Long post alert, pics at the bottom

So I managed to get to Lookers Park Royal yesterday to collect my 2011 TDV8. After a train journey down I was a little excited and nervous to see the colour combo as I hadn’t seen a Bournville car in the flesh before I ordered

As Jeremy was off for the day Spencer did the honors and spent a good 90 mins running through everything and doing the paperwork. The car was prepped really well but I'm a really fussy sod so I spotted a couple of small marks which they took care of straight away.

So luckily for me I had a big drive back up to North Yorkshire to experience the car and play with all the new toys.

This was my first diesel so I was interested to see how it sounded and accelerated, it clearly doesn't sound as good as my old petrol but I was pleasantly surprised at how quiet it is on the motorway and the acceleration seemed swift given I was taking it easy on the new engine. I’m looking forward to getting a few miles done before I really open it up to see what it can do but with the torque it feels like it will be quicker to overtake. Having a red line that starts at 4,000 rpm is a little odd though!

The eight speed box really is smooth and I really loved the paddle shifters on the wheel, you really need to knock it down two gears to make much of a difference but I can see me using those frequently especially for additional engine breaking. I really thought I'd miss the gear lever and I'm not too sure on the rotary selector yet but you do get used to it fairly quick.

The navigation and iPod integration are way better than my old 08 but I still feel LR could have done better with this, my wife's 2008 Lincoln (Ford) in Canada read out text messages from her phone and did Bluetooth audio streaming in an older car costing about a quarter as much. The lack of any audio information when you have your navigation screen on is frustrating too, I had no idea what radio station I was listening to or any track info from the iPod when the navigation was on and found myself constantly switching between the audio and nav screens. The area in-between the two dials on the TFT would be perfect for that info as well as turn by turn info like you get with Audi’s.

The interior looks great and bar the electronics/ switches looks fairly similar to my 08. The leather seems a little softer and I'm really pleased with the color, it is a little darker than it seems in the pics. I was surprised to see no luggage net at the rear, that was standard in my 08 as was the ski bag.

One thing that was a little disappointing after having a rental D4 for a week or so was the lack of keyless entry, I love the start button but with a small kid or armfuls of shopping the ability to open the door without a key is great on the D4 and I has wrongly assumed it would be on the FFRR.

I was aware of the comments made so far on the seats so I was interested to do a nearly 4 hour journey to see how I felt about them, they are definitely different and way more spongy than the older ones and if I had to say which I preferred I would have to go with my older ones but I still managed to drive all the way without being uncomfortable.

All in all I'm really pleased with it and am loving the smoothness of it, the paddle shifters, the entertainment improvements, the economy (32 MPG so far) and the updated looks over my 2008 but I have to say I wouldn’t have been making the change if I hadn’t have been moving country as I had 90% of the same pleasure of driving a Range Rover in my older 2008. I would have always been wondering though

Here's a few pics:

Click image to enlarge

nice review and very nice car..but i would take it back cos they aint given you a gear stick..  ... - .- -.




Y. O. L. O.
.

Indeed a great write-up! Thank you very much indeed for your business, and it sounds like you're pleased with the new 4.4. Apologies that I missed you yesterday as you'd just left by the time I returned.

Thanks again.

James

Very nice , so what's it like to downsize your house as well ......

Very nice! One thing that looks odd to me though, is the passenger side wood trim looks a little bare without the cup holder that you get in the earlier models. Still though, that's only a very minor thing! 2006 Mercedes CLS
1991 Retro-style Mini
But really finding it hard to fight the urge for a S/C...

As everyone said looks very good. Surprisingly I really like the Bournville, I thought It would be much more brown also like the Arabica leather. Have fun in it

If you said "dark brown car with dark brown seats" I'd have thought "yuck".

But those pics look great!


Congratulations.

very nice
didn't think i'd like the interior colour (always prefered black) but i think it looks superb

Thanks for all the comments guys

I will pop in to say hi next time I'm down James

I only wish this was my house Mick

I know what you mean about the cup holders M44K, only having two is a bit of a pain especially with kids. 2021 P400 Silicon Silver AB
Gone 2011 Bournville TDV8 VSE
Gone 2008 Black Canadian HSE LUX

Very nice indeed.

Let me know if you work out how to use the remote control for the rear entertainment. Tried to put a video on once for the dogs to watch but gave up. *Gone* Discovery3 HSE
*Gone* Discovery3 HSE
*Gone* MY10 RangeRover TDV8
Freelander for OH
MY11 Range Rover 4.4 TDV8 Autobiography Black

kkqd0298 wrote:

Very nice indeed.

Let me know if you work out how to use the remote control for the rear entertainment. Tried to put a video on once for the dogs to watch but gave up.

Lol, I had the same problem ! I think I need to RTFM I'll let you know if I manage it. 2021 P400 Silicon Silver AB
Gone 2011 Bournville TDV8 VSE
Gone 2008 Black Canadian HSE LUX

Looks fantastic Jez Well done!

mike.

Great car remember to sell it me when your finished with it

Absolutely beautiful, I look forward to the day I get a 4.4TDV8 too. I'm still totally in love with my 08MY though and it's not lost a penny in value in a year and 22,000 miles.

Keep us all posted on it, great to have a new version owner on here
 Discovery 4 HSE
1998 110 TUM HS FFR Hard Top XD WOLF
1982 Series 3 Hard Top

*Gone:L462 D5 HSE LUX, L663 Defender 110 HSE, Discovery 3 HSE, 2014MY Range Rover Sport 5.0 Supercharged AB Dynamic; L405 Exec Vogue SE 4.4, 5.0 Supercharged Autobiography, Defender TDCi XS CSW, Defender TD5 HT, Vogue SE TDV8, Vogue TD6, RRSport SC 4.2V8, Classic 3.9 Vogue Auto, Land Rover Series 3 SWB

lovely car

dumb question, do any of the 2011's have a gear lever???