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View Full Version : SUV Opinions -- Mercedes G500 vs. Range Rover



E36M3
06-11-2003, 09:57 PM
Hey guys,

Anyone driven both? I really love the G500, but I think that the bad (heavy, slow, truck like handling) seem to outweigh a lot of the huge positives (exclusivity, great interior, fantastic engine, etc.)

The Range Rover seems to have it all, fantastic engineering, great power, beautiful interior and exterior, but is just a little big for my liking.

Both are great, but I'd love to hear other opinions.

ramminghard
06-11-2003, 10:31 PM
Range rovers are pimp. A good friend of mine has had a couple ant they are getting another one. They are suprisingly good offroad and on-road. independent adjustable suspension. they give an incredible ride and are an all around amazing machine. comes highly recommended

E36M3
06-11-2003, 10:36 PM
I've driven several of the older ones, and I think they are pieces of garbage. Land Rover licensed the design for the Chevy 350, and made an even worse version for the truck..

I do agree, though, that they are *amazing* offroad.. my friend off roaded his 2000 on a daily basis, and we had some amazing times.

On the other hand, he now has a 2003 ML500, and prefers it offroad because it is far more nimble and has more power.

With the new BMW engineering and BMW V8, I fell in love the Range Rover. The interior is incredible, by far the best I have ever seen in any car. (I am including a clients 2002 Bentley in this statement to give you some perspective).

On the other hand though, the G500 is hand made in Austria, and has incredible fit and finish. Slamming the door is literally like closing a bank vault.. I have never felt a feeling of quality like in the G500.

Tough call really.. it is almost like they aren't competitors.


Originally posted by ramminghard
Range rovers are pimp. A good friend of mine has had a couple ant they are getting another one. They are suprisingly good offroad and on-road. independent adjustable suspension. they give an incredible ride and are an all around amazing machine. comes highly recommended

Weapon_R
06-11-2003, 10:41 PM
Do you do more offroad driving or regular daily driving?

You seem to lean more towards the G500 according to your descriptions. Range Rover is no longer what it used to be in terms of being the standard for SUVs. Although still an amazing machine, other manufacturers are catching up.

The :bigpimp: factor in the G500 is very, very high.

Stratus_Power
06-11-2003, 10:43 PM
get a hummer H2

RiceCake
06-11-2003, 10:52 PM
Why not a G55? ;)

I personally like the G500 a lot, not sure of its off roading capabilities yet, but the Rang Rover has a long history to it :)

I'd still go with the G500 for the :bigpimp:factor :thumbsup:

ramminghard
06-11-2003, 11:33 PM
Originally posted by E36M3
I've driven several of the older ones, and I think they are pieces of garbage. Land Rover licensed the design for the Chevy 350, and made an even worse version for the truck.


The old ones are garbage but they have evolved wuite a bit from them. They are decently fast, good on and off road handling and an immaculate interior. the adjustable suspension is really fun. also i have never driven or even been in a more solid feeling vehicle in winter. the brakes are good and so is the awd system.

My vote is for range rover

E36M3
06-20-2003, 02:21 PM
I initially thought that I would go with the G55, but the ride quality is unacceptable. It feels like driving a WRX STI or something.. just not what I am looking for in a SUV. The Porsche Cayenne blows the doors off the G55 and has a great ride.. A lot of G55 owners swap in the G500 suspension (cause it is way better) and I was unwilling to do that in addition to the extra expense of the G55. Plus, the G500 has plenty of power for an SUV already, and I'd rather put $20k in Brabus upgrades.

The G500 has a 30 year history, and is probably the best off road vehicle out there.


Originally posted by RiceCake
Why not a G55? ;)

I personally like the G500 a lot, not sure of its off roading capabilities yet, but the Rang Rover has a long history to it :)

I'd still go with the G500 for the :bigpimp:factor :thumbsup:

SpeedStar
06-20-2003, 05:47 PM
SUV's are the sorriest excuse for a vehicle....

E36M3
06-20-2003, 06:21 PM
I'm sure your vehicle puts my G500 to shame. Good thing I don't have to compromise and can have both.

Stop talking out of your ass.


Originally posted by SpeedStar
SUV's are the sorriest excuse for a vehicle....

Hash_man
06-20-2003, 06:46 PM
I don't know, I mean I personally think that range rovers are pimp, but are quite big, and now are owned by Ford so i wouldnt know what to excpect. And my dad's friend has an older range rover and it costs him a lot of money to keep the damn thing on the road.

So I would probably go with the benz, but why not the Cayenne?? u said u really liked how it drove.

E36M3
06-20-2003, 06:57 PM
The Range Rover was designed when BMW owned Land Rover, so there are no quality issues. Once the engine contract is up, though, it is unlikely that Ford will continue to use BMW engines.

