Oiii!!!! Nowt wrong with the BMW I'll have you know!!! I'm the proud owner of an X5 as well as a P38!! I don't know any BMW owner who would want to mess up their X5 like this guy wants to mess up a P38. Sounds like he needs a Ford Escort, not a Range Rover and definitely not an X5.....
Sorry rangiegal nothing personal but why an X5??
Hi Sandyt
Really because my partner needs much better, supportive recaro-type sports seats due to having a very severe form of destructive arthritis and long trips in the Rangie were making life really miserable for her, recovery taking several days after a long trip. The leather interior of the Rangie is nice, but does not offer anything near the same support as the sport style recaro chair found in sports cars generally. Checked into pricing for these for the p38 and it just wasn't feasible, even if a wrecked Overfinch interior happened to come available (they don't, at least not in the past few years I've been looking!). Other mods to other models could be done, but again not cost effective and I wanted to maintain the electric seat adjustment as well, and not confuse the BECM!! Quotes were all in the 1000's and it wasn't too clever to spend this on a 1999 car, I thought.
So looked around at everything else - short list ended up VW Touareg, and Merc ML. Also looked at Volvo XC90, Audi Q7, Nissan Qashqai, several other Jap / Korean jobbies - shoguns, toyotas etc etc and loads of others.Newer Rangies suffer from similar seat problems to the P38 - not supportive or adjustable enough.
Nothing came near the BMW in terms of comfort, style, driving experience and dealer support - I've found main dealers helpful, unlike the snotty to£$ers at Land Rover stealerships. Not to mention all the nice toys in the car!! - sat nav, TV, Phone, top quality stereo with DSP etc. etc.
The seats are finished in beautiful soft black Nappa leather, seat heating is awesome (unlike the non-working P38 jobbies which always need repair and were never that great to start with anyhow!) and a great help for someone with arthritis, let alone the rest of us in weather like this! The seats are also infinitely adjustable with a lumbar support as well.
Driving experience is brilliant - it drives like a 5-series, road handling is awesome. Not as capable in extreme offroad conditions, but this is largely due to having ridiculously low profile tyres on huge alloys more than anything else.
I've swopped out the 19" Michelin Diamaris tyres at the moment for 17" Vredestein winter tyres till around April. I've been in rural Norfolk with the X5 and I must say, its been a driving pleasure. I love my Rangie, but the drive is completely different. I don't miss the tramlining and other handling quirks of the P38 one bit, although I do miss the big loadspace and other things about the Rangie, which is still standing on the drive waiting for better weather to unpack her and take pics to sell her.
The X5 I've got is a gorgeous colour (Toledo Blue) and it is a stylish car. Lots of envious looks and lots of road range vented at Bimmers, though, unlike the pitying looks
one gets in an aging P38
especially when its on the verge broken down again
The Touareg was more bloated looking like it was on steroids, and was bigger and wider, making parking a nuisance, and there are reliability issues with earlier models, plus the seats were not as good as the x5, and the Merc was, well, boring and a bit like a van in looks and driving experience....that's just my personal experience and an informed choice after 30 years of driving a 4x4 in all conceivable conditions!!!!!
I think chavs and idiots can be found behind the wheel of most marques these days, not just Bimmers......just look at some of the p38 ads on ebay (and some of the horrible looking chav wheels / LP tyres discussed on here at times!!) :doh: