Hi,

I know that this topic has been discussed before, so I´m sorry to bore you, but wanted to ask your thoughts from a purely financial point of view;

I am looking to buy a last gen l322 to be used as the family car. We drive approx. 12-13.000 miles per year. The bulk of which are 4-6 miles doing the school run etc and the occasional road trip of 350-650 miles. We don´t do any towing etc.

I am looking at cars with max 60.000 miles and am planning on keeping it for about 5 years at which point it will likely be at around 120.000 miles.

Obviously fuel costs will be 50 % higher with the SC compared to the TDV8. Difference in taxes, insurance etc is negligible.

My question is; How much cheaper is maintenance costs on the SC and which of the two engine/gearbox seems to be the most reliable?

I have absolutely no preference between the two cars as I think both engines are fantastic in their own way and I´m not looking for a new LR to do drag racing....

Any feedback from current or former owners is very much appreciated!

Jonas

Incoming------------ but most of it should be friendly fire.

We've had a TDV8 11MY for 18 months now and love it. I would think routine servicing costs would be about the same for either car, they all need oils, (engine, gearbox and transmission), brakes will wear out dependent on how you drive, etc.etc..

There's a buying guide in the Wiki which is informative. Many of the members here have descriptions of what they have found and done with faults, but always remember, we do like to solve problems and are less likely to extol our cars

Regarding the DPF, we have not had problems from our short trips to the shops, which have been frequent in bad weather. The car gets a run out for fun and lunch, so a semi regular chance to regen the DPF. Seen the yellow warning DPF twice in the time owned. Goes off after 5 miles at 40 ish. The one problem you may encounter today is the prohibition that seems to becoming enforced on Euro 5 diesels on entering towns. That may be a major thought for you.

Drive both and form you own opinion on merits. As all say, good history should outweigh mileage. You'll enjoy either, ride and driving position is great. Cheers
Richard

(there are no such things as an ordinary FullFat, an ordinary cat or too many tools)
2011 TDV8 Vogue Santorini Black
Gap IIDBT

I went down the 5.0 S/C route (having owned diesel Defenders all my life) and bought a 2011 model about 13 months ago now, and don't regret it at all.

I'm based in London and looking to keep the vehicle for a number of years, so didn't want a diesel < 2016 due to all the crazy emissions laws coming in, whilst Euro 4 for petrol still seems to be acceptable... I do a maximum of ~8000 miles a year probably.

The 5.0 S/C is brilliant, but if the school run is in traffic, you might be hovering around the 10 mpg mark if you're lucky. If purely motorway, you might edge towards 25mpg. I average 20-21mpg on my typical journey London-Dorset, which includes going right through the centre of London.

Maintenance-wise I agree with the above - standard recurring items are all the same for oil, filters, brakes, gearbox etc. The fuel filter doesn't need changing as often on the 5.0 I believe, but that's a negligible cost!

I haven't heard of any specific major issues with either the ZF 6 speed (in the 5.0 S/C) or the 8-speed (in the 4.4 TDV8) - both seem to be reliable units, but worth changing the oil/filter/sump every ~70k miles.

TDV8 might need turbo drain mod, turbo replacement, EGR or DPF related maintenance/replacement, which can each be expensive.

5.0 S/C the main major issue reported seems to be the timing chain/guides, which if the (plastic) guides start failing and need replacing with the updated metal parts, is quite an expensive job. And possibly the supercharger snout bearing, but that's not as hard/expensive to fix.

So I think in general, maintenance will be the same in an average year, it just depends if you hit any of the "big" issues with either vehicle. There's people on here with either vehicle that have needed some of these things doing, and people on here with either vehicle that haven't!

If you can get a 5.0 S/C with the timing chain/guide update already done, then that should be fairly bullet proof and already have the main potential expense corrected. If you're mainly doing shorter runs and only rare motorway blasts, I'd certainly consider the 5.0 S/C, although fuel consumption will be pitiful!

One big difference is the transmission. The diesel gets the ZF 8 speed which is very nice. The 5,0 L322 gets the 6 speed ZF. I have the 3.6 with the 6 speed, which is a lot better than most other 4WDs have, but having driven a MY15 D4 I can see the appeal for the 8 speed. ______________________________
Vogue tdv8 08MY poverty pack - wow

This is how sad I am, the only reason I keep discounting the 5.0 SC is because of the "gear stick". It's just to similar to my 3.6 I really want one of them rotary jobbies instead, hence the 4.4 shopping. I only do 3000 a year so the fuel doesn't much bother me.

I actually love the proper gearstick, and was a draw for me to have that rather than a rotary control thingy - I think the gearstick is far more natural.

But I would like the 8 gears!