In any case, I bought the Benz and am happy with it.

The reason that I didn't get the Porsche is that it had some serious quality issues, especially on the interior. It really felt like a cheap piece of crap.

In contrast, the Range Rover had the best interior of any vehicle I have ever seen, and the MB G500 is extremely good -- much better than the S/SL/CL in my opinion. The quality of materials is fantastic and it doesn't have the cheap feel of the Cayenne.

The Porsche dealer told me that Porsche is throwing together an update as soon as possible due to quality issues and poor sales, so we'll see what happens with them. For now though, they'd have to beg me to drive one.

QUOTE]Originally posted by Hash_man
I don't know, I mean I personally think that range rovers are pimp, but are quite big, and now are owned by Ford so i wouldnt know what to excpect. And my dad's friend has an older range rover and it costs him a lot of money to keep the damn thing on the road.

So I would probably go with the benz, but why not the Cayenne?? u said u really liked how it drove. [/QUOTE]

SpeedStar
06-21-2003, 07:32 PM
Originally posted by E36M3
I'm sure your vehicle puts my G500 to shame. Good thing I don't have to compromise and can have both.

Stop talking out of your ass.



You asked for opinions, I gave mine.

E36M3
06-21-2003, 11:07 PM
I asked for an opinion of one over another. In any case, I was just joking.


Originally posted by SpeedStar


You asked for opinions, I gave mine.

SpeedStar
06-22-2003, 12:23 PM
Ok No hard feelings...

I dont mind SUV's but what pisses me off is the fact that there are too many being used by mom's with one kid to pick up groceries. Like these giant Ford Excersions that seat 12 and get 2 mpg. Only being used to transport 2 people, WTF? Buy a Ford focus wagon then... I'm a little bitter becuase I have low small car and it really sucks to be behind one of these mamoth things. ;)

The smaller ones that dont block two lanes of the hiway are fine in my opinion. Seems to me that the big ones are just that, too big.

So in referring to you question, I'd say go with the MB

Fluidic
06-22-2003, 05:01 PM
Personally... I would take the Mercedes. Just something about a Ford/Land Rover/Range Rover that does something to make me "cringe".

Peter

E36M3
06-22-2003, 08:55 PM
Yeah, I ended up going with the MB anyway. The Range Rover is seriously awesome though, and has absolutely no Ford influence (yet). It is pure BMW, and is really great.

Funny thing is that there are probably five or six problems with the G500 already. Damn Mercedes :)


Originally posted by Fluidic Digital
Personally... I would take the Mercedes. Just something about a Ford/Land Rover/Range Rover that does something to make me "cringe".

Peter

hybrid2nr
06-29-2004, 04:35 PM
"...Land Rover licensed the design for the Chevy 350..."

Don't think so.

E36M3
06-29-2004, 04:43 PM
The current engines are sourced from BMW (both the V8 and the six cylinder diesel). The previous generation (and the Discovery) used V8s that were based on a design licensed from GM (I believe it was a Buick 350).


Originally posted by hybrid2nr
"...Land Rover licensed the design for the Chevy 350..."

Don't think so.

hybrid2nr
06-29-2004, 04:52 PM
"...I dont mind SUV's but what pisses me off is the fact that there are too many being used by mom's with one kid to pick up groceries. Like these giant Ford Excersions that seat 12 and get 2 mpg. Only being used to transport 2 people, WTF? Buy a Ford focus wagon then... I'm a little bitter becuase I have low small car and it really sucks to be behind one of these mamoth things..."

I totally understand and agree with you.

I used to cart my 2 kids a few years ago in my wife's CRX. I MacGuyvered a rectangular steel tube that anchored both the baby seats and their seat belts in the fake back seat. When they got bigger, they had to duck when I closed the hatch. That ended when I saw another CRX that was bufued so hard, the center of the rear bumper was directly below the hatch hinge.

Now I have 4 kids and feel threatened even when riding in my Caprice with all those SUVs being driven by bozos on cell phones. That feeling doesn't exist at all when driving my wife's Range Rover. We both live very close to our jobs so the crummy gas mileage is almost negligible. I don't care how many airbags some ricer tin can has, anyone is still going to get squished by a 3 ton SUV.

Yeah, it's a bit of a contradiction, but the sense of survival and economics tells me to compromise a bit and buy a used SUV rather than get flattened or being a refi slave.

hybrid2nr
06-29-2004, 05:01 PM
"...The current engines are sourced from BMW (both the V8 and the six cylinder diesel). The previous generation (and the Discovery) used V8s that were based on a design licensed from GM (I believe it was a Buick 350)..."

