Land Rover & it's complexities

Discover the complexities behind the most luxury SUVs by Land – Rover. In this journey Land – Rover was not alone BMW also had a major stake. How? Let’s Find It Out…..

Introduction:

In sedans Mercedes S-Class is known as epitome of luxury cars Mercedes GLS is known as top luxury SUV. But it lacks in some key features that one SUV should have like mechanical differential lock, low range drive in fact the water wading capacity is only 500mm.

So, in my opinion Mercedes GLS is not a top luxury SUV. I would rather choose Range-Rover by Land-Rover as a pinnacle of luxury SUV.

Land – Rover used to make simple rugged SUVs on ladder frame chassis but today Land – Rover is known for its luxury ride experience & easy off-roading capabilities of their SUVs.

Target of Land – Rover:

When Land – Rover started to expand their business, Land – Rover targeted US & UK market. The customers of that market wanted easy & comfortable drive. In order to achieve that Land – Rover started their work towards this goal.

BMW & Land – Rover:

In 1994, BMW acquired Land – Rover from British Leyland. By this acquisition both car brands learned some important things from each other, lets discuss that,

BMW learned from Land – Rover:

That time all manufacturers were not able to make SUVs and BMW was not an exception. But BMW wanted to introduce their SUV against its all-time rival Mercedes so, BMW acquired the loss-making company Land – Rover. From Land – Rover BMW adopted some techniques and introduced their 1^st SUV, BMW – X5.

Land – Rover learned from BMW:

It is not that only BMW got benefited. Land – Rover also got 2 main things from BMW that massively helped Land Rover to become today’s Land – Rover. These 2 main things are.

Monocoque Chassis
Independent Suspension

Let’s see, how use of these 2 things helped Land – Rover SUVs.

1. Monocoque Chassis:

As mentioned earlier Land – Rover used to make body on frame SUVs. After using the monocoque chassis the upper body weight of the SUV got reduced and as a result the body roll also reduced.

2. Independent Suspension:

The use of independent suspension increased the drive quality in bumpy roads and also reduced a major part of body roll caused by rigid suspension. As a result, driving a Land – Rover SUV becomes so comfortable that it feels like you are driving a sedan not a SUV. And if you guys remember that was Land – Rover’s initial target for US & UK based consumers. But this was not the end it was just trailer.

More steps towards comfortability:

Step - 1:

Land – Rover didn’t stop just by using Monocoque Chassis & Independent Suspension. In order to make their drive quality even better, Land – Rover introduced ‘Air Suspension’ instead of conventional spring suspension and that too 25 – 30 years ago.

If you have no idea about ‘Air Suspension’ then let’s have a small discussion about it.

‘Air Suspension’ is just using an air bag that inflates or deflates instead of the spring’s expand or compression. This Air – Suspension is a very complicated thing if you compare it with conventional spring suspension. It has 5 mains elements those are, –

Air bag studs – That inflates & deflates
A tank with pressurised air
Air pump
Height controlling sensor
Controller to adjust height manually

Step - 2:

Land – Rover was stepping towards comfortable drive experience as mentioned earlier “it feels like you are driving a sedan not a SUV” but being a SUV, it should capable of driving in off roads and other harsh terrains like sand, sludge, snow etc. And to drive in this harsh terrains the driver should also be skilful & well versed in using traction control, using differential-lock along with a capable SUV.

And to reduce the human effort and make the SUV more comfortable Land – Rover introduced ‘Terrain Response System’ in their Discovery 3 in 2004. This system equipped with cameras and sensors that can judge the terrains and change the settings as required. Basically, it worked like automatic transmission but for off-road.

After reading this much you might have a question like “Reducing human input and increasing drive quality is ok, but is it reliable?”.

Well, according to my research the answer is NO, this is not 100% reliable. Because the simple math behind this is as much as the completely increases the reliability decreases.

A major portion in Land – Rover SUVs are run by software the involvement of software is so high that former CEO of Land – Rover said in an interview that ‘we are an IT company’. If there is software there will be software failure also.

Beside software failure there are other mechanical and hardware failure like,

Suspension Air bag leak: As mentioned earlier Land – Rover uses air suspension; in that suspension the air bag studs can get leak and if not taken care of at right time the leak will increase and total system failure can happen.
Front Differential Failure: Another mechanical failure that can be seen more often is front differential failure which can be life threatening also. Some owner had to change their whole differential in just 40k – 50k KM.

Conclusion:

Software failure is common in other brands also but other brands mostly have software in their sedans but Land – Rover’s SUV perspective made the software more complex. And according to me as much as the complexity will increase the reliability issues will continue to occur.

Thanks for tuning in. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this post as much as I have enjoyed writing it. There’s still so much more to explore in the world of cars and bikes, and I’ll be back soon with more exciting content that’s sure, to get your engines revving. So don’t forget to subscribe our newsletter and stay tuned for our next instalment. Until then, keep on exploring all the thrilling adventures that the open road has to offer!

— by Shubhradwip Paul