Well I've owned my MY15 Vogue for a month now, so thought I'd do a brief review/update.

I came from a 2011 Sport, and wanted to upgrade to 'the real thing'.

In all honesty it's a mixed bag, and I'd be lying if I said I was 100% happy with it.

The good points:

The ride quality - there's no doubt this is fantastic, and a big improvement over the sport (running on 20” wheels). The damping is especially good, for example the the car settles again instantly over speed humps.

Refinement - the car is very quiet most of the time, and the 8 speed gearbox feels a lot smoother than the 6 speed I had in my Sport. That would occasionally bog down, meaning I spent most of the time in ‘sport’ mode to retain higher revs, but in the Vogue it always seems to be in the right gear.

Interior - again, a big improvement in material quality over the old Sport. The steering wheel looks and feels wonderful!

The not so good:

Untraceable rattle! This is my biggest issue I think! When the revs drop to just over 1K there is a trim rattle that I just can’t track down. From the drivers seat it sounds like the passenger door area, but from the passenger side it sounds like the drivers side! I suspect it may be something in the centre console but it’s driving me nuts!

Technology - this is really pretty awful and a downgrade from the Sport, which was at least quite responsive. From starting the car up it can take 30 - 60 seconds for the Nav to even initialise. The nav itself makes ridiculous routing suggestions, meaning that I’m using Google maps on my phone to get a rough route in my mind and then just using the Nav for the last bit of the journey. Definitely worse than the nav in the Sport, which whilst not great, was useable. Stop / start seems intermittent and plain annoying. The mirrors also don’t work properly - when I put it in reverse they actually point up rather than down! I’ll have to take it to the dealers to look at that (and the rattle)

Practicality - this was a concern before I bought the car, so it’s just a compromise I knew I’d have to live with. In the sport I used to use the tumbledown seat option a lot. Tip run, moving stuff around, even holidays - that ability to make the back completely flat was really useful. The Vogue (and the new Sport) doesn’t have this and it’s a step backwards in my opinion. We did a trip to Scotland the other week and with the dog cage taking up half the boot we put the seats down, but loading up on top of slanted seats was a bit crap, reducing useable space and making everything unstable. Admittedly I’m probably more OCD about loading the car than most!

Character - this is completely subjective, but I’m struggling to bond with the car. I’m not sure why - it’s almost too refined with no character. maybe I should have bought the petrol!

In summary, I do have a little bit of buyers remorse, even though it’s the ‘best’ car I’ve owned. I’m not sure if I’ll keep this long or what I would buy instead - the Sport wasn’t perfect, and the new one has some of the same issues as the Vogue (e.g. practicality and I assume the in car tech?). Might see what the new proper Disco is like. Certainly none of the SUV’s from other brands really interest me

Last edited by sagalout on 18th Feb 2016 12:10pm. Edited 1 time in total

Thanks for the insight

Have you got the V6 or V8 Diesel?

V6 diesel. I tried all 3 engines beforehand.

V6 handles best, is the least powerful but still sufficient 90% of the time (IMO). I would have liked a bit more power when overtaking on A roads, but the rest of the time it's about right.

Actually that does lead me to one other issue, and that's the turbo lag that I presume is inherent in the diesels, and does make me think maybe I should have bought the petrol. Again most of the time it's fine, but sometimes at junctions you want pull out quickly and you get nothing....nothing....nothing.....bang! all the power at once. My Sport was the same in that regard,

I too recently moved from a sport (2012 sdv6 AB ) and the main differance for me was I felt I could throw the sport around a little more but of course the price for a that is ride quality . The L405 for me gives a fantastic ride as you glide along the road in luxury . Do I miss my sport ? Yes . Would I go back to a sport ? Absolutely..........NOT !

Are the MY16 cars better in respect to infotainment response?

Your Nav is ready in 30-60 seconds Mine seems to take several minutes.....

I agree with the folding rear seats issue. On the VSE & AB they are electrically folding, so I can kind of see why they did it, but I also would have preferred the they went completely flat like they did in the L322.

sagalout, sorry to hear your're not 100% sold on the FFRR. I also moved from a 2011 RRS. Always wanted a RR and never quite felt the RRS achieved that ambition so didn't bond with it but have with my current RR. Unless others have experienced it I've got no such rattle in my current RR so probably worth keeping investigating until you find it. As RR owners we're quite forgiving of its shortcomings, though probably shouldn't be for the price tag.

Alistair wrote:

Your Nav is ready in 30-60 seconds Mine seems to take several minutes.....

I just been for a drive in mine for absolutely no reason ! I love it and nothing comes near it despite of any short comings in my opinion .

Sagalout, with regards to your rattle, have a read of this http://www.fullfatrr.com/forum/topic30459.html then this http://www.fullfatrr.com/forum/topic30886-15.html it might be similar to your problem.

Kam

An interesting insight so thanks for that.

I know what you mean by the bonding. I've had mine a couple of months now and I'm just not head over heels. There's no doubting it's the epitome of 4X4 luxury ( though mines a 2011 Vogue ) however, I'm a little too worried obout something going BANG and despite the fact there are no real issues, it's spoiling the 'relationship'.

What's a relationship without the odd bang now and then

I can second the points raised about the nav, it is shocking.

It creates the craziest of routes with no known reason (no traffic etc). I consistently put it up against a £180 TomTom which blows it away. Hopefully MY17 will get the change it needs.

If you don't love it maybe your colour or wheel combo isn't right? I have currently as a courtesy car a MY15.5 LWB AB TDV8. I think it comes in somewhere in the region of £112,000 with extras but its silver with a 21 inch wheel that I don't like. It just doesn't look special in comparison to black or grey cars with style 7 22 inch wheels.

I agree, colour and wheel combo seems to make so much of a difference to me on the L405.....

Skyman wrote:

sagalout, sorry to hear your're not 100% sold on the FFRR. I also moved from a 2011 RRS. Always wanted a RR and never quite felt the RRS achieved that ambition so didn't bond with it but have with my current RR.......................................