It was originally the 215 ci (3.5L) Oldsmobile/Buick V8 used from '61 through '63. Rover Ltd. bought the rights and tooling later in the '60s.

While the Buick 300 and 350 are iron block motors with design features going back to the 215's, there is no similarity at all between the 350s made by Chevy, Pontiac, Buick, or Oldsmobile (the 350 used by the original Cadillac Seville was an EFI'd Olds 350) save for the bellhousing pattern. Nothing interchanges between any of these 350s.

When GM went the "corporate" route in the late '70's, Chevy made all the 350s eventually. The GM 350 is widely regarded as one of a sbc design. Nothing even close to the pre-2003 RR V8 motors.

E36M3
06-29-2004, 05:09 PM
It was the 215 design that they purchased, so the current engines have very little in common with modern GM engines.. they are a lot closer in design to the engines that they used in the 60s.

http://www.thelandroverchronicle.com/new_page_622.htm

Land Rover has certainly made some refinements to the engine, but it was basically the same architecture for all that time.

I just hope that they don't screw things up when they switch to the Jag motors (the BMW V8 is one sweet powerplant, makes the old engine feel 40 years old)


Originally posted by hybrid2nr
"...The current engines are sourced from BMW (both the V8 and the six cylinder diesel). The previous generation (and the Discovery) used V8s that were based on a design licensed from GM (I believe it was a Buick 350)..."

It was originally the 215 ci (3.5L) Oldsmobile/Buick V8 used from '61 through '63. Rover Ltd. bought the rights and tooling later in the '60s.

While the Buick 300 and 350 are iron block motors with design features going back to the 215's, there is no similarity at all between the 350s made by Chevy, Pontiac, Buick, or Oldsmobile (the 350 used by the original Cadillac Seville was an EFI'd Olds 350) save for the bellhousing pattern. Nothing interchanges between any of these 350s.

When GM went the "corporate" route in the late '70's, Chevy made all the 350s eventually. The GM 350 is widely regarded as one of a sbc design. Nothing even close to the pre-2003 RR V8 motors.

sputnik
06-29-2004, 05:09 PM
The Range Rover HSE is an amazing machine. I have driven my boss' on a couple of occasions and it handles quite similarily to a Jeep Grand Cherokee.

However for $120,000... I think I will wait.

hybrid2nr
06-29-2004, 05:21 PM
$120,000? Yikes! Ahh, Canadian dollars. They're in the $75,000++ range in SoCal. I don't know what a Grand Cherokee weighs, but the RRIII is around 5400 lbs!

Yeah, the RRIII is way pricey for me and my mommy and daddy didn't buy mine, but you can buy some very clean RR Classics ('87 - '95) for well under $10,000 US around here. Check out autotrader.com

I know people making $1500 US monthly payments on the new ones. I think they're idiots, especially since we own ours outright for the sum of about 2 of those payments.It's not brand new ('91) but it's very clean and well maintained.

E36M3
06-29-2004, 05:31 PM
Sounds like a great value for $3k. A lot of people are buying SUVs in California because of the new depreciation rules for small business owners (essentially makes it possible to get one for free). I'm personally against buying new cars.. just doesn't make sense in most cases.


Originally posted by hybrid2nr
$120,000? Yikes! Ahh, Canadian dollars. They're in the $75,000++ range in SoCal. I don't know what a Grand Cherokee weighs, but the RRIII is around 5400 lbs!

Yeah, the RRIII is way pricey for me and my mommy and daddy didn't buy mine, but you can buy some very clean RR Classics ('87 - '95) for well under $10,000 US around here. Check out autotrader.com

I know people making $1500 US monthly payments on the new ones. I think they're idiots, especially since we own ours outright for the sum of about 2 of those payments.It's not brand new ('91) but it's very clean and well maintained.

ZorroAMG
06-29-2004, 08:20 PM
Nice. A year old Bump......dunno if you guys caught that...:D

meithkiller
06-29-2004, 09:19 PM
Just buy something with a frame... Not that wimpy unibody construction.

JordanLotoski
06-29-2004, 09:21 PM
hands down range rover..its the ultimate SUV..the g series are not worth the cake in my opinion

turboMiata
06-30-2004, 03:07 AM
Originally posted by hybrid2nr
&quotWhile the Buick 300 and 350 are iron block motors with design features going back to the 215's, there is no similarity at all between the 350s made by Chevy, Pontiac, Buick, or Oldsmobile (the 350 used by the original Cadillac Seville was an EFI'd Olds 350) save for the bellhousing pattern. Nothing interchanges between any of these 350s.


Nice to see a person who knows his rover V8s. I'm not too sad to see Solihull close down the Rover V8 line. It's time to move on. Amen.