espri wrote:

The current (23rd Nov) issue of the German car magazine 'auto motor und sport' contains an article comparing the petrol V8-engined models of the Land Rover family, Discovery, Range Rover Sport and Range Rover. Each is summarised as follows (I guess the comparisons take the Range as basis):

Discovery V8
Measured by price this is the best offering: technology as in the Range Sport but with room for up to 7 adults and more comfort. However, it would be too much to expect a dynamic driving response.

Range Rover Sport V8
The good news: the car is more compact, handles better and is better value for money. The bad news: there is less room and comfort, no advantage in the fuel consumption or performance.

Range Rover V8
The Classic is more exclusive than ever. Noble presence, excellent comfort, plenty room, and all that coupled with excellent off-road qualities – those who can afford one are lucky.


In a ‘Spotlight’ they say:

Range Rover stands for exclusiveness
Range Rover, Range Rover Sport or Discovery? In the German market the answer is clear: 53% of the buyers this year went for the best value for money, the Discovery, and of these 97.5% preferred the diesel version – hardly a surprise given the V8’s fuel consumption. The Range Rover Sport achieved a 42% share (and 27% of these were diesel), while only 5% of the customers treated themselves to the large Range Rover.


[ The official registration statistics in Germany for the whole of 2005 up till October, (from the Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt, our registration authority, [url] www.kba.de [/url]), are:

Discovery 1543 (Diesel 1498)
Range Rover 725 (Diesel 431)
Range Rover Sport 809 (Diesel 553)

Freelander 1489 (Diesel 1327)
Defender 994 (Diesel 993 -own up-who bought
the petrol one)

For comparison:
BMW X5 11620 (Diesel 10674)
Jeep Grand Cherokee 1995 (Diesel 1679)
Porsche Cayenne 4582 -
Toyota Landcruiser 2672 (Diesel 2594)
Volvo XC90 5226 (Diesel 4316)
BMW Touareg 14858 (Diesel 13785)
Rolls Royce MC 12 .
]


In the magazine, there is also a brief mention that a new Freelander with longer wheelbase will be introduced in Dec 2006.

Eric

Gareth wrote:

I thought that the Defender was TD5 only?

Yes, may that is a data input error. Or perhaps someone managed a fiddle to pay less road tax!

I found the UK statistics interesting too. As well as being happy to see that the Discovery is more popular (till now) in the UK than Germany, I found confirmation that, as an Edinburgh lad, I was genetically biased towards buying a 4x4

Eric