I am curious, how many of you have had a land rover, and now have a G? and why did you trade off?
I have an 84 300gd, and a 97 disco,
disco is lifted,winched,bfg mts,and a detroit in rear
G is lifted, 32" bfg ats
I like them both for different reasons, I believe that the G is more stout, less frame flex, almost none at all, stiffer suspension, less articulation,
The disco, soft and flexy suspension, a little frame flex, But an off road animal, I have pushed the disco through 3.5' of water, with no issues, and it has 126k miles without any issues,
I have had the G off road in the rocks, wheels 3' off the ground, and i just keep moving!, I have been up hills where disco's flounder, and the G just crawls right up like a stroll through starbucks parking lot!
Both are great, I need to keep them both! But for different reasons!
How about you???
Peter.
I have had the good fortune to have a RR Classic '90, LR Dicso '95, ML320 '99 and currently G500 '02. Though non at the same time to do any side by side driving, they all had their good points. (Not all off road) I should say all have been completely stock and with average tires. Mechanically the Disco was a huge problem, but was pretty good off road. I really did like the interior layout. The Brits did that well! ML was a great on road car that I could get lots of places off road, but very, very slowly. If I could have 2 out of 4 at the same time I would want my RR and the G500. I loved the RR and had it lots of places off road without incident. The G is much stiffer and feels stronger. I have had the dreded voltage regulator/electrical thing happen at about 62,000 miles, just in Jan. It was gone for a month and I'm still finding fuses they forgot to relace as they say the did something that caused the polarity to revers through the system. (Sounded bogus to me - I have followed some of the threads through the board and know it is somewhat common in the '02's. I'd like to heard from those who have gotten help from MBUSA. My dealer used my extended warrenty to fix it.)
Speaking as a former farmers son, and former soldier,that has had the benefit of using both in extreme conditions over long periods, I beleave the Land Rover product takes some beating, I mean the Defender, IMO the Disco and Range Rover are a different animal all together, Discos and Range Rovers should be compared with other Luxury 4x4 suvs such as Toyota Nissan Jeep etc.
So as for the two true 4x4 utility trucks, one has diff locks as standard one doesn't. they are both extremely capable.
I currently own one Disco, one D90, and one SWB 300GD.
All are good for what they are designed to do.
The disco does moderate offroad driving in relative comfort, which is what I need when my wife comes along. The rockers are too low for anything serious, although when things are extremely tippy I do like it's center of gravity. It feels more stable on a side angle, though whether or not that is true & more than just a gut feeling is open to debate. I can also schlepp more camping stuff in the disco than the others.
The G is generally much more solid feeling, less likely to fracture something under hard use, generally built stronger and gets better mileage. I've followed a couple of built-up Rubicons through Williams Pass here in CO, which the jeep owners didn't think I could do. The downside is when something needs to be fixed, it takes a couple of weeks before people here can work on it. It's also too d*mn hot in summer.
The D90 does well off-road, though if the G had higher rocker panels I think it would win the day off-road. It's easier to get fixed, easier to clean up after a trip (just hose it down inside & out). It takes about $5k invested to bring it up to G-like standards (locking diff's, 4.11 gears, beefier axles and CV joints). Once there, so far I think it performs similarly to the G off-road, though totally uncivilized on-road. You have to love the truck to be able to stand driving it. I drive it each day to work 30 miles, so I can say this.
Personally, if the rocker panels were a tad further off the rocks and if I could get it fixed in a more timely fashion, I would take the G any day.
If you have specific questions, I'd be happy to answer them since I do have a direct comparison available.
Yay!!!!!! Another G vs. LR thread!!!!! Ha HA Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha....
Currently own a Europa G500, '89 RR, '67 LR Air-Portable, and a U1100 416.141 Unimog. I've also owned 4 other LR's, an FJ40, and an IH travelall (remember those?).
Highway Driving: G500
Highway driving with windows sunroof open: RR
Cold weather comfort: G500
Off Road, 99% of everything except extreme: RR
Off Road Extreme: G500
Off Road Toughness: Probably the G500, too early for me to know though.
Coolness: G500
Reliability: ? the G's not impressing me so far. The RR really impressed me in a good way.
Overall Experience: So far, The G500. No doubt about it.
