It could be much worse.

[SteveTheTech]

So today I had the "pleasure" of working on a 2008 Range Rover Sport. Although the car has enough power to get into some trouble at a 40% grade. That being said at 11,243 miles this truck was in dyer need of $4200 dollars in tires and round house brakes. The front 6 piston Brembos were actually below state inspection minimums. So I was curious about what is deemed as "normal" over at LR so I spoke with a former shop foreman and service manager. They said that this is only the tip of the iceberg. Apparently when they break and no one can figure it out they get creative.

If you think your EX has a high overall cost of ownership I just wanted to bring in some perspective. Even those these two cars are not on the same market I thought the members of this forum would find some interest in this. So in addition to the payments on a $75k truck you now need several grand in maintenance items.

Even if you buy everything under the sun that the dealer has to offer your I doubt the annual cost would come close. I know I have read some guys talking about replacing their tires for noise concerns at about 15k but never due to wear. That being said these were summer tires, but heavy load rating sport tires.

Just as an anecdotal side note I remember when I was working in Southern Massachusetts the shop would not put LRs on the lift due to two broken frames from serious rot on a level that no old Ford Bronco could match.

[Poyzinous]

I have a childhood friend who worked at Land Rover for 2 years. He left because he told me the vehicles were pathetic and horribly built scraps of metal, and troubleshooting includes replacing entire vehicle sections, since problems are basically impossible to deal with. The cars are just a hip hop status symbol and athlete/actor status symbol with no long term value.

[EX35_bernard]

My boss almost bought one a month ago. Lucky for him he didnt coz he's actually cool for an old guy! But I bet if I told him about this he wouldn't believe me coz some people think LR's a good quality because of the price!

[aft981]

Well being the resident Briton on the forum, I thought I should offer some defence for poor old LR. They're actually not THAT bad. I know several people back in the UK who have had LR/RR for years without problems, and you see a lot of old ones still on the roads. Plus, you really can't beat a LR or a RR for offroad capabilities. If you want luxury + decent offroad ability, there really is only one option.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...lated

For amusement, a Top Gear clip of an offroad challenge. Somewhere out in NV I think, a race to the top of a mountain. Range Rover vs H2 vs Escalade. I realise it may have been rigged, but even if it wasn't, I doubt the outcome would have been much different.