Ok, here it comes... the Thrilla from Manila. :-)

Get your bets down, folks; it will soon be post time.

 

This morning I saw an add for a Waverunner type vehicle. They stated that 87.6 percent of the units they have built and sold are still in servive today. That is one of the most meaningful ways of expressing demonstrated vehicle reliability. Most other attempts would be basically meaningless.

 

For the LOVE of GOD just let it go Mk. Seriously! I've seen many of these trucks go 200k plus miles without much of a problem. We have owned Jaguar for MANY years and they have been more reliable than my friends' Hondas and our Hyundais. So don't BASH them! Jaguar is an amazing car and the XF has had some electrical problems that have been resolved within a year. Almost all vehicles experience "teething" problems their first year, including HONDA. Simply because they do not know how the programming or the vehicle design is going to react until it meets real world conditions. And I laugh at your reaction to toyota. They have made quality vehicles for years, but greed got the best of them. The problem seems to be their electronics. The simple case in point, their electronic throttle kills people, but the LR throttle just kicks out and causes a check engine light. Which would you rather have? The fact of the matter is you have no idea how the Rover V8 operates or the ZF transmission for that matter. They are incredibly reliable power-train components that have been around for ages. If you want to do a reliability report, do it for a Land Rover that is a little newer. You will find reliablity is much better than it used to be. Little problems that I experience from my RR from time to time are very inexpensive if you take them to you an independent mechanic vs. a dealership. YES a LR dealership will charge more, get used to it. There is a reason people buy RR over Lexus, its a little something called class and elegance. don't mean to snap at you bud, but quite frankly I'm tired of listening to it. BTW, my RR has never left me on the side of the road, or failed to start for me.

 

You're the one with "A Land Rover doesn't leak! It marks its territory." is his sig, and I'm the one bashing LR?

I don't feel I've done any bashing.

As for Toyota, I don't think anyone has figured out exactly what's going on. If you can reproduce the problem under controlled conditions, Edmunds will pay you $1 million. So far their money is safe.

 

"Discovery Reliability"?

Oh, I see what we're doing, writing two-word sentences that contradict each other. Sounds fun, let me try:

Negative fraction.

Logical Woman.

Dry Rain.

Disco Reliability. Oh wait- someone just said that one...

 

What do you have against negative fractions? They exist, I've even seen a few.

 

I probably wouldn't have ANYTHING against my negative fraction, if I'd bought it new from the factory. Instead, I bought it when it had 33k miles of (probably) poor maintenance over a five year period.

I've put the same amount of miles on it in one year and taken more care than they ever would have.

So, my beef isn't with the negative fraction. I don't really even have 'beef'... I just hope that my Negative Fraction starts returning the favors I'm doing soon.

 

Have you ventured off the pavement lately? As I understand it, that's when Discos return the most favors.

 

I see a need for a new survey to include repairability

Example stories
#1 - Father and son motorcyclists:
Father had a classic Triumph and the son had a new plastic coated Honda.
The father’s bike developed a problem – he took out his tools to fix it.
Then the son’s bike developed a problem – he took out his credit card.

Reliability is a concern for those who rely on their credit cards to fix things.
Repairability is for those who rely on their skills to achieve the same reliability.

I bought my 98 DI for repairability.
I can see all the parts and how they work, plus you can buy any part you need.

#2 Story
My 98 DI was in a shop next to a late model Ford pickup.
The mechanic looked at my LR and said he could fix anything on it (repairable)
He then showed me this Ford pickup with the engine covered in hoses, wires, plastic, etc, etc. and said that there is an electrical problem in there some where. (this is close to non repairable)

In summary I don’t support the reliability survey approach because it is for the people who rely on credit cards to fix things. They should buy the Hondas.

We should be proud of our Discovery Land Rovers because they are great because of the owners who look after them.

 

Good suggestion. This is something I'd like to study in the future. It is probably something best gathered from mechanics than from a survey of owners, though.