2008-05-20 12:27:19
I should get this all over with in one blog, but it’ll be three. Too bad I have to pick on the Land Rover LR3, Toyota Sequoia, and Infiniti EX35, because so many upscale cars nowadays have the same issues: high tech for the sake of being high tech. So high tech they don’t work, in a lot of areas involving convenience and ease of operation.
The LR3, Sequoia and EX35 all have brilliant engines and transmissions (if you don’t count the electronic programming of those transmissions, at least the EX35’s, but of course you must). The LR3 has capabilities beyond the wildest dreams of 95 percent of its owners, and if 5 percent dream of them, only a fraction of 1 percent ever uses them. But, apparently, capability sells, as a status symbol, never mind the cost. Meanwhile, the Sequoia has the world’s most insane navigational system—I would call it hilarious, except it’s no fun being misguided, wasting time and burning money in gas. And the EX35 has an information screen that’s totally unreadable in daylight; doesn’t anyone TEST these things?
I’ll address the Sequoia and EX35 in subsequent blogs, for now it’s just the LR3. Although this commentary is more about the Land Rover “experience.”
And I should add that I’m only talking about the LR3, here, because that’s the vehicle I’ve most recently driven. The LR2 is the newest model, and I wrote a rave review at http://www.newcartestdrive.com/review-intro.cfm?Vehicle=2008_Land%20Rover_LR2&ReviewID=3482.
Here’s my lead:
“If the Land Rover LR2 doesn't knock the socks off of shoppers for an SUV of this size and price ($34,700 including freight), nothing will. It offers more content than they have reason to expect, compared to what's out there. Think of it as a baby Range Rover Sport, for at least 20 grand less. It costs about $10,000 less than the next Land Rover up the scale, the LR3, and has a powerful and smooth engine: an all-new, high-tech, inline six-cylinder built by Volvo, mated to a sophisticated six-speed automatic transmission.”
The LR2 is a Land Rover that I would actually buy, myself. Although if I were looking for an SUV and wanted the most value, I’d get a Mazda Tribute http://www.newcartestdrive.com/review-intro.cfm?Vehicle=2008_Mazda_Tribute&ReviewID=3504 or Jeep Patriot
http://www.newcartestdrive.com/review-intro.cfm?Vehicle=2008_Jeep_Patriot&ReviewID=3481.
Listen, the last thing I want to do is criticize incredible engineering, as in the case of the LR3. And it IS incredible, an engineering tour de force. This vehicle will do anything, include climb and descend mountains, crawl over boulders, cross rivers and traverse mud bogs. But who mostly drives Land Rovers? The wives of rich guys. The talents of the vehicle and the engineers who designed it are largely wasted. But I wouldn’t want people to stop buying Land Rovers, because then there would be less motivation to continue the brilliant engineering development.
I guess I’m commenting here on the buyers, not the vehicle. It’s not criticism, it’s more like marveling aloud, making a practical point that might be pointless to make. Most people who spend $55,000 or more for an LR3, let alone $92,000 for a top-of-the-line supercharged Range Rover, realize they’ll never use its capabilities. On the other hand, they’re secure knowing that the electronic systems that they can’t begin to understand are making the vehicle extremely safe. So those mechanical talents, at least, aren’t wasted.
Along with me, Land Rover wants their buyers to get the most out of their vehicles, so they offer Land Rover Adventures, in places like Moab, Utah, and Monterey, California; and also Land Rover driving schools around the world. I once went to one of their events in Atlanta, and the instruction was top-notch. Too bad they can’t throw in a school for free, with every new Land Rover sold.
Speaking of events, check out this link on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOeVX7Fva2g That's me, reporting from the wilds of South America, at the Camel Trophy for Land Rover athletes. I just had a Norwegian tell me it's funny--and if it tickles a Norwegian's funny bone, it must be hilarious! (I apologize for that 10-second commercial at the beginning.)
Now, for notes on the vehicle:
I couldn’t find the buttons for the 8-way power adjustable heated seats, among the scores of buttons on the instrument panel. Later my 10-year-old found them.
I was surprised how easily the cargo space got filled, with stuff from Costco and Ikea (plus a 4’ by 4’ headliner I got at the wrecking yard for my ’88 Chevy pickup).
I pressed a button that said “info” and didn’t get any; there was also a musical note on the button, which should have told me something but didn’t.
The automatic wipers started wiping on their own, about a minute before it started raining; the sensors detected moisture which was invisible on the windshield.
Half the time I couldn’t get the keys out of the ignition, until I turned it back on and off; never did figure out why. And it didn’t seem to let me take the keys out with the lights on (“seem” is the operative word), but when you get out, it turns the lights on.
It set itself to honk when locked—loudly. It just began doing it, after I had been driving it for a couple days.
I concede that some of these problems are driver malfunction—but the main malfunction is that I don’t have the time to read the 348-page manual to learn the tricks that aren’t intuitive.
The navigation system alone has a 96-page manual. It told me it had no roads for Hood River, Oregon, population 6000, located on Interstate 84.
There’s a 50-page “Dispute Resolution Supplement,” that’s ominous, if not downright scary.
I looked and looked to find the button that gave me driver information, such as the fuel mileage (16.7 mpg overall) and range; finally I broke down and referred to the manual, and found the guidance I needed on page 111. The info button is on the end of the turn signal stalk. When you own an LR3 you’ll learn and know this, but you might never find it on your own, because the only way you can see it is to put your head against the drivers’ window and look sideways.
With most of the new cars I test, I have notes like this. Like I said, I admit that they sometimes reflect my own ignorance. But I’m not dumb—remember, I’m the expert. But, like you, I’m really busy. So what I don’t know about the controls of a new car I test, isn’t intuitive. That’s the point.
END
Sam Moses
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