GeorgeG wrote:

Finally got an extended test drive in an SD4 the other day. A couple of hours or so and nearly 60 miles on my own. Although I have driven the FL2 before for short periods, it is surprising how different a vehicle feels over a longer test. I was struck by how much more of an off-roader it feels compared to my Forester in terms of weight and roll in corners. Also, despite the relatively powerful engine it needs to be coaxed into action by a fairly heavy throttle to get any kind of response similar to the Subaru. I can see why some members here can get as low as 20 mpg. I think it is probably a car you need to adapt your driving style to in order to bring out its qualities.

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It was a bright day and I was aware of the wires in the heated windscreen. I know that the heated screen is loved by most people and is regarded as a 'must have'. I thought this may drive me mad as it seems to give the impression that you are looking through a slightly opaque film. Have others had this first impression and then found that you get used to it? I know it seems a minor irritation, but I worry about spending £35,000 and getting a car with a feature that drives me to distraction.

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On the question of mpg, my test route had a bit of everything - about 40% dual carriageway at 70ish, 40% A-Class roads, 10% country lanes and 10% town. I was probably being fairly careful, but carried out two or three brisk overtaking moves. The OBC recorded 34.4 - how accurate is this likely to be? My experience of e.g. VW is that they are usually at least 10% optimistic - my Forester doesn't have an OBC which is just as well!

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Overall I was impressed by the apparent build quality and it is much less low rent than the Subaru. It is a very nice long distance cruiser and fuel consumption, although disappointing, is really not bad for a vehicle of its weight. Most of my use of this vehicle would be country lanes and I am a bit concerned that I may find it a little ponderous - I actually found the Volvo V70 tedious to drive in these situations.

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I need a 4 x 4 and it may fit the bill, but I am going to try a Subaru Outback 2.5 Lineartronic - a completely different beast but it may be nearer to what I am looking for and, believe it or not is probably more economical in the real world despite being petrol. It is a large 4 x 4 but is about 300 kg lighter.

I will report back.

Just Get One! It'll bring a smile to your face every time you get into it.

Having had my SD4 GS for a few weeks now, its the best thing. It looks great(in Lago Grey) goes great, is smooth, quite and refined and so comfortable. Whilst towing my van the other day, my wife asked me why I was going so slowly....I was doing 60!

Ok, it costs a lot of money.....but life's too short!

decho wrote:

Just Get One! It'll bring a smile to your face every time you get into it.

Having had my SD4 GS for a few weeks now, its the best thing. It looks great(in Lago Grey) goes great, is smooth, quite and refined and so comfortable. Whilst towing my van the other day, my wife asked me why I was going so slowly....I was doing 60!

Ok, it costs a lot of money.....but life's too short!

why do vanners always revert to kph when towing? At work
At home

"I can't always believe facts I read on the web" - Charles Dickens

winner by default of the tractor vs caravan race

chicken george wrote:

decho wrote:

Just Get One! It'll bring a smile to your face every time you get into it.

Having had my SD4 GS for a few weeks now, its the best thing. It looks great(in Lago Grey) goes great, is smooth, quite and refined and so comfortable. Whilst towing my van the other day, my wife asked me why I was going so slowly....I was doing 60!

Ok, it costs a lot of money.....but life's too short!

why do vanners always revert to kph when towing?

Hello again, just an update for anyone interested.

I've now driven both Subaru Ouitbacks - the 2.0 diesel manual and the 2.5 petrol CVT. Much roomier than the old model of which I was quite fond, particularly the 3.0 petrol. In a 2 hour run I managed 49.8 mpg in the diesel around country roads and a bit of town work, which is very impressive - but I can't cope with a manual these days. The 2.5 was so smooth it was like a 6 cylinder and the CVT worked really well with it giving a remarkable 34 mpg on a test run - probably better than the FL2 in the real world.

