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Range Rover Sport -- My garage is now FULL
Back in July, with my wife and I still WFH and not going anywhere with a newborn, we sold her 2015 Jeep Cherokee to take advantage of the equity on the loan vs. the used car market prices.
We saved the cash, put it into some options and crypto and with life slowly returning to near normal, we started shopping again for another SUV. The Golf R was great in the interim, handling baby duties without any issues, but longer trips it was getting a little cramped to do all of that and bring our dog. Since the R isn't going anywhere, this meant we needed a 2nd vehicle again. I always hated the Jeep Cherokee...the build quality is ****, the ride is ****, the materials are ****....so I was happy it was gone. This time my wife let me pick out our new SUV instead. This resulted in test drives of the Audi SQ5, BMX X3 M40i and Porsche Macan S. There was just one contender that kept me looking back at it whenever I saw used car ads though, and it was the Range Rover Sport. Finding a Range Rover Sport with the desirable Dynamic Package in a color mix that wasn't too out there, had depreciated enough, wasn't too old or too many miles in this used car climate was a little difficult, however I found one at Car Max. Low miles (33k), Good year (2017 - CarPlay), Good color combo (black on black with dark gray wheels), Dynamic package equipped (red brembos, 40 extra horsepower and dynamic suspension mode) for a decent price. New enough to still be covered under the factory warranty, I could worry less about a proper PPI and get to driving. After getting cosmetic items fixed and waiting on a home refinance, we were finally able to pick up our new to us Range Rover for my birthday. This will be our main driver going forward with the R for more fun and day trips. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...10d4b57b_z.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...965b9df7_z.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...7d6bf830_z.jpg |
Detailed the interior with some Adam’s leather cleaner. Helped bring back the matte look to the leather and cut down on the funky smell haha.
Put in some new Lloyds floormats to replace the rubber LR mats (which are in the hatch for bad weather) 18.2 mpg all city driving. Going to get 450 miles from this tank. Love driving this thing. |
Nice, always thought they looked good. Realistically how is reliability and maintenance?
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No clue yet but will share. I believe the majority of issues these days are with the infotainment systems. |
TST feels so grown up now. Never been in a Range Rover but they seem nice with lots of capability.
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The Range Rover is like driving a bank vault that keeps the outside noise away, but you can still feel the road. Had the PPI done today by the LR dealership. Since it's fully covered under factory warranty and Car Max warranty, they did a light PPI. The only items they found were that the tires needed rotation, rebalancing and an alignment. All systems go otherwise...and got it detailed while there. |
Damn Dave, quite the change in ownership experience from your older cars, haha. Congrats!
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In dynamic mode it's like a big dumb Challenger around turns. Which is hilariously acceptable for something this big. :lol: |
That does sound extremely acceptable, haha.
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I was always amazed at how the touareg I had handled. That SUV was actually enjoyable to drive on the back roads. Only one I can say that about but sounds like this one is similar.
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This feels like some huge creature in comparison and throwing the weight around is hilarious to watch it hold the line despite physics.:lol: |
Some updates (with photos) since the last time I posted about this car.
- Within a week, my wife scratched up the freshly refinished wheel on the rear passenger side :lol: This gets repaired May 4th ($150). - I added wireless CarPlay with the same unit that works great in the VW. In the RR, it doesn't work as great. Might be best to stick with a cable on this system. - I replaced the bright finish plastic paddles with aluminum ones from the accessories catalog. - Replaced the faded Sport logo with a new one from Ali Express for $5. - Added a tray to the center console so we could store sunglasses, etc. - I added the rear hatch cover that was missing from the car with one off ebay for $160. Brand new, $550 which I wasn't going to pay. - I had the brakes bled a bit to help with a spongy and weak brake pedal. It helped by about 30%. I think the system needs a full bleed the old fashioned way... will tackle when the front brakes get replaced. - I cracked the driver's rear taillight when i pulled out the trash can in my garage and tried to wedge it past the RR. It popped the plastic so I ordered a fresh pair of the 2018+ refresh taillights. Looks a million times better now. (I didn't do this on purpose!) - We've put about 3k miles on it so far. MPG is 16-19 depending on how much I drive it in city. Highway is 21-23mpg or so. It goes roughly 450 miles to the tank so it lasts a couple weeks with our WFH schedule. - I replaced the passenger and rear wiper blades. The driver wiper blade is on global backorder and can't be found. The attachment point is from a 1990 mitsubishi and isn't something I can get from Autozone or Amazon (already tried). Weird. - Already covered the new lloyds mats. They're wearing in really well. Photo dump incoming. I really love driving this around... it's fun to drive it in offroad mode over the craters in the road here and there is next to zero road noise of any kind. It's a tank. |
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Took me 25 minutes to swap tails over. Very easy to work on.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...f757fb4b_z.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...8f9d3b7d_z.jpg Two bolts and a plug. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...90c23775_z.jpg The older style with broken lens. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...60909aaa_z.jpg Installed. https://live.staticflickr.com/31337/...a04c20c8_z.jpg |
Had the wheel fixed last week by LR. $160 after tax. It was really torn up from curbing.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...9047f7b8_z.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...c39dce81_z.jpg Since these dynamic package wheels are not cheap to replace, I'm happy that the repair got us 95% of the way back to normal. You can see where the rebuilt lip isn't 100% straight but I'm ok with it for $160. |
Two Range Rover stories to share:
1). My son will fight getting into his babyseat but once he's there, he's put to sleep pretty regularly by how quiet and smooth the ride is. Since it's so well-insulated from outside noise, we will often let him continue his naps in the RR in our garage once we get home. All you have to do is crack a window, keep the door to the house open to flood the garage with AC and he's out like a light. We can work, watch TV downstairs and carry on while he sleeps peacefully. It's a great hack when you don't want to wake your kid up just to put him back down for a nap in his crib. 2). We got blocked in once in a gravel lot while getting lunch. There was only one way out available to us that would not have worked with the Golf R -- going over the mud ditch and hill in offroad mode to clear the curb and get onto the street. Raised the RR height 5 inches and did just that with ease. My son stayed asleep the entire time too. :lol: |
A few updates:
-My wife curbed the front passenger wheel again about a week after they were repaired. -The rear wheels aren't holding 44 psi like they're supposed to. -Auto trans has been having more backlash occurring lately at slow speeds -my father in law backed out of his garage and right into the front bumper, which caused scrapes on the passenger headlight and bumper cover. So.. it's hurting a bit right now. I have an appointment with the dealer scheduled for January 5th, where i'll get the wheel repaired, the transmission flushed/looked at and a quote on the body damage so insurance can take care of it. The good news is other than these self-created issues - we've been driving the hell out of it. Took it up to the mountains with ease and several family trips, around town. Might swap on some 20" wheels/tires to improve city driving comfort, but let's see what the dealer check-up shows too. 46k miles. |
I love the feedback on a "regular" car.
I bet the wheels are corroding, they don't clearcoat the bead or a tire shop scuffs them up and then they leak. Annoying and the only good fix is to wire wheel it, clearcoat it, then use some sealer. |
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Ahh that would make sense with these. I might have to just scrap them. Last time they were repaired, the dealer said that they had reached the limits of what could be fixed. Quite possible we've run out of places to put bondo haha. (so be it). |
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