I’m conscious that I’m in the price range of a Range Rover, and I love the look of the Defender, Velar and full fat RR (I’m less keen on the new RR Sport), but the interiors (full size RR aside) are a little too minimalistic for my liking. My financial advisor has a RR Sport and after just a couple of months was complaining about the ludicrous prices that LR dealers wanted for things and he’s already having issues. I just can’t move beyond the point that they are always bottom of every reliability survey and on the rare ocassions that you see a car broken down at the roadside these days, there’s a high chance that it’s a Jaguar Land Rover product! I’d take my chances with a BMW V8 over any RR product! They do say that LR / RR owners are advised to have two of them, so that they are always mobile when one of them is in the garage for repair!
I wouldn’t be prepared to chance my hard earned money on a Chinese car either, as their long term reliability is as yet unproven and, more importantly, they just don’t appeal to me, but there’s no doubting that, price wise, they are attractive. That being said, I was drawn to the Tucson due to the comparative value for money due to the high standard equipment level but, as I have since learned, that is just one part of the equation.
If the second X5 test drive doesn’t convince me, I’m going to look at a Porsche Cayenne and, possibly, Audi. Their styling is less polarising than the latest generation BMWs. I suppose I should take another look at Range Rover but would only keep it for as long as the warranty lasts 😂