The roadholding was awesome, but at a high price - the ride was very unsettled on poor road surfaces at slower speeds to the extent that I felt it was unacceptable. This is where the FL2 scores so highly, and the less dynamic handling is maybe a price worth paying.

And of course there is the styling. The Outback is as ugly as sin whereas the FL2 is an exceptionally fine looking car.

So decho I think I may 'just get one' and have even come up with the colour - Galway Green and Almond leather. I had a futher test drive and didn't notice the wires in the heated windscreen until I was almost back to the dealer, so I don't think this is a problem. I did notice strange behaviour from the engine and transmission when approaching roundabouts as has been mentioned in various posts about the SD4. Is this limited to the SD4, or is the TD4 the same, as there don't seem to be any TD4 demonstrators to try out for myself. I was wondering if it was possibly worth saving £1000 if the TD4 was less compromised in this regard. Can those who have moved 'up' from the TD4 to SD4 comment on the differences - not just power - they have found and whether the benefit, if any, is worthwhile.

When I have got lots of encouraging comments I may well go and order one on Monday!

Thanks everyone who has contributed to my enlightenment with all your helpful suggestions and not a little wit.

You asked for "more advice" and you got it - in spades. It does this, it does that , the windscreen has lines in it, the Subaru does more to the gallon - whatever one of those is.

My SD4 is on my drive, I own it, it's 3 days old and I love it - get one - you know it makes sense.

My neighbours are sooooooooooo jealous - love it.

Bravo, glad you are getting close.

Re: various points in your posts.....

The heated screen wires, some never get used to it, but i'm not sure why you would be focusing your gaze at the bonnet when you should be looking down the road? In a nutshell, you will get used to it. Often this point is raised by people moving to a car with heated

I'll shut up if you like, but i hope I'm helping. If you are going new, buy the SD4. Don't spend the extra cash on the new model only to stick the TD4 in it. Finally, from years of experience in LR's (sorry to offend) don't buy a green LR. You will take it in the wallet come trade in. Weird I know, I like green, but they just don't sell. Fact.

So in a nutshell, the SD4 gearbox should settle once it's adapted to your style and the roundabout foible will be a distant memory along with the heated screen wires........

 2010MY Freelander 2 HSE Auto
Santorini Black with Ebony Napoli Leather

Triple7 wrote:

Bravo, glad you are getting close.

Re: various points in your posts.....

The heated screen wires, some never get used to it, but i'm not sure why you would be focusing your gaze at the bonnet when you should be looking down the road? In a nutshell, you will get used to it. Often this point is raised by people moving to a car with heated

I'll shut up if you like, but i hope I'm helping. If you are going new, buy the SD4. Don't spend the extra cash on the new model only to stick the TD4 in it. Finally, from years of experience in LR's (sorry to offend) don't buy a green LR. You will take it in the wallet come trade in. Weird I know, I like green, but they just don't sell. Fact.

So in a nutshell, the SD4 gearbox should settle once it's adapted to your style and the roundabout foible will be a distant memory along with the heated screen wires........

Triple7 wrote:

Bravo, glad you are getting close.

Re: various points in your posts.....

The heated screen wires, some never get used to it, but i'm not sure why you would be focusing your gaze at the bonnet when you should be looking down the road? In a nutshell, you will get used to it. Often this point is raised by people moving to a car with heated

I'll shut up if you like, but i hope I'm helping. If you are going new, buy the SD4. Don't spend the extra cash on the new model only to stick the TD4 in it. Finally, from years of experience in LR's (sorry to offend) don't buy a green LR. You will take it in the wallet come trade in. Weird I know, I like green, but they just don't sell. Fact.

So in a nutshell, the SD4 gearbox should settle once it's adapted to your style and the roundabout foible will be a distant memory along with the heated screen wires........

You are are getting paralysis through analysis - Imapema Sand aint OAP Beige it's gold - ish or silver -ish depending on the light. Someone on the site said "cow shows up more on almond than black" - so don't get cow on your leather, sorry Pleather. It's your decision so just do it. The SD4 is the dogs boll...ks. unless you want great economy in which case buy a battery driven van.

