Another Land Rover after your bad experience with that first one??? I'd think you'd have been turned off to the brand, although I guess it's nice they stepped up to voluntariy buy yours back. Still, I'd be buying a Jeep. No question.

 

Agreed. I wouldn't give them too much credit for "voluntarily" buying it back. It's the law. Still, glad it worked out for you.

 

The discovery is no more reliable either. It has historically been one of the worst for quality.

 

The Disco's built after 99 are supposed to be much more reliable, and since it's been around for 9-10 years, i'm hoping they've got all the bugs out of the thing. The reason why Land Rover is getting a second chance from me, is because of my dealership. I have never seen a dealership that offers as good service as Land Rover Cincinnati. I know it's a british product, and that it's a Land Rover, so I know it's not going to be perfect. However, what makes it okay is when you always have a dealership that is willing to stand behind you and help you as much as they can. Land Rover would not have voluntarily bought my SUV back if the owner of my dealership didn't constantly get on their ass about my lemon. When Land Rover agreed to buy it back, they gave me a choice between cash or another LR, and I chose to go with another LR product. When I realized the SUV in the trim I wanted wasn't in stock, my dealership searched all across the country to find one I wanted(Disco HSE with cold weather package only), and found one exactly with the Bonatti grey exterior, and alpaca beige interior located at the Baltimore Land Rover port of entry. After talking with Land Rover, they got them to allocate that vehicle to me instead of whereever it was intended to go. My dealership is also paying to have it shipped here via an enclosed transport as well, and I should be picking it up around Wednesday to Thursday next week.

As far as why I didn't go with Jeep, they just plain suck ass. If you want an experience in poor customer service, go to any of the Jeep dealers around here and they are terrible. I shopped Jeep before I bought my original Freelander lemon, and not only was the sales guy overly aggressive, but I went back to the service department to check them out, and the service advisors were rude, and the tech guys looked like they were barely 18 years old. Also, if you think Jeep's are more reliable than Land Rover's, you might want to think again. Jeep's don't have a very good track record either, and the 3 coworkers at work who drive Jeep's swear they'll never buy another one again. Besides, what really makes Land Rover's attractive is the command view seating that they are always hyping. It's simply like no other experience as you feel like you are sitting so high up towering above everyone else. It provides a unique perspective like nothing else. Even in many SUV's out there that are just as tall, you still feel like you are sitting a bit low. I've recently been catching the offroading bug, and being able to see everything around you is critical when crawling over rocks, or other potentially damaging obstacles.

 

I can see your perspective. You'll have that Land Rover back in there so often, you really will *need* to have a polite service experience.

As to the Jeep comments, I won't debate the merits of the Grand Cherokees (not really off-roader vehicle's, IMHO), the Liberty (I drove one, thought it was crap, and I'm not sure there's much aftermarket for it yet), etc. I'm just saying, if I were getting into off-roading big time, I'd pick up a Wrangler with the I6 engine and mod the crap out of it. And I'd pick up a normal car for daily driving.

All of that said, that's just my opinion. Good luck with the Discovery! That's a bit of a step up from the Freelander price-wise, isn't it??? And let us know when you get some more off-roading videos! That one you sent me last year from your trip to that park in PA was pretty awesome! Especially with all of that snow cover.

Later,
Joe

 

Joe, if you are interested, I do have the video's from my last trip to Paragon offroad park in PA which was 2 months ago. We had a blast and spent 2 days there with nearly 20 vehicles in attendance. Some of the more unique vehicles in attendance was a 1973 Land Rover 101 Forward Controller, a 1968 Land Rover Series, a 94 Discovery(sadly this vehicle suffered a busted tie rod on the trail). Anyone who has AIM can download the files from my computer, and you'll need Windows Media Player to view them. My screen name is jhhan80, and all you have to choose from the people menu is "get file from buddy" and you'll be able to download a list of files available for download from my computer. From there, you can just choose which files you want from my collection of offroading video's.

 

Sweet, which ones are the most recent? I don't want to redownload the one or two you already sent me.

 

Joe, the original ones I sent you is

Paragon.wmv and tape2.wmv

These were the original video's from my very first trip to Paragon in the middle of winter.

The rest of the windows media player files are from my latest trip to Paragon, but there are some Land Rover TV ad's that are mixed in there as well. These files are

bunnyloop1 and 2
101course
101drop
turtlerockbypass
turtletrail
outersparetire(neat very deep creek crossing at end)
upfromspare
doerun(my favorite of all the trails)
highroad 1 and 2
steverocks
downthepipeline


I would have had more footage, but I accidently filmed the most part of the second day with the lens cap still on my camcorder. I have no idea, but this offroading thing really catches on to you after you've given it a try. I have no plans to offroad my new SUV anytime soon as I would probably freak if I put a scratch on a brand new $41k SUV, but when I do plan on heading back to Paragon sometime next year as I promised to put together another trail ride for our Land Rover online community since everyone had so much fun there. When we do decide on that trail ride, anyone here with an SUV suitable for offroading is more than welcome to join us.

 

I like this!! The name of my firm is Paragon Consulting, Inc. Maybe we can morph from an I.T. Consulting firm to an offroad course.

 

Paragon seems to be a very popular name for lots of buisness' for some reason. Paragon offroad park's web address is

http://www.paragonap.com