Long story short.
Cayenne and a Amarok had a braking competition in the wet, Offroad tyres and inertia lost the battle. Spent 2 months looking for either another decent 957 Cayenne or a W163 270/55 that hasn't been put through the arse of Zuma came up short, started looking for something else.
In came the Rover with BMW buttons and engineering, and Ford engines. 09 3.6 TDV8
Another WBC special. A very odd one indeed. Owned by a politician (shock horror) who lived a couple of kilo's away from me. The Car was a demo when he got it, used predominantly in it's latter years for a annual JHB to Capetown and back run and not much else other than being a bit of a chewing toy for a dog(s). Spare keys, owners manual, all accessories etc there. The rear entertainment headsets still in plastic wrapping.
Price was decent. Comestically it was ehm yes. Used. I spent probably 3 weeks uhming and ahing and back and forth sussing it out. Drove a few others that on paper should have been better (the invoices for repairs) and they just all came up short.
So what was wrong with it Mechanically.
1. Suspension was defentily on borrowed time. How much borrowed time would revel itself very quickly.
2. Some very expensive conti rubber in dire need of replacement due to overeating on curbs
3. Adventure cam was dead, so was the DVD player and CD shuttle.
4. Gearbox has a flare on the 3rd 4th shift.
5 Steering adjustment motor worked and not worked depending on the mood.
So it was a done deal.
Front struts sprung a permanent leak on ownership day 2. Thankfully at home, so it was a simple drive to a suspension place to relieve me of 20k for new strusts.
Spent weeks with the O3 machine in the car slowy ridding it of some human remains/spoiled/spilled milk odour. After that it was just giving the poor thing a polish before taking it to farms and muddy tracks.
Beeing seeking all over the net to get a decent solution for the sound system problem (Ie out dated) that doesn't involve a fongkong headunit that kills all integration and looks completely out of place. Plenty of 2009-2012 upgrades avalbile, but there seems to be some hope as E39 upgrade units seem to be usable but then i lose the RR bits in the shoftware (offroad stuff / Adventure cam integration ) so stil some searching for this. Was hoping there is something that i can just kill the CD shuttle and use that conneciton to integrate some form of Wireless streaming that doesn't pull a parrot and completely override the system. Still digging.
Because the breakover angles are a bit bonkers the rear towbar is acually the lowest point on the car, meaning it slams into everything if you aren't paying attention so that had to come out. That was 2 days of lube and swearing and hammering and vice grips. Common for the twist mechancism to seize up on them it seems even though mine was absolutely rust free. Stowed away safely in it's baggie for now.
PDC was clearly done by Rover, it will keep beeping away even if you are in park and the handbrake on. Sat-nav is effing infuriating, much like Toyota/Lexus you can't alter when on the move, but the really brilliant Rover part of this is... when you select Nav while on the move, it defaults to a popup "would you like to Navigate to your desitation" or some BS like that, you can click no and it gives you just a map view, or you say yes and it takes you to a blanked out screen. BRILLIANT thinking there. Same goes for the dash warning display, you get a error message you can't BMW style just cycle through it with the next button, you have to press a button in the cluser like a millage reset button and then cycle through the normal things. BRILLIANT.
Gearbox when cold is very sluggish, like start it pop in reverse and you have to mash the pedal to get it moving, about 30 seconds in, all is well. On cold mornings it has a airsuspension fault, I can hear the compressor run and it doesn't drop it like it's hot. I suspect it's a sensor somewhere being full of it as later in the day it works just fine. Jumps up in the air quickly or lowers itself quickly on command.
So off to what has been done.
It has been de-biohazarded, it has been polished. Tryes were replaced, it has been given a ECU flash to get some more performance out of it, it is booked at ZF for a tranny service (4.5K special FTW) this week in the hopes it sorts the flare and the startup deadness out a bit. It was serviced in 2025 at 110 000km and i am now i think on 116K, so soon it will be off to a workshop for a oil change. Nice thing is they are so bibically unrelaible and dealers notoriusly ripoffy i have one 600meters from my home, one on the way to work if i choise Rabie, one on the way to work if i chose Mali, i have another if i want to detour to a supplier in Strydom Park, and another near my work in Honeydew. Yey choices! Need to do a padslap as well, since there is some grinding noises from the brakes after a while and a EGR delete (phyiscal) as the software has been done.
All in, i enjoy driving this, while big it is easy to park, driving postion is lovely, engine after the tune is now responsive, taking the dogs to delta is a breeze. Would i replace it with something else? Can't say i would, i don't like the touchscreen even bigger new ones, they are a bit to flashy a bit to Cardi-B. The LC200 makes no fucking sense money wise, they cost a fortune to maintain as the miles rack up and use more fuel and are slower with a lovely Toyota interior. LC300... seems to be super "reliable" in the petrol form. Diesel sure might do the trick, but hey V8 vs V6, not sure i would make the change. It's not like i daily it and need the economy.
That leaves me if something happens to this it is either find a really nice 322 4.4 or go pester a man a block away with a ML55 in dark blue. I miss the Cayeness ability to hang out arse, but not the Tobytax.