Go for Orkney, everybody will like it. The light interior will look classy, but is almond more brown than cream??? I would however add the factory privacy glass to this choice though. Orkney isn't a Jag colour by name, but maybe 'Lunar', which does look v nice with the Jag Ivory interior.


Tbh, it's your car, you choose the colour you like........I always look to see if the colour combo is a 'designers choice' in the brochure. If they think it works then it probably will.
 2010MY Freelander 2 HSE Auto
Santorini Black with Ebony Napoli Leather

Totally agree about colour choice I have had a pale yellow Subaru, and a blue Seat Ibiza in the past, both apparently "poor resale colours" but as I brought them because I liked them the resale 3 years down the line never really bothered me. I would agree about the factory tints and I have the SD4 and I love it SD4 Sport LE Firenze Red - no options or modifications yet, but it's early days.

Just a bit of follow-up on comments I made some weeks ago about the SD4's apparent difficulties coming into tight corners and roundabouts - the feedback from other forum members was very enlightening and now means that I switch into "Sports" mode when I suspect I might need the higher revs (ie: Control) coming into such scenarios. I now feel far more comfortable.
Having now tried the new SD4 in as many on and off-road situations that I could muster up in a month or so, I'm becoming very comfortable off-road in particular. Only a few days ago, I was in situations where my passenger was in "wow!" mode and I was similarly impressed with the technology that could take us up incredibly steep dirt inclines with barely a single wheel spin or hesitation from the motor, despite crawling at an incredibly slow speed (1 Klm/Hr). I thought I was OK at driving offroad in my previous manual 4WD's with low-ratio but there is NO WAY I COULD HAVE DONE THAT MANUALLY. Very impressed. The only thing that stopped me was the ride height. Were it not for that, I would have gone anywhere I wanted to - without run-ups!

Well I've done it! Ordered a new SD4 HSE today from my local dealer who were brilliant. I've got a good p-ex price and a very good discount - bettter than four other dealers I approached. As Triple 7 advised in an earlier post, as I soon got a feel for the likely deals on offer I did not spend hours endlessly playing them off against each other.

I have provisionally ordered Galway Green with Almond leather as I needed to get my order started to take advantage of the 0% finance deal which runs out soon. But, I had already started thinking of changing to Orkney Grey. After I placed the order I decided to drive some way to a Jaguar dealer to see a car in Lunar Grey, which is meant to be the Jag equivalent of Orkney grey. It was a very nice colour - almost a deep silver - which I prefer to Stornoway - and a bit lighter. I was able to compare the two as the Jag dealer was also a LR dealer and they had a couple of Stornoway FL2's for sale as well as some Lago's. If the Lunar is Orkney then I think I prefer it to the discontinued greys - it is a very classy colour. The conundrum now is if I change to Orkney do I go for Almond or black leather. Mrs GeorgeG wants a light interior, but I feel Orkney may be a touch too light to suit Almond, in much the same way silver cars look odd with pale interiors. Incidentally, the grey Jags often have an Ivory interior, rather than the more beige of Almond, but I don't think it is worth paying a £1225 premium for Ivory Windsor leather.

I can see me ending up with my default choice for my last eight cars - silver/grey with black leather. A safe choice, but perhaps a little unadventurous. Firstly, I need to check with LR that Orkney is indeed Lunar, otherwise I might be in for quite a surprise if Igo for this option and it is acompletely different shade.

I'll keep you posted.

A quote from car sales colleague referring to Bali Blue with Almond interior in relation to desired colours

" doom blue with puke upholstery"
Just quoting, nothing personal.
My personal choice with any make of car is dark interior with a light colour metallic paint. All FL2's (3) Gone
2011 Mercedes C180 CGI Gone
FL2 GS Auto SD with heated leather, factory tints, alloy spare and a few other bits.