I did a search hoping that maybe there had been a review of it at some point but it seems not.

My mums friend is looking at a bunch of SUVs to replace her Jeep and she's asked me for help. I don't feel that I know enough about the LR3 to make a good call either way on it.

Does anyone on here know anything? I'd like to avoid the "well it's a Ford so it sucks" comments since that's not terribly helpful unless you go on to tell me precisely why it sucks (ie: because the doors start to rattle after one month of use)

Thx.

 

Please dont have her replace a Jeep with an LR3. Thats like replacing a problem with a more exspensive problem. The land rovers are amongst the worst cars sold in the uS for reliabilty. You dont want to steer her wrong and then she will be pissed at you . Buy Japanese and you cant go wrong.

 

the land rovers have gotten a helluva lot better in terms of quality and refinement over the previous generations.

no single car maker, regardless of country of origin, is flawless.

You can't go wrong with a LR3 but I do remember hearing about a specific issue they had.

I just can't remember what it is or was.

 

i work on them for a living... they use the same jaguar v8 engine as the XJ8, XK and XF.
the transmission is a ZF 6 speed; bmw, audi , jaguar use the same one. the drivetrain is pretty bulletproof. the problems arise from electrical issues, stupid interior trim issues and basically just random stupid problems. they don't have consistent problems across the model range that always occur; everything is different. to me, that's worse than having one or 2 of the same problems that happen to every car. they do go through brakes very often, just because it's a heavy truck.

 

I have a Range Rover and LOVE IT! The LR3 does share some of the parts including some of the electronics (which are the main contributors of problems in most cases). While there are many differences between these two SUV's they are in the same family and have many similarities.

I recently had an LR3 loaner and drove it for 1,000 miles. It was a very nice car. It was roomy, comfortable and drove very nicely. It is also an exceptional off-road vehicle.

Land Rovers do have problems so if small issues are going to bother her then this isn't the car for her. With that said, the newer generation (2007+) seem to be more reliable than previous generations.

My favorite thing about Land Rovers is that I don't see as many of them as I see other makes. For instance, my RX is very common where I live but I have one of the only Range Rovers in the area. I can go a couple of weeks without seeing another. While the LR3 is more common it is still a lot more rare than my RX.

Your best bet to learn about specific problems is to visit a Land Rover forum. Here is the Land Rover forum where I chat about these trucks...

http://www.landroverforums.com/forumid_213/tt.htm

 

My brother has had an LR3 for a couple of years and he still really likes it. It's used mainly as a people carrier since the 3rd row is more spacious than his wife's MDX. He also takes it to the occasional offroading event. Only drawback is that it sucks up a lot of gas (~17mpg highway).

 

Land Rover is consistently the least reliable car maker on every list.

Just make sure your mom lives close to the dealership and they offer free loaners.

 

Well, what would its primary use be?

Will it be a daily driver? An infrequent hauler? An off-roader?

It would be nice for the weekends, but I doubt it will survive everyday driving.

Will she be able to maintain it? Will she know if something is wrong with it, before it gets worse?

And resale sucks. Is she planning to keep it for a long time? Or will she trade for something later in the future?

 

Unfortunately, it's not even a Ford. It's a Land Rover, and I would prefer the former to the latter. I have had two friends with LR3s, both of whom sold them- one for a GX470 and one for a Tahoe- because they had SO many problems. Both of them had so many issues that they finally sold them before the warranty expired.

I really would reccommend to stay away from the LR3.

 

buy it your mechanic will love you! You might even put his kids through college.

 

Thx for the help so far guys.

Mums friend has 2 girls (one of which will be learning to drive on this SUV) and a large Golden Retriever. It will be the DD and between the two of them this SUV will get a lot of road time. It will be lease so resale doesn't matter too much (but residual obviously does).

This isn't the only thing I'm looking at for her obviously.

 

Consumer Reports gives the LR3 a "much worse than average" rating for used models, and a similar rating for Predicted Reliability on the new ones. Something to consider.

 

Compared to Lexus reliability is really bad. But in real life I have only had two problems in the last 15 months (and 18,000 miles) and they have been no big deal (radio issue and loose trim piece).

With that said, we have a saying in our house; "Lease a Land Rover and Buy a Lexus." It costs me way more to lease my Land Rover but it is just easier and I don't really have to worry about reliability.

 

Definately do NOT get the LR3.

If you want something for a DD, get the current Highlander, or even an RDX/MDX. Or if you want to go to the bargain bin, Mmarshall had a great review on the Kia Borrego.

 

If (?) you and you friend's mom are serious about one, I'll do an LR3 review for you (I haven't done one yet), but in general, I'd avoid almost any Land Rover product, even though the newer ones, as a couple of posters have noted, are somewhat better then before. But that still may not be saying much. They have a well-established record of reliability problems, and consistantly rank at or near the bottom of both Consumer Reports' and J.D. Power reliability surveys. But they do offer British opulence inside and an excellent combination of both on/off-road competency.