Velar - surprisingly impressed
Discussion
With the Tuscan sold and OH in a new job with a longer daily commute it made sense to see if she wanted to upgrade her daily driver (albeit a car I bought for her - 2006 V70 T5 in super rare manual form).
As much as I loved the T5, and the fact it was genuinely immaculate she never bonded with it
Discussions ensued and I was set the task of finding a Velar, I'd create a shortlist, OH would whittle it down and hopefully easy decision made
Agreed it was to be a P250 or P300, personal choice as neither of us are diesel fans and mileage / usage made it borderline sensible anyway. P380 ruled out only on the basis that we felt it was simply not the kind of car to need 380bhp, it was going to be a family bus and could never be seen as a performance car.
My personal criteria was that it needed the contrast roof colour and decent sized wheels, also had to be approved used for a bit of peace of mind.
Tried an approved used P250 and performance was ok and genuinely impressed with refinement but dealership experience was woeful and a 4 year / 22k mile gap in service history made it a non starter
Emails fired off to numerous 4 dealers (all Land Rover) on a Saturday evening asking for a call to discuss the car of interest, only one bothered returning a call but experience was absolute perfection, friendly, courteous, knowledgeable - really could not fault it in any way at all
Deal quickly done on a 50k mile P300 R Dynamic HSE with optional panoramic roof (fixed), air suspension and 22" wheels, FSH and 1 owner from new
Collected a week and a half ago and really impressed with it - does the luxury car but very well, is as practical as we hoped, barely a mark on the car and stuffed with equipment. The split screens in the centre console work really well and look so much better than the typical "stuck on" tablet arrangement
Performance and more importantly refinement are impressive, averaged 33mpg over the 500 miles its done (mix of motorway, urban and cross country).
Unlike most such cars its 4 wheel drive will be used as son does a lot of downhill MTB events
As much as I loved the T5, and the fact it was genuinely immaculate she never bonded with it
Discussions ensued and I was set the task of finding a Velar, I'd create a shortlist, OH would whittle it down and hopefully easy decision made
Agreed it was to be a P250 or P300, personal choice as neither of us are diesel fans and mileage / usage made it borderline sensible anyway. P380 ruled out only on the basis that we felt it was simply not the kind of car to need 380bhp, it was going to be a family bus and could never be seen as a performance car.
My personal criteria was that it needed the contrast roof colour and decent sized wheels, also had to be approved used for a bit of peace of mind.
Tried an approved used P250 and performance was ok and genuinely impressed with refinement but dealership experience was woeful and a 4 year / 22k mile gap in service history made it a non starter
Emails fired off to numerous 4 dealers (all Land Rover) on a Saturday evening asking for a call to discuss the car of interest, only one bothered returning a call but experience was absolute perfection, friendly, courteous, knowledgeable - really could not fault it in any way at all
Deal quickly done on a 50k mile P300 R Dynamic HSE with optional panoramic roof (fixed), air suspension and 22" wheels, FSH and 1 owner from new
Collected a week and a half ago and really impressed with it - does the luxury car but very well, is as practical as we hoped, barely a mark on the car and stuffed with equipment. The split screens in the centre console work really well and look so much better than the typical "stuck on" tablet arrangement
Performance and more importantly refinement are impressive, averaged 33mpg over the 500 miles its done (mix of motorway, urban and cross country).
Unlike most such cars its 4 wheel drive will be used as son does a lot of downhill MTB events
normalbloke said:
Is this still under the manufacturer warranty or an aftermarket jobbie?
Manufacturer - that was a non-negotiable - usually happy to buy private or independent but with this it had to be manufacturer approved, I discovered very little difference in used prices so was a no brainer brianb said:
Lovely,
I’ve been looking at these as a daily myself but slightly worried about JLR reputation in terms of reliability, is there any particular models / engines to avoid?
I decided very early that I wanted the relative simplicity of the Ingenium petrol engine- eventhe 250 is reasonably brisk whilst the 300 is plenty quick enough - who needs more than a sub 6 sec time for an SUVI’ve been looking at these as a daily myself but slightly worried about JLR reputation in terms of reliability, is there any particular models / engines to avoid?
The interior is genuinely lovely and I prefer the pre-facelift model as it has the dual screen that are integrated rather than a single screen that looks stuck on
Andy665 said:
normalbloke said:
Is this still under the manufacturer warranty or an aftermarket jobbie?
Manufacturer - that was a non-negotiable - usually happy to buy private or independent but with this it had to be manufacturer approved, I discovered very little difference in used prices so was a no brainer Hope it treats you well, I didn't like them at first but they've grown on me.
Lovely, well done! I didn't really "get" the Velar when they first appeared, couldn't see the case for them vs. the RRS, although they are very pretty. I ended up with one as a hire car for a trip from Aberdeen to Nottingham for a week for work - quite an upgrade from "Ford Focus (or similar)", what a lovely way to travel.
8bit said:
Lovely, well done! I didn't really "get" the Velar when they first appeared, couldn't see the case for them vs. the RRS, although they are very pretty. I ended up with one as a hire car for a trip from Aberdeen to Nottingham for a week for work - quite an upgrade from "Ford Focus (or similar)", what a lovely way to travel.
Likewise, I could not see the point of the Velar. We did consider a Sport but we both felt that they have not aged well and there was nothing that a Sport offered us that we could not get in a Velar. 
Bobupndown said:
Never understood the need for the Velar in LRs range. Not fussed on its styling either. A Discovery Sport or RRS would suit just as well as one of these.
Discovery Sport feels very cheap interior wise in comparison snd we simply preferred the Velar to the Sport The Velar suited us which is all that matters really
Apart from a suspension fault (new compressor fitted without quibble under warranty) the Velar has been faultless for its first 11 months and 10k miles with us
Economy has settled at about 29mpg, not too bad considering that most journeys are relatively short / stop start traffic, a run will see 33-34mpg without too much effort
We bought at the peak of the insurance cost issue around LR product last year and took a calculated risk that it would sort itself, the fact that it had impacted values helped soften the blow last year and insurance was £1100, just had renewal through at £392 - looks like the gamble paid off
Economy has settled at about 29mpg, not too bad considering that most journeys are relatively short / stop start traffic, a run will see 33-34mpg without too much effort
We bought at the peak of the insurance cost issue around LR product last year and took a calculated risk that it would sort itself, the fact that it had impacted values helped soften the blow last year and insurance was £1100, just had renewal through at £392 - looks like the gamble paid off
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