They are smooth in general, but if you have the lower profile tyres, 20" on the L322, and 22" on the L405 for example, then yes when you hit a bump you can feel it, more so in the L405 I would say which crashes the bumps more.
As for feeling it through the steering, on the L322, yes I would say you feel more through the steering than the average modern car which uses electric power steering. That being said, what you feel should be tight, and not have a looseness to it. So if you are going over a bumpy section of road, you'll hear and feel dunts but you shouldn't be feeling / hearing knocks and outright clunks or looseness at the wheel per say as the clunks occur. If you are feeling clunks, then that would point more to the control arm ball joints being loose. Easy enough to source and replace from aftermarket if you are so inclined. These front bushes dont always show up in MOT's unless they are really bad - reason being that when sat on the ground, or jacked up with the wheel hanging, the ball joints become pre-loaded with a lot of tension which hides play in the joint. The play often really only shows itself when driving along. A quick example from my old RR here shows that even if the rubber boots of the ball joints are decent looking, inside can be dried up and cause creaking.
(forgot how much I liked that RR ^^^ )
On the subject of creaking ... is it from the rear when you go over something like a speed bump ? If so, that's most likely the rear suspension bushes, and the most commonly failing ones being the top and bottom bushes on the hub. At 130k miles and not having replaced them to date ... you've done pretty well ! I'd say bushes are often an 80k mile item. Fairly easily sourced. Fitment difficulty varies.
Clunk when selecting gear. No. It shouldn't. It should go from neutral into a gear smoothly, and you should feel it gently pull on the gear as its selected so it'll start creeping when you let off the brake ... but it should not clunk, thud, slam etc. Fix is most likely a really good flush of the fluid, and perhaps a filter replacement ... and a reset of the gearbox to tell it to relearn after having new fluid. Plenty of info on here.
Whining on pull away ... yes, sometimes you can hear an element of whine. Remember that the drive has to go through a gearbox, a transfer box, and 2 differentials all of which have gears wheels which mesh with each other and will potentially have gear whine. For the most part, these units are fairly robust, but will need oil changes done on them. I personally think around the 80k again for these sorts of changes is not a bad starting point. V8 or else ...
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