The S-Class has been considered the Epitome of luxury cars in the world for a very long time, But since the world has started shifting towards SUVs, people are also buying a lot of luxury SUVs. And Mercedes also makes a lot of luxury SUVs. And their Flex SUV is GLS which is also called the S-Class SUV.
But I believe the real S-class of SUVs is not the GLS but the Range Rover. Because when you call a car SUV, it should also have the capability to be able to drive properly off the road. And neither the low range nor mechanical locking differentials are available in GLS.
Even its water wading capacity is only 500mm. Whereas if we talk about the top-of-the-line most luxurious SUV of Land Rover i. e.
the long wheelbase version, all these equipments are available in it, and at the same time, it has a water-wading capacity of 900 ml. And this car goes off-road like a modified rock crawler from Toyota. But unlike any proper rugged SUV, you do not need to do any hard work to go off-roading in Land Rover cars, nor do you need to have any kind of off-road expertise.
Just turn this dial and the car will do all the work for you automatically. And this is exactly like the iPhone compared to professional cameras. In one, you have to tinker with a lot of settings only then you can take a good photo or video and in the other, you just have to press a button.
And the computer handles everything in this car just like a smartphone. And that is probably why the former CEO of JLR had said that we are an IT company Because computers require software to operate and accordingly, they have to write millions of lines of codes and only then these cars are able to perform such feats just by turning the dial. But apart from this luxurious off-roading experience, the name of Land Rover is also associated with one thing and that is unreliability.
And that is why today in this video, I will tell you how the biggest quality of Land Rover also becomes a problem for them. That's why watch this video completely because I have given a lot of insights in it and if you miss or skip somewhere, you will miss them. But before that please consider subscribing to this channel because when you subscribe, we get a lot of motivation to make such videos.
So friend, first of all, let us understand what are those technologies, Land Rover has acquired over a period of time, with the help of which this car has become a real luxury SUV. So in the initial days, Land Rover also used to make exactly the same SUVs as other brands. That means everything in it was operated manually, whether it was gears, low-range gears, or lockers.
And like other SUVs, this car also came on body-on-frame construction. But gradually it started becoming a luxury SUV because rich people lived in the countries where it was sold. And those people wanted comfort from their car.
And the biggest change in this sequence came in 1994 when this loss-making company was acquired by BMW. Actually, at that time not all brands knew how to make proper SUVs and BMW was also included in this. That is why BMW bought this failing brand so that it could make SUVs like its real rival i.
e. Mercedes. And in this way, BMW adopted many technologies of Land Rover and launched its X5 and when BMW learned everything from Land Rover, then they sold it to Ford.
Now, even though BMW got a lot from Land Rover, it is not that they did not get anything, rather Land Rover got two such things from BMW due to which today it has actually become a car worthy of being called a Land Rover. Those two things are Monocoque Chessy and independent suspensions. Monocoque Chessy made their cars lighter and due to less top weight, body roll was felt much less.
And all four independent suspensions also reduced the body roll in these cars and the ride started feeling like a car life. But even today there are many premium brands that do not use all four independence suspensions. Like the LC 300 which is the top car of Toyota even that has a Rigid Axle on the rear side.
So, what was so special about it that LR thought of using it so long ago, so to know this, let us first understand this suspension itself in detail. Actually, these rigid axle suspensions are used in trucks and SUVs. Because they are very robust, they can carry a lot of load.
Apart from this, due to this suspension, your car gets a lot of articulation. And that is why these cars are able to perform very well even in dangerous off-road conditions. But this rigid axle suspension also has a problem; In fact, when a wheel in a rigid axle suspension goes up or down on the road, due to potholes or in off-road conditions, it actually affects the other wheel as well due to being connected to a thick solid axle.
As you are seeing right now. This motion also transfers to the SUV cabin. That's why you feel your SUV swaying even during light undulations On the other hand, if we talk about independent suspension, then in it, the wheel is not connected to any solid axle and that is why you do not feel any special motion inside the car and for this comfort, Land Rover chose this suspension setup and today all their cars are with independent suspension.
