I know that these seem to only have 4wd in common but both fall into the price range of what I’m looking to spend on a third vehicle. The RRS would be a 2010/11 model and the Wrangler would prob be 14/15. I love everything on paper about the RRS…but going this route requires me to purchase one with at least 80k on the clock. My fear of getting the wrangler is that it will be so god awful slow that ill hate myself, and that the wife would hate me whenever she drove it.
This truck would only be used for trips with the dogs, really crappy days in the winter, and for days that the G8 is under the knife getting upgrades/repairs. It wouldnt expect it to see more than 5k a year in mileage.
My friends parents both drive Range Rover sports. His moms wheel fell
off on the highway. They’re both giant turds and I would never ever consider one without a full warranty. But, that’s just like my opinion, man. Many other people have great experiences with them
Wranglers are fun for a time. No issues. But louder, wide and not nimble. My fiancee did not like driving it and she has driven SUVs her whole motoring career.
On the other hand I bought it brand new for ~$30k (employee deal) plus taxes and sold it for $28k with the rims and tires, 2.5 years later. They are magic with the residuals.
I had a Rubicon as a rental in Moab, UT and it was really awesome out there, but I couldn’t imagine driving it daily, but it doesn’t sound like you would. However, I’d much rather have the RRS… if I wasn’t worried about inevitable maintenance co$ts
If you’re willing to consider either of these it seems like there are so many better choice somewhere in between either of them since they’re on such opposite ends of the spectrum.
I’ve ridden in a couple Wranglers and would never own one. Rent one for a weekend of top down cruising sure but never own it. The RRS I’d daily but not if to get it in my budget I’d have to go 5-6 years old with 80k. Too much of a rep for expensive problems. Somewhere between the euro-lux of the RSS and the off road leaf spring jeepness of the Wrangler is something like a Toyota 4-Runner that would be reliable, off road capable but still a comfortable daily.
Yea Onyx’s truck had me checking out trucks like his…and somehow i stumbled across the sport and wife liked it better. Then I learned they redesigned the interior and motor for 2010 and here I am.
I’ve been looking at the cost of parts and they’re in general the same or cheaper than the G8, and actually a lot easier to get ahold of. Now if I had to pay someone to maintain the truck the costs would be astronomical compared to the typical car…
Updated - - -
Yea if this was going to be a daily I would be looking for something much more sensible. These two grab my(our) attention because of how extreme they are.
Yeah here’s the thing, when I talk to people about the maintenance I’ve had to do with my RR it really sounds worse than it was. Consider that the bulk of the big things I did were around 170k, so nearly 100k more than what you’re looking at. Also consider with 252k I never once needed wheel bearings or any exhaust component, and never needed to mess with the engine at all… you might have already had to replace the wheel bearings on your G8
Also keep in mind my 2005 was a BMW essentially. In 2006 they were Fords (you’ll note similar window controls, turn signal stalks and other misc. things in the RRS that are the same as the Ford Escape) but then they were sold to TATA in 2008. After TATA got their hands on them they’ve been even more reliable at least according to what I’ve read on forums. So I can’t speak personally about how good the L320 model holds up.
The lore of “land rovers are maintenance headaches / unreliable” comes from much older generations when the electronics were made by a company called Lucas electronics who used solder that was too thin and broke. When BMW got their hands on them they improved and have kept improving since.
Basically it’s like any other vehicle; if you treat it right it’ll run right and last.
And IMO the interiors on the full size are much nicer than the sports, but it’s all down to what you prefer. The full size RR tends to depreciate quicker than the RRS so they tend to be cheaper and with the extra space of the full size buying a RRS wasn’t as desirable as buying a full size to me.
Let’s get @Scott in here to see how his full size RR is holding up, maybe he has more insight since his is a newer year than mine was.
…
And Jeeps are fun but not for daily driving or on the highway. Lookup the “death wobble” and you might stop considering them all together. One of our employees recently bought one with this issue and the fix was a whole new sub frame… maybe they solved this by 2014?
Updated - - -
My blower motor resistor never went because my truck already had the redesigned version by 2005. My blower fan did die, but not until 245k.
Air suspension can be a pain at times, but with the IID tool and lifetime warranty on the struts / bags that made it easier for me.
But he’s looking at a 2010+ so I’m not sure how much help I’m going to be seeing as mine was almost a totally different truck.
A good example of this is back when I first bought it I used to take it to Delta Sonic all the time. The truck had a tight seal to it and the car wash air dryers ended up blowing / popping out the rubber seal around the cables running into the hatch. This let water drip down inside and into the Bluetooth module. And since the Bluetooth module is connected to the entire sound / navigation system, when the water killed the module and it’s fiber optic connection to the rest of the system, the rest of the system failed as well.
It wasn’t hard to diagnose though. I could see the water staining on the Bluetooth module so I traced it to its source. And after replacing the module everything when back to working fine.
I’m not too worried about troubleshooting issues that may arise as a result of the bells and whistles. 90% of my job is troubleshooting odd issues. What I worry about are red flags…for example the DOD hardware on my G8 has a tendency to prematurely fail and usually takes the rest of the engine with it, I havent seen anyone complaining about issues with the range rover motors.
Rust is an issue that I cant stand. The older wranglers seem to have issues around here with rust, and I haven’t seen any rovers with rust on them yet. Some cars have a tendency to rust in a particular spot.
I haven’t ruled out the full sized version, but the full sized with the supercharged engine seems to be tougher to find.
Just cause you can never have enough power…
I don’t think I would mind the NA version, they’re fairly quick. Choosing one or the other would probably just be a matter of price. The HSE would have to be an awesome deal to persuade me away from the supercharged version. So far from I’ve seen the pricing between the two isnt enough to make me go for the NA version
I know…the wife thinks we should wait till gas prices start creeping up this summer to see if the prices come down some more. I really dont care about the mpg…the g8 typically doesnt do much better than 15.
Maybe off topic but why are some new Range Rovers $250,000 and others are half of that? I knew cars like Porsche had some big options but that is crazy.
