Long-term update: Our Range Rover takes the rain in its stride

Long-term update: Our Range Rover takes the rain in its stride

Range Rover Vogue raining 2

The rainy season is finally upon us in Dubai, if you can call it a season. It hardly rains around here, but when it does, it pours and brings parts of the city to a standstill. With mini-floods building up on dipped roads and certain underpasses, it’s one of those times when we really appreciate our Range Rover.

Range Rover Vogue raining

On our way back from dropping off a test car today, a sudden downpour started that caused half-metre tall waves on some roads, aside from the mini-rivers on the sides of the roads. Our car went through these just fine, with only a minor twitch before the all-wheel-drive system gets its bearings and powers the car through.

Just to make sure we didn’t get water where it didn’t belong, we even raised the air suspension, although that only works for speeds below 50 kph, otherwise the suspension comes back down to normal height automatically. Just check out the impressive ground clearance at maximum height in the above photo. We also liked the speed-dependent wipers that run faster automatically at higher speeds.

Range Rover Vogue raining 3

Now for the bad news. We just picked up our Range Rover today from the garage after getting that very suspension’s computer reset, which cost us Dhs 500. It was stupid of us, because we had the software and OBD cable to do it ourselves (having bought the set last year), but we instead thought it was a hardware problem when the suspension got stuck at normal height about a month ago, and went straight to a garage this week, before we got busy with the Dubai Motor Show. It’s working fine again so far, ready for airport duty this weekend.

Original Mileage When Bought: 99,980 km
Latest Mileage To Date: 116,500 km
Latest Average Fuel Economy: 19.1 litres/100 km
Cost of Latest Problems: Dhs 500
Cost of Latest Maintenance: Dhs 0

Total Non-Fuel Running Cost Since Bought: Dhs 38033

Read all 2005 Range Rover long-term updates

What do you think?

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Comments

  1. is it reliable and do you advice people with limited income to buy it.

    Thanks,

    • Author

      It is above-average in reliability, but you have to spend a fair bit to run. Hence no, one cannot buy it on a limited income, but if you have the money, it’s hugely enjoyable.

  2. I think FJ will not let you down either. If you need ground clearance spend about 1000 $ and get good 3 inch lifts.

  3. It’s still looking good! Where do you get it serviced and how much does a “regular” service cost?

    • Author

      Found a garage called “Premier Car Care” that we plan to go to, although we haven’t used it for a regular service yet. It’s due, so we’ll find out soon enough. Previously, we’ve used the dealer and FastFit (or something).

  4. Hi Mashfique,

    I have been following your ownership review for a while since I am looking to own a used Range Rover. What is your view on Range Rover Supercharged 2012 regarding its Reliability and common issues that I can expect?

    Thanks and regards
    Rejish

    • Author

      Air suspension failure every few years is a common issue, although we haven’t had it in a serious way yet, as it may have been replaced earlier already. Everything else is based on your luck, so keep extending the warranty for the full 7 years that they allow.

    • Thanks Mashique. From you view, is there any other SUV which can match or supersede Range Rover Supercharged 2012 overall, yet with better reliability and better in terms of used car market pricing same year model)?

      Thanks and Regards
      Rejish

    • Author

      No other SUV offers the satisfaction of a 2003+ RR. If anyone says otherwise, they’ve never owned one.

  5. Hi Mashfique,

    I have been following your ownership review for a while since I am looking to own a used Range Rover. I found a RR 2008 130Km with full service history. I’m kinda hesitant to move from Infiti FX 2009 to this one, everybody is saying that it’s very faulty and extremely expensive to maintain what should I expect? and is it facing a lot of issues ?

    • Author

      We’ve been covering this car for 3 years now, so you can look up our past reports under “Road Tests” then “Long-Term Tests”.

  6. Mashfique,
    I’ve red all your RR long-term updates as I am looking to buy a 05-06 RR to have as a people/shopping carrier/commuter/offroader/towing do-it-all. The prices are not bad, but I’m a bit worried about the 40k you’ve spent on 20k km, even though as far as I saw you didn’t have to deal with anything major. I’d put a lot more km/year in it, in the range of 30-32k – and if I’d have to spend 60k a year to keep it running, plus the fuel – which is another 10k – well then, I’d really have a problem on me hands… I realize the math is simplistic, but even halfing the cost of maintenance would still mean 40k/year to own. So assuming that I’d keep it for 5 years, that’d be a hefty 240k, including the price of the vehicle…and thic calculation made me thinking about a new car loan on a Land Cruiser or Patrol or something. Finally to the question – do you see anything fundamentally wrong in my calculations?

    • Author

      The problems are age-related, not mileage-related. Most of my work was just to make it reliable for more years to come, not keep it barely running like what Toyota owners like to do. In all honesty, I could’ve spent half that if I skipped the dealer and then the pricy garage I used earlier, and even lower if I just kept it running instead of making it work 100%.

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