 | Home > My Range Rover > I've Joined the L405 Club - First Thoughts |
 
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| Stuart- Member Since: 16 Dec 2017 Location: UK and Hong Kong Posts: 347   
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As some may recall, my beloved L322 had an electrical fault that nobody seemed able to locate. That car has now been sold to a member here who will hopefully enlighten us when he has fixed it. Knowing my luck, he'll have found the fault in half an hour and will have fixed it with a £3 part. We'll see,
It ticks most of my boxes. I'm not too keen on the wheels, personally. But as it's just had new tyres and 4-wheel tracking as part of the sales prep, I'll live with them until they're worn and kerbed. It has the standard leather steering wheel and not the half-wood one my last one had, so I'm going to change that. But on the plus side, it has electric steps and the glass roof I wanted. Why was it at a BMW dealer? Apparently, that dealer seems to be a repository for good PX stock from around the local Sytner group. This had been PXd at their Audi dealer, and deemed good enough to put right and sell. They serviced it, and did quite a few jobs including front suspension arms, new tyres and tracking. I got their Sytner warranty for £995 for three years. It has a £4k per claim limit, so I look forward to using that as often as possible. 
In fact, it needs new wipers, coming back over the Pennines it was like wiping the screen with a bacon butty. And the tailgate doesn't go all the way up, and the lower tailgate doesn't always engage without help. I spoke to the salesman and he has painlessly arranged my local Sytner LR to fix that and bill them direct. But credit where it's due, the salesman, Steve Vickers was a pleasure to deal with throughout. How often can you say that? Niggles aside, the car was well prepped, there were no pushy upsells, and I'm quite pleased overall. However, when I went to collect it, I *almost* didn't buy it. Parked next to it was a rather nice Bentley for only a few grand more. My wife took rather a shine to it as you can see.
I sat in the Bentley and pondered for a while, I felt too low down and hemmed in, so decided to stick with the Range Rover. Buying two cars in one day seemed a bit much, so my wife will have to stick with her Evoque for now. So, first impressions? £165 road tax was a shocker! The L322 was £500+. As a driving experience, I expected to be more impressed than I am (although I have no complaints). Not terribly different to drive than the L322 to be honest. It handles a bit better but maybe that's the 22" wheels. It seems a bit smoother and quieter than the L322, the hands-free is better, and the touch screen is quite intuitive and well-designed. It's perfectly nice and I'm sure I'll adapt and come to love it, but I see no earth-shattering differences between my old L322 and it. At least from the drivers seat. It just feels like a mild facelift inside. Is it worth 3x the price of a good L322? I suppose that's subjective. A nice L322 does the same job in similar comfort for a lot less money. But this is 7 years newer than my L322 was and half the miles. Is that worth another £35k? Seems like a lot of money to me, but as with anything, our choices have a price. Once I've recovered from parting with a big lump of cash, got my plate on it, put a black half-wood steering wheel on it and got used to it, I'll probably be a bit more upbeat about it.  2017 4.4 SDV8 Autobiography in black
2018 D300 SE Velar in champagne 1982 Rolls Royce Silver Spirit in green Spiffing wheel centre caps, L322 sill repair panels, etc |
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19th Nov 2022 6:31pm |
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| philip1972 Member Since: 16 Jun 2017 Location: Marval 87440 Posts: 527  
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The 405 is lovely.....I would buy the Bentley though if it came with your wife |
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19th Nov 2022 7:10pm |
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| Stuart- Member Since: 16 Dec 2017 Location: UK and Hong Kong Posts: 347
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She costs more to run than a Bentley would, Philip. |
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19th Nov 2022 8:26pm |
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| Haylands Member Since: 04 Mar 2014 Location: East Yorkshire Posts: 8430  
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Welcome to the 405 club....
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20th Nov 2022 12:33am |
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| caymanblack Member Since: 08 Dec 2015 Location: DEVON Posts: 1159 
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Congratulations Stuart, it looks lovely. A 17 model with the low tax is worth looking for. |
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20th Nov 2022 11:25am |
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| Stuart- Member Since: 16 Dec 2017 Location: UK and Hong Kong Posts: 347
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Yes, they also have the later top screen without the side buttons. 2017 4.4 SDV8 Autobiography in black
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20th Nov 2022 12:22pm |
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| 24valve Member Since: 07 Apr 2009 Location: Cornwall Posts: 165 
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Congrats Stuart, it looks really nice.
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20th Nov 2022 1:21pm |
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| Stuart- Member Since: 16 Dec 2017 Location: UK and Hong Kong Posts: 347
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I dropped my daughter off at school this morning and she told me she prefers the older one. |
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21st Nov 2022 4:35pm |
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| Haylands Member Since: 04 Mar 2014 Location: East Yorkshire Posts: 8430
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Sunglasses fit in the opening door pocket... |
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21st Nov 2022 6:38pm |
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| Stuart- Member Since: 16 Dec 2017 Location: UK and Hong Kong Posts: 347
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I just had to go out in the rain and have a look, by jove, there's a nice little opening cubby in the door just as you said. How did I miss that? |
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21st Nov 2022 6:45pm |
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| Haylands Member Since: 04 Mar 2014 Location: East Yorkshire Posts: 8430
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Boring if we all liked the same thing...
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21st Nov 2022 7:01pm |
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| caymanblack Member Since: 08 Dec 2015 Location: DEVON Posts: 1159
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Stuart can i ask how is the seat wear on the drivers seat? I just passed on a car with 47k miles on it that had the leather scratched on on the seat base. tia. |
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21st Nov 2022 7:25pm |
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| Haylands Member Since: 04 Mar 2014 Location: East Yorkshire Posts: 8430
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My 2014 is mint at 63,000 miles, IMHO it seems to depend how heavy the previous driver was.... |
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21st Nov 2022 8:03pm |
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| Stuart- Member Since: 16 Dec 2017 Location: UK and Hong Kong Posts: 347
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I wonder if we saw the same car? There was one in Auto Trader in Coventry with allegedly that kind of miles I went to look at. It had bad seat wear and a very worn start button. It had also been very badly painted down the whole offside and the wheels and trims were well scuffed. Not an honest car IMO. Mine is about 98%, so pretty good. My previous L322 was still looking quite decent at 97k miles, and I'm not a small bloke and I had it 5 years. All the ones I saw in the Vogue Centre recently had good seats and they were variably in the 40-70k mile range. 2017 4.4 SDV8 Autobiography in black 2018 D300 SE Velar in champagne 1982 Rolls Royce Silver Spirit in green Spiffing wheel centre caps, L322 sill repair panels, etc |
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21st Nov 2022 8:15pm |
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