Even their hard-core off-roaders like Defender and Discovery 5 also have independent suspension on all four wheels. But perhaps the comfort of independent suspension was not enough for Land Rover, that is why they removed conventional shock absorbers from their cars and replaced them with airbag suspensions, that too twenty-five to thirty years ago. Actually, there are some components in it that run the entire system.
For example, it has airbag struts that inflate and deflate so that the height of the car can be increased or decreased. It has a tank filled with pressurized air which helps in inflating it and a car pump which helps in lifting it. Apart from this, there is a sensor which controls the height and there is a controller with the help of which you can choose the desired height.
Land Rover has used this suspension in its cars because its ride quality is very smooth, so much so that even cars like Rolls-Royce used air suspensions. And at the same time, it helps in raising and lowering the car as per requirement. Now it has so many features but still many brands do not use air suspension and why this is so, I will tell you further in the video.
Now even though these SUVs glide on the road like a luxury sedan But in the end, it was an SUV with all the bells required for offroading. And those who do offroading will know that offroading is not child's play. If you do not know how to use the transfer case properly, you do not know how to use the locking differential.
Or you don't know when to turn traction control on or off. your car may also get stuck And that is why to do all this properly you need to be an expert. But what good is luxury if a luxury SUV requires expertise, right?
Keeping this in mind, Land Rover installed a Terrain Response System in its Land Rover Discovery 3 in 2004. And it was exactly like an automatic gear, that is, it did all the things on its own but for off-road. But unlike automatic gear, here this system activates, deactivates and controls many components of the car.
For example, if you want to drive the car in sand then put this dial in sand mode. What will happen is that the car's onboard computer will increase the response of the engine and gear and will lock the center differentials so that you do not get stuck anywhere. If you have to drive on very hard terrains then simply put it in rock crawl mode.
In this, the computer will soften the response of the accelerator. And similarly, in grass, gravel, and snow mode, the car's traction is turned on to prevent tires from slipping, gears change quickly, accelerator response becomes soft to help you in traction even hill descent control activates automatically. And in the same way, there are some other modes which are found in these cars which the computer handles automatically.
But if you are driving in sleep and you are not able to understand what kind of terrain you are on then you simply put this dial on auto and the car will automatically detect the terrain and take you out of there. So by now, you must have understood how sophisticated these Land Rover cars are made so that their drivers can get a luxury feel even while off-roading. But the sophistication of these cars also becomes a headache.
I have mentioned many times before how Land Rover's cars come at the bottom of the reliability chart compared to other brands around the world. And a major reason for this is considered to be the complexity of these cars. As per user reviews, the biggest problem faced by Land Rover is its air suspension.
As I told you earlier due to this suspension, the ride quality of these cars becomes much smoother and it becomes much easier to adjust their heights etc. But this system is very complex and it is often seen that these airbags leak. There is initially a small leakage in the air struts used in the suspension of Land Rover, which increases continuously with time.
And then the drivers of the Land Rover and the co-passengers start feeling that the car is being pressed from one side and if the owners do not address this problem for a long time, then due to this, the chances of failing the air compressor increase. and in many cases, the entire suspension system has to be replaced. And it is believed that The Range Rover and Land Rover Discoveries have more problems like this.
Apart from this, failure of the front differential has also been seen in many ownership reports, which can be a very dangerous thing for the driver and that is why many owners have had to change the entire front differential and that too only after driving 40-50 thousand kilometers which is very low for any car. Now there are many other problems that are seen inside them because these cars are very sophisticated, very complex, they are run by a software but this thing is not exclusive to Land Rover. In fact, we see this with every luxury brand and we also see such problems with brands like BMW and Mercedes.
But the problem with Land Rover SUVs is that they have all the features that are found in a proper luxury sedan like Mercedes and BMW. But along with this, offroading features are also added to it, about which I have talked in the entire video and that is why the failure rate of these cars increases slightly more than other luxury sedans etc. I believe so.
Well, whatever the problems may be, after investing crores of rupees in Land Rover, no one can say that these cars are overpriced like it is said for Toyota. Because these cars provide full features, comfort performance, and status. Now let's end this video on this end note.
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in the beginning And subscribe to this channel, share it with your friends and families. And lastly, tell whether you would ever like to buy a new or pre-owned Land Rover car in your life. That's all in this video.
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