mdr

I am surprised at the way the Discovery holds the road in turns.

I took a drive today up a twisting turning back road and was coming back when I got behind a new Land Rover.
I thought to myself OK time to settle down and not push the corners cause normally when I get behind a SUV they do at or below the corner suggested speed rates.
This guy however was clipping along pretty good taking U curves rated at 40K at 60 and 70k. I got to thinking well maybe he thinks I am pushing him so I will back off a bit, so I slowed right down and put some space between him and me. Next thing I know he is still taking the curves like they are straight lines.

So I catch up to him and decide to follow him down the hill and see what he does, next thing I know we are going around a pretty decent curve that had a slow to 50K at 80k the normal road limit and he is not backing off at all.

Never knew that a SUV could hug it that well. Surprised the hell out of me.

auzoom

A day on the skidpan is a god send for most drivers. Nothing annoys me more than people who brake into corners that just dont need it. Albeit the people inside may flop around, even in the wifes CX-7 take and holds corners at speed!

takahashi

It works when you know how to drive.

I have driven the Disco 3 and they are great car.

My Kluger rolls a bit but will corner like a Accord Euro does, I follow one around bands at legal speed (I think it was a 80kmh). No problem.

Tyres and suspension are much improved on the SUV this days. No lowsy drive like the X Trail model just before the current one.

mdr

My wifes Kluger handles horrible, I hate driving it. Rolls in all the corners too much for me.

auzoom

rolling is one thing, I guarantee you the car still sticks to the road. This is what I was getting at. most people underestimate a cars holding ability by about half.

mdr

I am sure it'll stick.

I am not going to push the Kluger to the edge though, it is a nice 7 seater, great for long trips and to pile all the kids in, but to take corners I am sticking with the 8.

timbo

Really? Having driven both, I know which I'd prefer to push through any series of decent curves at speed.

Discos are a good thing, if that's what you are into....tough off-road, too

takahashi

You just have to get pass the feeling of roll and sense the tyre underneath.... roll is deceiving.

The front wheel drive Kluger may struggle though. Did you test drove the front wheel drive Kluger by any chance?

Revolver

Give me our 6 anyday - cheaper to run, less environmental impact, fits in the mini-terrorists and will out-corner the Disco or the Kluger. The longer we've owned it, the more I've liked it - a genuinely fun to drive family truckster.

mdr

Didn't know they made a front wheel drive Kluger?
Thought all the ones in OZ were AWD.

Gomez

Crap 4WD discussion on the forum???

To the Lounge with the rest of the inane guff.

Cromax

Adding my 2 cents: If I bought a 4WD (which will probably be an option in the next 10 years), I'd only buy a Land Rover because they're the best allround. The Range Rovers of the 1980-90s were fantastic on the road, and kicked the ***** off a Landcruiser ...
... reliability wise they're pretty shithouse in comparison though.

thisllub

My brother in law had a ML500 Mercedes.
I borrowed it for a week once and although it had the driving position of a 4WD it drove as well as a lot of cars.

I like the Discos.
If the day comes and my wife no longer gets a 4wd as a company car I will be looking at them for sure.

rotarenvy

I regularly drive 4WD diesel utes and at regular road speeds there is little cornering difference between sedans. sure you have a lot more weight to shift round and I wouldn't say they are nice to drive, but they can corner at a good pace. it is normally a corolla sedan or caravans driven at under the speed limit that hold people up where I drive.

Furymax

As you may or may not know - I traded my RX8 for a Discovery 3. To compare the two is a difficult task because as far as cars go they couldn't be more different. The 8 is a well balanced, lightweight, well powered sports car and the D3 is a massive heavy lump of metal with a big, fat, petrol loving V8.

Driving home after I had made the exchange, the D3 could not have felt more alien to me. It was like driving a train. The engine had to work so hard to get it up to speed and the brakes had to work even harder getting it to stop (I was driving it like I did the 8). After a few days of this I noted that my fuel consumption was about 22l/100km - this was not cool!!

Over the past couple of months I have refined my driving style and am now very comfortable in the D3. It is smooth, responsive, corners well (little bit of roll) and with the airbag suspension bumps in the road can hardly be felt. It takes a little longer to hit the speed limit and you need to brake a bit further away from things for a smooth stop, but I can still hit the round about at the end of my street at 45kph (50kph in the 8). It is now averaging 18l/100kph combined - a lot more city than h/way.
Have only been offroad with it once so far. It handled it A+ uneven rutted rocky tracks and creek beds no worries. I am taking it camping and fishing on the beach next weekend so we'll see how it goes there.

I still miss the 8 and am looking for a house with a 3 car garage so I can get another fun car, an FD maybe?

Oh and the Land Rover forums are generally boring as batshit - you guys are heaps more interesting still, even though I don't have an 8 anymore.

In a nutshell - I highly reccommend the Discovery 3 but would get the TDV6 if you don't like spending $110 on petrol for about 400ish k's (city).

