in Chantilly, VA)

[bmwman3241]

Originally Posted by kyhaynes

I am debating on switching out my 07 3.0si for the new 2010 RR. It appears that the technology has improved dramatically in terms on navigation and incld. an aux ipod port. I rode around in my friends 09 RR this past weekend and was quite impressed with the ride comfort and interior room. There are certain dealerships now taking $20M off of MSRP. (RR in Chantilly, VA)

I am also debating between the new X5 M and 2010 RR SC. I might get both.

BTW, the $20k of MSRP will probably be for the 2008/9, and not 2010.

[kyhaynes]

Yep. Only $20M off being offered on the 08 models as of last month. I suspect that the offer will soon apply to the 09 model.