Got a chance today to have a look around the new RRS at the Festival of Speed.
On the LR stand they had 3 on display as well as a couple of white ones that were being used on a little 'off road experience track' although the queue for this was about 100m long!

First impressions are that the car is nice. It's perhaps better on the inside than the outside but I suppose that was probably down to the colour. It is though, in my opinion closer to the Full Fat than the Evoque in looks. I also liked the two seats in the boot. These come out of the floor electronically in a matter of seconds and when in place, you still have a little bit of boot left for a few bags of supermarket shopping.

Overall, very impressed and I can't wait to drive one. All the cars here though we're specced up to the eyeballs as the Supercharged version was £94k.

We also got to see the Supercharged version on the Hillclimb. It looked and sounded great even though the commentator questioned why it was there in the first place.

I disagree on the 7 seats...they offer little room to sit store things in and you loose the spare.

Countless people had problems with the electric mechanism...most funny was the guy that got the seat stuck.

I think my side by side shot shows the position between evoque and ffrr...it's definitely more evoque though

Supercharged is cool...the sound comes from engineered exhaust note...still cool Mike

2014 Facelift Discovery

Tonyrec wrote:

First impressions are that the car is nice. It's perhaps better on the inside than the outside but I suppose that was probably down to the colour.

I bet it was red

Everything internal goes red when you turn on dynamic or sport...it is cool, apparently red appeals to men in some fundamental way...... Mike

2014 Facelift Discovery

mse wrote:

I disagree on the 7 seats...they offer little room to sit store things in and you loose the spare.

Countless people had problems with the electric mechanism...most funny was the guy that got the seat stuck.

I think my side by side shot shows the position between evoque and ffrr...it's definitely more evoque though

Supercharged is cool...the sound comes from engineered exhaust note...still cool

They are great occasional seats. I sat in them and whilst I wouldn't want to travel for a big distance, for kids they are perfect. Just gives an extra use instead of a 2 car trip etc, also, with the seats up, there was more room than in the boot of out D3 when we used that on the odd occasion as a 7 seater.

If we get one of these, it will be when it's a year old so hopefully plenty of new owners tick the relavent box on the order as I believe that a 7 seater will be more sought after in later years.

All personal choice though

On the subject of rear seats - the main ones not the extra occasional ones - you can only fold the seatback as the base is fixed, which means that the front of the loadbay formed by the seatback slopes upwards by several inches. Seems to be the current fashion though as in Evoque and FFRR ISTR. So not only nearly 20% less space than the outgoing model but you also lose all the handy storage space under the current rear seats. (The top glove box has gone too)

A couple of comments on the driving experience.

Steering is very good with very quick response and ride seems better at low speed on uneven roads but would want to try it on our local awful road surfaces to be sure.
The new gearlever with a forward position for Reverse and a separate switch for Park will catch a few out.
The Stop/Start system can kill the engine just as you complete a change from Low to High range - made me think it was the range change which had killed the motor.
The TdV6 still lacks the mid range torque of a V8 so there is a lot of gear changing going on. The 4.4TdV8 should be better.

I'm 6ft2 and other than giving my wife and the hosts a laugh, there is no way an adult would fit or a large kid, the moment the 2nd row is back there is no room...they are difficult enough to get in.

On the Eco stop/start, we just switched it off after the first junction, when off roaring I didn't see it turn off, but there could be a few reasons why it didn't.

My wife missed that top glove box too! Simple things...I think the ride is improved by the higher profile tyres if I'm honest.

The new gear leaver is odd...we also had a nav/audio sound bug where it would try and turn the nav volume up/down instead of the stereo every so often Mike

2014 Facelift Discovery

I was really pleased with the Land Rover stand and complimentary owners area as a whole! The black RRS HSE inside the stand didn't have a huge amount of options on it (compared to All Porsche's and audi's). The new RS6 inside the owners area on the Audi stand was optioned from £70k to £110k!