Well at the weekend we had a test drive booked for a couple of the new 2010MY cars, namely the FFRR Vogue and the Discovery 4 HSE. (I'll cover the D4 in a seperate post) We had an hour to play at will with each of the cars and it was a lovely low key no pressure event held by my local Dealer, Sturgess in Leicester (Who have just moved their Land Rover business in with their Jaguar dealership in the larger premises)

First up was the Range Rover. Their car was a Buckingham Blue Vogue TDV8 with Parchment seats and interior. First things that are obviously different are the keyless ignition and new bigger key fob, now we have a stop start button where the keyhole was on the previous 07MY> so the key can remain in your pocket. The centre screen is larger & wider, the hard keys are fewer and clearer and the brunel finish is gone in favour of a new black plastic look. (I'm still unsure on that, I felt the lower half looked more bare than before) There is also a new chrome trim strip down each side of the centre console which personally did nothing for me, but I'm sure would eventually go unnoticed.

Steering wheel is updated with newer buttons, different layout for controls and the 2 new joypad controls, one for the audio/video detail, one for the TFT dashboard. leather seems more soft touch and padded than previous models (mine anyway) Most other things are the same really.

As you get in the TFT Dash screen shows a sort of wallpaper that looks like a dusk sky scene, no dials at all, all very nice. With the ignition on (key has to be within 1 metre of the car) the dials appear and any warning messages are displayed front and centre.

Driving the car was a pleasure, as you'd expect, I always love the TDV8 engine, we did a mix of motorways, A roads and B roads and even at (possibly ) illegal speeds I'm constantly impressed at how low the RPM's are with this engine. Brakes firm and immediate as you'd expect from the Brembo setup. Overall driving comfort and dynamics are great though, less body roll than on mine and just smoother all round.

I played with the TFT Dash, using the right hand joypad on the steering wheel (this can be done on the move!) you can bring up menus to alter the dash settings and also car settings such as lazy locking, dipping mirrors, safety unlocking (1 door only) etc. You can change all manner of things that I didn't get time to such as switching it over to KMH if you were driving abroad for example, trip computers and there's now also a constant average mpg which I certainly don't have in mine so not sure if that's brand new, and the dials can be set to a night time mode, whereby the part of the dial where the needle is, is the only part fully lit up, the rest remains subdued but still visible. In the centre of the dash between the dials you get animated computer graphics, such as how to reset the trip computers, doors open etc. It feels completely natural and not at all weird or tacky (However I am from the laptop generation)

The centre screen with the dual view is brilliant, While I looked at the Sat Nav my wife watched Saturday Kitchen on the (freeview) TV. If you were sitting in the middle rear seat you get a bit of a mixed up picture however. You can toggle whether you want a single or double view too. Audio video is now up to date. DAB radio, 6CD (MP3 discs), 3.5mm AUX jack in the rear of the centre console, and inside the cubby box a proper iPod cable and port alongwith a standard USB plug so you can load up a memory stick and plug it in there. Nifty. The Logic 7 Harmon Kardon is as good as ever though I didn't try it out too much, the DAB is VERY clear and crisp. The sat nav runs off a hard disc instead of a DVD, so now updates might only be enabled by the Dealer till someone figures that out too.

The external changes are well documented on this site, new bumpers, lights etc, and they do look very nice indeed. if history has taught us anything I'd say that some of the newer aspects to this car, namely the audio video, 2 way screen, TFT dash will certainly feature in the next generation of Range Rover when they do a complete remodel, these will be the test bed for those now.

Has it made me want one? Hell Yes, but 2nd hand. Demo cars will come into the market in 3 months time but of course you are limited to whatever spec they went for. I think I am going to go for a TDV8 Vogue SE, as young as possible, and keep that till the next generation is launched maybe.

If you want to ask me any questions about it feel free, the salesman in the dealer was quite surprised at how much I knew already

Pics in the following post to come when uploaded. Enjoy. 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

Seen all 3 today FFRR,RRS and D4,
Would the cosmetic changes made to the FFRR make me want to buy one, maybe but not on a whim.Head would rule the heart this time.

Reason being although they have changed the interior, to me certain switch controls don't look or feel any better than the ones at present that including the new gadgets kind of Audi'ish , Exterior Changes to the front have sort of toned down the masculine feel of a FFRR (if there is such a thing ) Sorry but did not do anything for me

The RRS has now finally been given the interior it should have had in the first place, would i buy one, 30/70

The DISCO4, Interior totally different oozes quality more appealing when in the cab, the slight changes to the exterior minimal, would i buy one, with the HSE Variant being 19k cheaper than the basic FFRR at 64k, I would not Dismiss it. The only one out of the 3 i was keenly interested in .

Someone on the forum asked sometime back why is there not a 3.6 TDV8 engine in the Disco , reason for that it would take sales away from the RRS .............

But each to their own ........

Adam did you find the speedo notchy when the speed was dropping

Thanks for the review and the pictures Adam

I agree with the comment re the RRS interior. For me, the centre console of both the first generation RRS and Discovery 3 were slightly antiquated, a little 80s. Paul

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Hope this works, a very short video file showing the screen transition:


http://www.flickr.com/photos/adamworm/3848768941/?edited=1 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

ken wrote:

Adam did you find the speedo notchy when the speed was dropping

Silly question but is it possible to configure the dual view screen to diplay the same image from both angles - ie when stationary, have the display showing TV to driver / Sta Nav to passenger when driving or is the driver stuck with Sat Nav abd vice versa?

Apologies if this has been asked and answered elswhere on the 2010 FFRR discussions.

yes you can toggle the view but Driver can only view TV when stationary. 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

Cheers

In at the dealers today salesman told me their will be a complete new model released in 2013 , also seen a D4 in a sort of purply/blue colour with the overfinch type wheels think he said it was Bali blue or something , also had a RRS in the same colour ...........

http://www.landrover.co.uk/gb/en/vehicles/...height=386

It was the Bali Blue

Drove a silver with jet black interior MY10 TDV8 Vogue SE as part of the Land Rover Experience (went to the one at Ashford, Kent). It is an amazing car, much easier to drive than my current car despite being twice the weight. I loved the dash. We spent about 2 hours in the car in total with the bulk of that on the road. As Adam pointed out, it's easy to forget yourself with the TDV8. It gains speed effortlessly. Without thinking, we hit 90. Off-road driving was in an old quarry, most of which was to show off hill descent control.

One of the interesting things the instructor pointed out was that Beadles Sidcup (my local dealer) has sold out of their initial allocation of MY10 Full fat and Sports.

The instructor took a little time to warm up as we arrived late (don't bother with the number on the map as it goes to some central call centre in Milton Keynes). We had map navigation issues and the post code is for the enterance to the off-road course. They were initially a little hostile but once we were on the road, he warmed up and turned out to be a nice guy. Part of the issue was that the other two appointments for the afternoon were no-shows so us arriving late didn't help. In the end, a great time was had by the wife and I, so a huge thank you to the guys at Eastwell Farm and I will definitely be going back for the full day course. Paul

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Hi RRUK, Did you get a chance to play around with the Bluetooth setup, particularly regarding uploading of phonebook. My current car the 2007MY TDV8 Vogue SE works flawlessly for pairing with my phone, but you cannot upload the contacts, which is a right pain in the arse.

I was just interested in whether the new 2010 is any better in this regard?

SAppie

You can get a sw upgrade that will allow it, but it ain't free

my 2008MY takes the phonebook over.... 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