Without a doubt, the Range Rover is the undisputed king of easy off-roading. It's also the most reliable 4x4 I've ever owned, so far - with 200k miles, never had the motor apart, never anything replaced in the complete drivetrain, other than front axle seals, and lots of oil for the leaky transfer case. In my opinion, the original Classic Range Rover represents a true benchmark in automobile design, for many reasons.
That said, I love my G500 more than any vehicle I've ever had - so far. I suspect it is more capable off-road than the Rangie, although it's definitly not going to be as easy to prove it. The G is very solid and stiff feeling, it definitely spins it's wheels in places the RR just smiles at, at least until you lock the diffs...which brings me to my latest experience in the G: Yesterday In the G500, I spent some time on some mildly snowy-crusty-slushy yet very steep roads in the Smoky mountians. It did very well, despite the crappy Geolander tires, but I sure had to stay on my toes with the diff locks - what a workout. And I got to expeprience several steep decents with both ABS on, and ABS off. In fact, the ABS was running an lot, and it made the otherwise crappy G brakes feel slightly more reasuring. If I had been in the Range Rover, I'd never have even thought about it. I guess that's what's so defining about the Range Rover; it makes virtually all 4x4 situations seem easy. And what's defining about the G is that its the ultimate stock 4x4 in capability and robustness - well except for a Unimog.
I'd like to do a RR Classic/G500 side by side drive, stock to stock. I agree at least in my memories that my RR was a fantastic vehicle. I love my G though and hope I can keep it as long as I should have kept my RR ...
I should have added to my post above, because of where I live, just about everyone has a Land Rover of some kind, My experience with the G when they first came in to service was that they just had the edge and still do around the farm and forests, but for speed and comfort it's unfortunate that no RHD Gs are built any-more.
We have both a RR classic and a 300gd 460 at home, both similare vintage (mid 80's), and value neither modifed yet.
In my experiace
Reliablity
Both about the same, my RR much cheaper to repair. The only cost effective way of keeping a G going is to break another for spares.
On road
The RR is better due to having a turbo and a sencible number of gears, 5 as opposed to 4.
Off road
The G has sized difflocks, If they were working it may be very different butas it is RR is the better despite having a tow bar that does a lot of ploughing.
Regards scottgs comments on off road toughness, the G certainly seems like a 'brick s#!t house', as for the RR I keep amazing myself a how much abuse it will take.
I just got back from giving the Mog it's weekly warmup-circulate the oil drive. Guess what? the Hummer dealer's got a test track! He he ha ha HA HA HA HA!! It's got the typical steep concrete hill tipsy rocky course thing like the LR dealers have.
So, Instead of driving up the the normal way, I turned straight up the side of the hill, perpendicular like...much steeper, and no grippy things for the tires either. I didn't realize there was anybody in the dealership, but they were plastered to the windows from inside the office. Oops. [:D][}:)][:D][}:)][:D]
... as for the RR I keep amazing myself a how much abuse it will take.
I'm with you. The RR is the one vehicle that I've owned that I just absolutely always trust. It's very ironic though, it's not supposed to be this way, is it? And my previous 5 Rovers were horribly unreliable. I attribute a lot of it's reliability to the old-fashioned quality design of the Buick V8. A real Buick V8 designed to be good, not cheap. It's not a GM or chevy design. Then that German built ZF transmission, and the unexpectedly excellent and way over sized Borg-warner transfer case with the viscous silicone locking diff that scared me, until I saw and felt how brilliantly it works...and keeps working. I would say if there is one thing that my RR has over the G, other than the superior off-road suspension design, it is a viscous diff in the transfer case. It makes so much difference in casual off-roading or icy roads.
Now I still just have to say that I enjoy my G500 more though. It's so much more roomy, much better behaved as far as handling. It's quieter, smoother, twice as powerful, although it's very solid and heavy feeling. And that MB V8 is just sooooo sexy and smooth, purring away one moment like the first Movement of the Moonlight sonata, and then when you press the pedal, it's the 3rd movement, an absolute blast, like a formula-one car on a roller coaster...just awesome. Soooooooooo much more than the Rangie ever was. Plus the G has an excellent heater (if you look up Lukewarm in the dictionary, youll find a pictue of a so-called LR heater). I just thoroughly enjoy driving the G. Can't exactly explain it, I just do.
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