[BLKZ06]

Took delivery of my 2012 Santorini Black Sport on Friday. Drove it once over the weekend, then had some time yesterday and today to get used to it.

Coming from a GM background of trucks/cars, I love many things about my RR, and dislike a few.

The good:

Gas mileage has been superb..averaging over 17mpg around town, almost 20 on the highway.

Ride is awesome..solid, handling is great. It doesn't feel like an SUV under any conditions I've put it in. Hums along nicely at 80mph all day long.

Power is more than sufficient. Of course, I'd have opted for the S/C model if I hadn't bought my new Z06 in August of this year. LOL.

Love the LED accent lighting on the inside. the vehicle looks high tech at night.

Fit/finish is very very good, I'd say excellent if not for a few flaws I have found in the interior. Nothing major, but things that shouldn't be there on a 67K car.

The bad:

I waited for the new 2012 because of the small NAV and audio updates. Overall, not impressed. The NAV screen is SLOW to respond, and the audio system while good, it isn't as nice as some other systems I've heard.

Steering wheel controls suck- especially compared to my wifes new Durango, and my previous GMC trucks. Yes, I know you can easily reach the buttons you need on the stereo/Nav..but the buttons are tiny, and really do not give you full control of the many features avaiable.

Interior is a little more cramped than what I thought it would be.

What is WITH only having one frikkin power port for a cell charger or radar detector??

HATE HATE the heated windshield. The elements really screw with my night vision. My wife says that although she can definitely see them, it doesn't bother her all that much. Really bothers me, though.

Wish the ride height was a tad lower for general everyday driving. The profile looks MUCH better when the wheel gaps are smaller.

Verdict:

Would I buy another one or reccomend one to a friend? Well..most likely, based on my initial impression. Its what I hoped it would be in many ways, and in a few ways its not. But the positives far outweigh the negatives!

 

[rafa]

Gas mileage has been superb..averaging over 17mpg around town, almost 20 on the highway.

Don't worry that will change, it's a cummulative system so it'll eventually drop and settle around 14mpg, :twisted:

What is WITH only having one frikkin power port for a cell charger or radar detector??

Agreed, even with all the complaints from MY06-09, I still can't believe that LR didn't install additional ports in the upper glove box or wherever.

HATE HATE the heated windshield. The elements really screw with my night vision. My wife says that although she can definitely see them, it doesn't bother her all that much. Really bothers me, though.

You'll get used to it, took me a while but after a bit your eyes won't see the filaments anymore.

Wish the ride height was a tad lower for general everyday driving. The profile looks MUCH better when the wheel gaps are smaller.

for MY2006-2009 there's products to improve that http://www.rangerovers.net/forum/9-...ing-module-diag-tool-beta-testers-needed.html.
Unfortunately they haven't released the MY2010+ version yet, your only solution at this time is lowering rods


Congratulations on your purchase.

 

[Fatal Flash]

I received my '12 2 weeks ago. I love the infotainment system. Super easy! Surprised you don't like it. I wish the Ipod worked a little better though. Not a fan of the design. Lags a lot.
I have little finger so the stereo control works for me as well, but also laggy so I stick with the normal knob. Annoys me how the large volume graphic stays on for so long. Did you get premium sound?? The audio is absolutely incredible, but is in dire need of a small 10-12" sub.

There is another power port behind the center armrest. I use that for my cell phone chargers. The radar detector you can hard wire into your roof light, or cigg port.

I have to focus to see the lines in the heated windshield!! Never bothered me either

Regarding the ride height, paint the sides of the car body color (the plastic parts) and install running boards. Changes the ENTIRE look of the vehicle.

 

[tonyjkent]

Good write up BLKZ06. Thanks!

 

[BLKZ06]

I received my '12 2 weeks ago. I love the infotainment system. Super easy! Surprised you don't like it. I wish the Ipod worked a little better though. Not a fan of the design. Lags a lot.
I have little finger so the stereo control works for me as well, but also laggy so I stick with the normal knob. Annoys me how the large volume graphic stays on for so long. Did you get premium sound?? The audio is absolutely incredible, but is in dire need of a small 10-12" sub.

There is another power port behind the center armrest. I use that for my cell phone chargers. The radar detector you can hard wire into your roof light, or cigg port.

I have to focus to see the lines in the heated windshield!! Never bothered me either

Regarding the ride height, paint the sides of the car body color (the plastic parts) and install running boards. Changes the ENTIRE look of the vehicle.

I did get the HK Premium sound. Thats why I was a little dissappointed in the sound. don't get me wrong..its really good, but its not night/day difference from the 2011 I spent 2 days in.

And yeah..the big graphic for the volume control that pops up is a head scratcher.

 

[BLKZ06]

Don't worry that will change, it's a cummulative system so it'll eventually drop and settle around 14mpg, :twisted:



Agreed, even with all the complaints from MY06-09, I still can't believe that LR didn't install additional ports in the upper glove box or wherever.



You'll get used to it, took me a while but after a bit your eyes won't see the filaments anymore.



for MY2006-2009 there's products to improve that http://www.rangerovers.net/forum/9-...ing-module-diag-tool-beta-testers-needed.html.
Unfortunately they haven't released the MY2010+ version yet, your only solution at this time is lowering rods


Congratulations on your purchase.

I reset the MPG today, and other than the hwy trip to my house from work (about 4 miles) it still shows me avg about 15mpg..so I'd say you are about dead on.

Coming from a 5.7 liter GMC its not disappointing. I can live with 13-14 around town, and if I can get 18-19 on the hwy I'm golden. The guys at Land Rover drive sales vehicles and supposedly log mpg because thats one of the big complaints about the RR's. According to them 2010 and 2011 drastically improved mpg, and 2012 is supposedly even better because of new electronic mapping.

We will see.

 

[RRSS007]

You can go into the settings section and disable the volume level so that it doesn't show, this is what I did with mine after seeing that thing one too many times. Gas mileage wise, I sure do hope it will improve at least somewhat. It does a good job of sucking down that Premium fuel in no time! I actually think my H2 Hummer gets better mileage that the RR, but it might be because it's still new and only has just shy of 500 miles on it.

One thing that puzzled me when I got mine was that in the sales book, it shows the MPH in both analog and digital, to the right of the gear shift indicator. If you set the system to km/h, it will show the speed digitally but when you change it back to English, it quickly disappears and you only have the analog gage for speed.

The heated windshield takes some getting used to, especially if you've never had a vehicle with one before, like myself.

Congratulations on your new RR. Please post some pictures...!

 

[umbertob]

One thing that puzzled me when I got mine was that in the sales book, it shows the MPH in both analog and digital, to the right of the gear shift indicator. If you set the system to km/h, it will show the speed digitally but when you change it back to English, it quickly disappears and you only have the analog gage for speed.

That's been the case since the new TFT display in the instrument cluster was introduced on MY2010. In its infinite wisdom, Land Rover's legal dept. decided only km/h would show digitally on the display, not mph. Ignore the literature showing otherwise.