Cheers
FURY

ps sorry this post is so long and probably boring to most

Revolver

That's alright Fury, lol. You come here for a fix any time you need it mate.

BTW, seeing how most of Qld is under water atm, having a truck might be a good thing.

Revolver

Umm, Kluger fans might like to buy the latest Wheels mag. I think they'll find pages 54-55 especially interesting...

By the way, the Furai and the series II RX8 get a mention on page 22.....

timbo

Hmm...that article makes some good points -- about DSC/ESP in general, and on SUVs in particular (esp the Kluger, which must be mis-calibrated )

Anyone who has tracked their RX-8 will know and have felt the intervention of the 8's DSC. IMO, the 8's is a very good system, pulling the car back into line but not spoiling too much fun. Speaking from experience (the first Nats ) it is all too easy to get used to what the DSC is doing and overdrive, as Bulmer admits was the case with the Kluger. In my case, it was simply deciding to turn DSC off....and still overdriving...lesson quickly learnt

Having previously owned a number of big 4WDs, none of which had DSC/ESP, I'm not sure that if I was to buy another (and I won't ) I'd like the overdriving encouragement DSC can give. 4WDs have mass and a high centre of gravity; they tell you pretty quickly what is happening, and most people (should) soon learn to drive within their limits. I've certainly had a Rangie in a drift through a corner on a wet road, and it tightens the sphincter, let me tell you

Perhaps with ESP/DSC people can hunt them along through corners as fast as a Honda Accord Euro. Having driven both, I think not, and anyone who does so regularly should read the "Wheels" article carefully

takahashi

Wow they roll the car! Great stuff !

Point taken Timbo. You need talent to drive the car.
I do notice the short fall of the ESP, and someone with some sense should know that one should not drive an SUV at 100kmh around a longer sweeper gravel track!?!?!

Thanks for the pointer. I will show that to my wife!

By the way, the Toyota response is very aggressive; basically they are saying that the Wheel magazine provided the ECU and there is data saying that what they have said was wrong.... "A download of the onboard ECU of the vehicle involved in the incident indicates a set of circumestances substantially different to those described by wheels"... hmmm

thisllub

They are a challenge in the wet.
My wife's company car is a 2006 Hilux. In 2WD in the wet it has more tail than an EF Falcon with bald tyres. I love the screeching noise it makes at roundabouts.

Cars like the X5 and ML500 have BIG road tyres not multi purpose tyres so they have much more grip. Nearly all rollovers are a result of a too fast change in direction aka the moose test.

Revolver

Which is precisely what happens when a soccer mum (running late to drop little Jimmy off) comes around a blind corner too fast and has to swerve to miss an obstacle because there's no way something so big and heavy will brake in time. And you can bet not many of them have done a defensive drive course in that kind of car, so such an incident is the first time they have had to manage it in extremis.

I can understand why certain lifestyles and employment requirements mandate buying an SUV to also double as the family car and driven within their dynamic limits, they are fine. However, when people opt for them over a station wagon with equivalent cargo capacity (and often much better active safety as a result of lower centre of gravity and reduced braking distances) simply for vanity reasons (i.e. "I'm not buying a taxi!"), I tend to shake my head and wonder if they've thought it through. And that's before you even consider issues such as economy and comparative environmental footprints.

Yes it's a tired old debate and I appreciate manufacturers have improved the active safety of the 'softroader' variety of SUV but I worry when they market 'sports' versions, which encourage the mug lair to demonstrate how fast he can hustle it through some corners, etc. All the DSC programs and sticky rubber in the world aren't a failsafe against the combination of physics and stupidity.

I wonder if the new Commodore wagon will tempt more families out of their trucks? It's a marked improvement styling-wise and Euro 'estates' seem to sell okay.

mdr

SUV's are ingrained to the Aussie lifestyle, in the US down south it is pick up trucks better known as utes to you lot. But here in OZ I notice it is SUV's.

We have one for 2 reasons people mover, 3 kids my wife and I and it seats 7. AWD drive so we can hook trailer loaded with camping gear up and go camping.

What I don't understand the is 2 wheel drive only SUV's, kind of waste of space and energy if you can't take it off the road.
The wife is wanting a hybrid probably a Toyota so once we trade the Kluger in for that will probably still buy some older model SUV for camping, since neither the prius or the 8 are suitable to pull a trailer.

thisllub

It is funny but the majority of 2 car families I know would be in the situation where the woman has the 4WD. They like them.
Must be the "Oh what a feeeeelinggg" syndrome .

Revolver

Agreed. They like the height and sense of security that comes with something big around them. Unfortunately, they rarely accquire the skills to handle them in an emergency situation.

Guys go out and do driving courses but then forget who is driving their offspring around. For example, how many of the guys in here have had their partners do a defensive driving course? 'Er Indoors was sceptical at first when I suggested she do one but came back from the course with a very different mindset.