Anyone interested starting a part life expectancy thread? I'm a firm believer that keeping a vehicle as trouble free as possible. Most of the problems a vehicle encounters are due to poor or unknown maintenance. Maintenance schedules don't provide for advised replacement of a part based mileage most of the time. As an example a alternator may have an average life of 100k miles on one vehicle but 200k on another. Knowing what most people get out of that part would help plan for costs or replacement before it goes bad saving on the road expense.

I don't personally think it would really help much. As you have already alluded to, every car to a greater or lesser extend will have different life expectancies of its parts. Its just the nature of the beast.

That being said, irrespective of service schedules, I generally believe that most modern design car go through a dip between 80k and 120k miles, which if you sort out the bits that need replaced, then it'll be good for the next 80 to 120k.

By that I primarily mean things like suspension bushes and subframe bushes,and suspension airbags. (i.e. perishable rubber after 8yrs in age ). that and gearbox oil / filter at that sort of time.

Beyond that its just your luck. V8 or else ...

I did my motoring formative years mostly on Volvos and Mercs, and they very seldom broke down. My love of Mercs was broken when I bought a three year old S Class. I never went back to Mercedes after that.

When I bought my Sport, it was 40 odd thousand miles. "What could go wrong at that mileage?" I thought. How wrong I was. Within a few months it developed every "known fault" the forums suggested possible, and seemed a total lemon. But suddenly, it stopped breaking every other week and has been trouble free for several years.

I've just bought a low miles FF. As yet I am unsure if it will spend the next year in and out of the garage or if this one will actually work. I am hopeful the FF is a better product than the RRS but time will tell. But that said, its first trip to the garage is already booked as the heaters are not blowing right, so we'll see.

I part exed the Merc S Class referenced above for a Chrysler 300C in late 05. In almost 13 years and about 80k miles that car has hardly given me a moments trouble. Routine servicing, some brakes, tyres, some suspension bushes, a battery and recently an alternator is all its ever needed. I'd happily jump in it and drive to London or Scotland. With an RR product I have to take out breakdown insurance to drive to Calais for the weekend. I once lived dangerously and went to Brussels without any........

I have an old Merc van (1998) that has been to the moon and back. I've had it almost a decade and it has hardly ever needed anything bar minimal MOT work, a fan belt and servicing.
I went to Russian border in it five years ago, and London in it only last week. It can stand for months and start. We wave an oily rag at it now and again. It just works.

Oh, I tell a lie, the radio we fitted about 7 years ago has gone on the blink - I must look at that. Its a "face off" radio cassette that was used when I fitted it.  2017 4.4 SDV8 Autobiography in black
2018 D300 SE Velar in champagne
Spiffing wheel centre caps available

fisha wrote:

I don't personally think it would really help much. As you have already alluded to, every car to a greater or lesser extend will have different life expectancies of its parts. Its just the nature of the beast.

That being said, irrespective of service schedules, I generally believe that most modern design car go through a dip between 80k and 120k miles, which if you sort out the bits that need replaced, then it'll be good for the next 80 to 120k.

By that I primarily mean things like suspension bushes and subframe bushes,and suspension airbags. (i.e. perishable rubber after 8yrs in age ). that and gearbox oil / filter at that sort of time.

Beyond that its just your luck.

Stuart- wrote:

I

I have an old Merc van (1998) that has been to the moon and back. I've had it almost a decade and it has hardly ever needed anything bar minimal MOT work, a fan belt and servicing.
I went to Russian border in it five years ago, and London in it only last week.

Did you pay the £100 charge for driving your van in London

It strikes me, and I'm no expert, that a lot of components on the FF are working at their limit from new and even mild abuse doesn't do them any favours. The FF is certainly nowhere near as robust as other LR products were.
After 47 years of LR ownership, I've come to the rather upsetting conclusion the FF is fragile and unpredictable in the extreme (for a LR)

steptoe wrote:

Stuart- wrote:

I

I have an old Merc van (1998) that has been to the moon and back. I've had it almost a decade and it has hardly ever needed anything bar minimal MOT work, a fan belt and servicing.
I went to Russian border in it five years ago, and London in it only last week.

Did you pay the £100 charge for driving your van in London

rodp wrote:

I've come to the rather upsetting conclusion the FF is fragile and unpredictable in the extreme (for a LR)

And yet we all love them and keep buying them  2017 4.4 SDV8 Autobiography
2012 4.4 TDV8 Westminster - Gone, but not forgotten

Rob 99 is right

Nicksaab story in ramblings is inspirational . (No link sorry) He has just bought a Westie to replace his 200,000 mile epic, I suspect we will all be reading how he blasts thru the 1/4 million mile mark in his new car in the 2020’s.

I’m not a techie, but on balance I am now convinced by Nick’s story that it’s just worth paying the bills & getting stuff done , that will come up at the 100,000m mark & then smugly watch the clock go around and around and enjoy a car just as a pair of old shoes that fits well.

In 2030/40/50 won’t be able to buy a FF anyway and I will probably be brown bread ..... or using a self drive electric, as the marbles have completely gone and I need to find a way of getting to the doctor for my weekly feed by tube....


Ps I should add, on my third FF and only had one major fault, alternator 2007 model. Filters are in fact so good that in certain circumstances, when the ambient air is already polluted, a diesel car will tend to extract more particles from the air than it emits. Emissions Analytics worked with........etc etc

He who dies with the most toys wins...

I'm 50/50 at the moment about going back to the D1. I had a nearly new Classic some years ago and never had this feeling of impending doom every time I got in it. They were a much more robust vehicle. A mate of mine imports Classics from SA, absolutely rust free (I mean zero rust let alone rot). I have been sorely tempted but they're all manual transmission, no auto's. They need a repray usually and a tidy up, they nearly all need retrimming but that comes from SA for pennys. My son's selling his FF for the same reasons, just can't be sure of it. He's going D2 and although they can suffer some problems it's nothing compared to a FF.
Time will tell, still unsure what to do.