I competed at the TLC Cruiserkhana over the weekend and thought I would give new buyers or prospective WK2 off-roaders my thoughts so far. Also, I've had the car for a week and have added some of my findings, both good and bad.
Pro's:
* Tenacious grip, the 4WD system works very well, never really lost traction for very long and the car felt grounded and did it all very easy, my wife could have done it.
* Good ground clearance in off road height 2.
* The engine has plenty of grunt, no more is needed. (Need & Want are two different things)
* The gear box is superb and the manual control over it works well and is easy to use.
* The E-diff is brilliant, locks up like a locker, chews up the ground when turning and was quite reassuring it was there.
* Get off the dirt and back on the tarmac and you have a brilliant, quite road eating machine, with (once I figured out how to use it) a brilliant stereo and awesome engine & interior.
* Very good dust sealing.
* It overtakes like a Bastard! I looked down at the speedo and I may or may not have been pulling the tonne and climbing past a couple of cars towing boats on the way home.
Con's:
* Very clunky/noisy from the rear shockers in off road 2, only when going over very rough tracks, stumps, roots... sounds like the shockers are over extending and bottoming out but I don't think that is the case.
*Hill decent is ok, not fantastic, the Discovery-3 one is by comparison fantastic. (Yes its fair to say Hill Decent is for Girls but hey)
* I do not have a rear recovery point... I looked about 19 times in disbelief, its not there, none. Maybe this is a Trailhawk thing?? Jeep have a two recovery point per car limit maybe?
* The GPS is absolutely useless in anything other than the suburbs, I tried to add the destination Yarck Victoria, nup not there, I put in Yea which it found but it was determined to send me via the Hume even though I was already near Lilydale, there better be an update or I'm gonna crack it.
* The under body protection directly under the engine is rubbish, I'm going to replace it with steel and bolts.
* With the Air dam removed the washer bottle is asking for damage.
* If you park and turn off the car in off road height 2 then restart the car it will lower to off road height 1 with no message, I found myself hitting stuff after restarting and then constantly rechecking it was still in height 2. I know best, it needs to stay where I left it (Llams?)
* I had the air suspension fault light come on after I beached the car in the Sand trap, yes... I had to be recovered from the front tow hooks and worse off, by a Prado. I did finish the rest of the course, this time with more throttle.
* Front corner visibility terrible due to bonnet design
* In mud or tight slippery stuff the Disco had a steering lock indicator on the dash that told you where the wheels were pointing, it was very helpfull if your in mud or wet clay and working the wheel and throttle, it basically told you if your were a whole lock out from being straight. Hard to explain, easy to use.
Over all, I really like the car, I washed it for the first time yesterday and it was a bonding experience, I've still got to clean all the dust out of the interior as the windows down for some events but I am looking forward to it. The off-roading on the weekend confirmed most of the modifications I want to do to the car and some more I did not know I needed but that's what its about.
Matt.
WK2: Off Roading & general opinion thus far.
