Hello, new to the forum so go gentle.

I, for the first time in 10+years, am in a position where i dont need to worry about fuel economy.
my work milage has reduced from anywhere between 500 - 700 miles per week, to 3 miles per day.
as such i was looking to get a big V8 car.
as i am doing such short milage, i cant justify spending £20k on a car, so im looking for a cheepish v8 car.
i found a couple of 4.4 v8 range rovers for sale in the area and went to test drive, was thoroughly dissapointed, i know these are never going to be fast, and i have a lotus for speed/flinging around corners, however, the acceleration was just too slow. foot to the floor getting to 30 felt like an age, could get a supercharged one, however, their price is more than im wanting to spend to drive 3 miles to work a day.
ive been looking at other cars, bmw 6 series etc. however, havent spotted anything i fancy in my area.

there is plenty of tdv8's for sale in the area at cracking prices.

so my question is, if i was to buy a tdv8, and do a erg delete, would i face any issues (other than MOT).

Fuel consumption on a tdv8 during the first few miles is appalling - until the engine warms up.
On my 3.6 TDV8 it is regularly below 10 mpg for the 1st 3 or 4 miles - especially if the weather is cold.
Performsnce is a lot better than a standard 4.4 petrol, although the engine is not as refined.
A 4.4 TDV8 will be better, but then you're faced with the issue of DPFs that don't like short journeys either - unless you regulary do some longer journeys to let the regen.
The later 3.6 TDV8s also will have DPFs to worry about. Paul,
2001 Discovery 2 TD5, 211,000 miles & climbing
2006 FFRR TDV8 Vogue 145,000 miles & climbing
Member of Midland (Land) Rover Owners Club, www.mroc.co.uk

modern diesel do not like short runs and 3 miles is not really enough to get everything up to temp. Unless you intend to take a long trip home in the evening and with the TDV8 4.4 can be fun as for a big heavy car the do move well.
personally if it is only ever going on short runs i would avoid diesel and go for petrol far less issues i think.
having said that i run TDV8 4.4 and it does the school shuttle 6.5 miles each way every day on country roads, but it does go out on longer runs 2-3 times a week (By that i mean 20+ miles on a mix of roads) i get an avg mpg of 25 and my soot levels dont seem to vary much 4-10% is what i see.

the car is great to drive and seems to be serving us well  2012 Vogue 4.4 TDV8 - Current
2014 Navara V6 - Gone
2004 Vogue TD6 - Gone
Grand Cherokee - Gone
Discovery V8 (LPG) - Gone
Discovery TD5 - Gone

I’m a little surprised the old 4.4 is that bad getting to 30. I’ve been in a couple and they didn’t seem too bad. That said, I suppose it’s all relative.

Might I suggest driving a few more models, inc 3.6 TDV8 and see what you think then....?

 2011 Range Rover Vogue SE 4.4 TDV8

Previous cars :
2003 Range Rover Vogue TD6
1999 Discovery Td5 ES
1995 BMW M5 3.8 6 speed
1992 Range Rover 3.9 Efi Vogue
1992 BMW M5 3.8
1988 BMW 735i SE
1989 Ford Sierra XR4x4 2.9i
1981 Ford Fiesta Supersport

with those small miles i'd be looking at a 4.2 SC....excellent engines that hardly have any problems.. ... - .- -.




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4.2 SC. No contest. Avoid a diesel. 2011 4.4 TDV8 Vogue SE Buckingham Blue with Ivory and clear glass = "Rory"
New Defender D300 90 on order so "Rory" will be going to a new home....!
1974 Series 3 Lightweight = "Millie"
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Petrol every time - don't even consider diesel for low mileages - more trouble than its worth

The feeling of speed is definitely reduced due to being so high up, compared to a normal car.

I was distinctly underwhelmed by a TDV8 when I test drove mine, but I think that was because I was expecting the best part of 300hp to equate to it being quite a fast car. It is not.

They make progress ok though. Its not really about the speed, as you say there are other cars for that  Pikey by name, not by nature

The SDV8 is lot slower than I'm used to, but is plenty quick enough for a Range Rover and suits the way it likes to be driven.

However, with such low mileage, definitely go for a V8 petrol and enjoy the noise.

Although with a 3 mile a day commute, you should walk/cycle! MY23 Panamera E-Hybrid
MY19 SDV8 Autobiography - Sold

Last edited by Martin2 on 11th Nov 2020 3:43pm. Edited 1 time in total

We have a 5.0 SC and my partner uses it for her commute (7 miles of 'B' road each way)

We see about 20MPG average...

I'd definitely recommend investing in a battery charger though... we had a new battery in the car about 2 months ago, and aside from a couple of slightly longer runs it's been mostly local small journeys and last week the alarm decided to sound at 4am with a message on the dash that the engine needed running as the battery was low....

Luckily, we also own old VW's so had a CTEK MXS 5 sat on the side in the Garage... so I just hooked that up and left it for a day and have resolved to hook it up every couple of weeks for a boost.

I would tend towards petrol, even though I now have a diesel (and it is trouble free) I always buy SWMBO a petrol car as she only does short runs and I believe that's where petrol scores..

I wouldn't worry about mpg, I only switched from Petrol myself because I was forever at the petrol station. I think the point about mpg on start up is interesting, I would imagine petrol engines have some sort of automatic choke so they won't be much, if any, better for the first few miles. As Stan says a good 4.2SC may well be ideal. Geoff

We've never had a diesel as a second car and I had a couple of years in a V8 petrol before going back to diesel with the FF.

My wife current car has over 300hp and is more economical than mine on short and long runs, even though it's driven much more enthusiastically and my last car had 450hp and was almost as big (but not as heavy or tall) as the FF and could easily do 38-40mpg on a long motorway run. The same journey now gets me 32mpg at best. MY23 Panamera E-Hybrid
MY19 SDV8 Autobiography - Sold

I would highly suggest having a battery charger or keeping a portable booster pack in the vehicle if you are only going to be taking these vehicles on short trips. 2010 RR SC
2007 RR SC

thanks for the replies.

yes DPF would also need deleting aswell as erg if i was to go with the diesel.
i was more thinking would there be other issues to be considered and would i then start getting issues with "dirt" building up elsewhere in the engine etc.

Dr Rob, good suggestion, i didnt no 4.2 SC was an option, i thought there was only the 5.0SC which go for more than what i want to spend on a work horse. hopefully the 4.2 is a bit more pallatable, will have to take a look around see if any are for sale.

I've had a remapped 3.6 TDV8 and now a 4.2 Supercharged petrol - both really nice cars, the TDV8 had masses of torque which the supercharged doesn't have, so went better. The SC is very relaxing to drive and makes a lovely whine when you boot it, at the cost of fuel consumption in the 12-15mpg range apart from on runs. But, that's fine for me as I'm doing about 4,000 miles a year in it and being the Jag 4.2 petrol engine, it is fairly bulletproof on reliability. My TDV8 did lunch a turbo which caused its demise last year, but it had done 172,000 miles on the original turbos so can't really complain too much.

I'd say go for a supercharged petrol, either 4.2 or 5.0 (with the timing chains done if 5.0), sit back and enjoy the smooth V8 burbliness.

fanders  ---------------------------------------
2009 4.2 SC Buckingham Blue
2021 Hilux 2.4