Land Rover LR3: Back to nature

Mud isn’t just for exfoliating: We take the Land Rover LR3 on an off-roading spa day

Land Rover knows what it is. Regardless of model, it’s a given that a Land Rover has the kind of off-road know-how to take you anywhere you want to go.

But where do you test those age-old claims if your daily drive doesn’t include the Rubicon Trail? After this history-resetting winter, I had hoped for a unique challenge when the 2007 Land Rover LR3 arrived at its tail end, just before spring broke. The best we got in town was a day of clouds and hail, so I had to go farther in search of a challenge.

The back road to the ski valley beckoned, but it turned out it didn’t open for another week or so. So no empty, aspen-lined, rock-studded roving, but there was still plenty of mud. If you can’t truly test a Land Rover’s abilities, the least you can do is get it as filthy as possible. That’s increasingly important because Land Rovers are becoming so stylishly clean and posh.

The old Discovery always looked like it was on safari, with its tall tires, narrow track, haphazard build quality and overall mechanical design. The LR3 is so vastly improved in every way that one might worry it’s lost its edge. Land Rover has made boxy styling almost sleek, and tight panel gaps, a stocked interior and plenty of curbside cachet improve the experience.

Whereas the Discovery displayed all its rock-hopping mechanicals for everyone to see — and front and center on the spec sheet — everything that makes the LR3 nearly unstoppable in the rough is more a matter of electronics.

The quantum leap here is that precise tuning of all the various traction and stability programs for a certain situation are selected through the unique Terrain Response System, where you turn a dial to lock in your choice of:

General is the default mode, compatible with all on- and off-road conditions. Think of this as being comparable to the “automatic” setting on a digital camera.
Grass/Gravel/Snow maximizes traction on firm but slippery surfaces, such as wet leaves and grass or hard-packed snow and ice.
Mud/Ruts can make a difference on soft, wet ground where some degree of wheelspin is important in order to maintain momentum.

Sand tweaks engine and transmission programming, as well as the traction control and differential locks, for additional control in conditions where the ground gives way easily, such as dry, soft sand or loose dirt.
Rock Crawl is the one I wanted to exercise. It’s meant for conditions where you expect to encounter clusters of boulders or other large obstacles where maximum wheel articulation, throttle control, ground clearance and low-speed traction are critical.
It’s all so civilized. And yet I never found need to play around with the dial at all. Maybe that’s what makes the LR3 so intriguing: knowing that you have all this ability, even if you never use it.

Down to details

Also quite civilized is the interior, which is far superior to what used to come in a Land Rover but still retains a visual link to the blocky simplicity of old. The dash looks like nothing else, which is part of the mystique. In any other vehicle, the wealth of monotonous grey plastic and identical buttons, especially on the center console, would be alarming, and I might accuse it of being a cost-cutting measure. But in the LR3 it comes off as more of a traditional cue, a no-nonsense arrangement that works fine and doesn’t distract should you actually venture off-road. The dash, like the rest of the LR3, feels honest and ready to work.

Two engines are offered in three models: The V6 SE is powered by a 216-horsepower 4.0-liter V-6 that feels pretty spunky while both the V8 SE and the V8 HSE get a 300-hp 4.4-liter V-8 that has big power but is grown-up in how it puts it down. The LR3 is a heavy beast, and it never feels sporty. But it nonetheless plies the road with authority. Both engines work through a six-speed automatic transmission that offers manual-shifting ability.

When you look at the specifications, you quickly see what the engines have to work with: The LR3 is easily a thousand pounds heavier than it should be. In top trim, Land Rover lists a curb weight of 5,796 pounds, which is more than 200 pounds heavier than a four-wheel-drive Chevy Tahoe and some 460 pounds heavier than the BMW X5 with an even bigger V-8 engine. If much of that weight can be attributed to the off-roading hardware, it raises the question of how important that aura of ability is for buyers.

For the 2007 model year, all LR3s gets a few improvements, making standard previously optional things like a leather interior, sunroof and a 240-watt harman/kardon stereo with controls on the steering wheel. Also new are power-seat adjustments that work without the key, one-touch controls for the front-passenger window, a three-flash turn signal and a clock in the instrument panel, in addition to the one in the radio. But the biggest change is more standard equipment for the V8 SE, including rear air-conditioning controls, rear park-distance control, front foglights and puddle and footwell lights

The front seats are spacious and very comfortable. Three-row, seven-passenger seating is now standard on both V-8 models and optional on the base model. It’s a bit tight in the back for adults, but stadium seating helps the two-passenger third row feel more airy. And the wrap-up windows also help to fight claustrophobia. There really is a huge amount of room in the LR3 — Land Rover calls its interior one of the most spacious in the midsize SUV category.

But the best thing about the Land Rover LR3 is still academic, because I never found an appropriate trail to put it to the test. But I really doubt that any significant number of owners will — they’ll be satisfied to know it could tackle any obstacle that might pop up and spend the rest of the time simply enjoying the luxurious Britishness of it all. So I’ll just say it easily met any challenge I could dish out in daily use while still looking fit for the opera or downtown restaurants — and held the promise of being ready to take any back road there. And isn’t that what it’s really all about? How’s that for self-assured?

This article was taken from: SantaFeDrive.com

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 30th, 2007 at 7:34 am and is filed under Land Rover. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.