All in it was quite a gamble, and sofar the motor hasn't grenaded itself and that seems to be the one common ailment is these cars grenading is the motors going wrong. And these are the reliable subgeneration of 322.
Cayenne and a Amarok had a braking competition in the wet, Offroad tyres and inertia lost the battle. Spent 2 months looking for either another decent 957 Cayenne or a W163 270/55 that hasn't been put through the arse of Zuma came up short, started looking for something else.
In came the Rover with BMW buttons and engineering, and Ford engines. 09 3.6 TDV8
Another WBC special. A very odd one indeed. Owned by a politician (shock horror) who lived a couple of kilo's away from me. The Car was a demo when he got it, used predominantly in it's latter years for a annual JHB to Capetown and back run and not much else other than being a bit of a chewing toy for a dog(s). Spare keys, owners manual, all accessories etc there. The rear entertainment headsets still in plastic wrapping.
Price was decent. Comestically it was ehm yes. Used. I spent probably 3 weeks uhming and ahing and back and forth sussing it out. Drove a few others that on paper should have been better (the invoices for repairs) and they just all came up short.
So what was wrong with it Mechanically.
1. Suspension was defentily on borrowed time. How much borrowed time would revel itself very quickly.
2. Some very expensive conti rubber in dire need of replacement due to overeating on curbs
3. Adventure cam was dead, so was the DVD player and CD shuttle.
4. Gearbox has a flare on the 3rd 4th shift.
5 Steering adjustment motor worked and not worked depending on the mood.
So it was a done deal.
Front struts sprung a permanent leak on ownership day 2. Thankfully at home, so it was a simple drive to a suspension place to relieve me of 20k for new strusts.
Spent weeks with the O3 machine in the car slowy ridding it of some human remains/spoiled/spilled milk odour. After that it was just giving the poor thing a polish before taking it to farms and muddy tracks.
Beeing seeking all over the net to get a decent solution for the sound system problem (Ie out dated) that doesn't involve a fongkong headunit that kills all integration and looks completely out of place. Plenty of 2009-2012 upgrades avalbile, but there seems to be some hope as E39 upgrade units seem to be usable but then i lose the RR bits in the shoftware (offroad stuff / Adventure cam integration ) so stil some searching for this. Was hoping there is something that i can just kill the CD shuttle and use that conneciton to integrate some form of Wireless streaming that doesn't pull a parrot and completely override the system. Still digging.
Because the breakover angles are a bit bonkers the rear towbar is acually the lowest point on the car, meaning it slams into everything if you aren't paying attention so that had to come out. That was 2 days of lube and swearing and hammering and vice grips. Common for the twist mechancism to seize up on them it seems even though mine was absolutely rust free. Stowed away safely in it's baggie for now.
PDC was clearly done by Rover, it will keep beeping away even if you are in park and the handbrake on. Sat-nav is effing infuriating, much like Toyota/Lexus you can't alter when on the move, but the really brilliant Rover part of this is... when you select Nav while on the move, it defaults to a popup "would you like to Navigate to your desitation" or some BS like that, you can click no and it gives you just a map view, or you say yes and it takes you to a blanked out screen. BRILLIANT thinking there. Same goes for the dash warning display, you get a error message you can't BMW style just cycle through it with the next button, you have to press a button in the cluser like a millage reset button and then cycle through the normal things. BRILLIANT.
Gearbox when cold is very sluggish, like start it pop in reverse and you have to mash the pedal to get it moving, about 30 seconds in, all is well. On cold mornings it has a airsuspension fault, I can hear the compressor run and it doesn't drop it like it's hot. I suspect it's a sensor somewhere being full of it as later in the day it works just fine. Jumps up in the air quickly or lowers itself quickly on command.
So off to what has been done.
It has been de-biohazarded, it has been polished. Tryes were replaced, it has been given a ECU flash to get some more performance out of it, it is booked at ZF for a tranny service (4.5K special FTW) this week in the hopes it sorts the flare and the startup deadness out a bit. It was serviced in 2025 at 110 000km and i am now i think on 116K, so soon it will be off to a workshop for a oil change. Nice thing is they are so bibically unrelaible and dealers notoriusly ripoffy i have one 600meters from my home, one on the way to work if i choise Rabie, one on the way to work if i chose Mali, i have another if i want to detour to a supplier in Strydom Park, and another near my work in Honeydew. Yey choices! Need to do a padslap as well, since there is some grinding noises from the brakes after a while and a EGR delete (phyiscal) as the software has been done.
All in, i enjoy driving this, while big it is easy to park, driving postion is lovely, engine after the tune is now responsive, taking the dogs to delta is a breeze. Would i replace it with something else? Can't say i would, i don't like the touchscreen even bigger new ones, they are a bit to flashy a bit to Cardi-B. The LC200 makes no fucking sense money wise, they cost a fortune to maintain as the miles rack up and use more fuel and are slower with a lovely Toyota interior. LC300... seems to be super "reliable" in the petrol form. Diesel sure might do the trick, but hey V8 vs V6, not sure i would make the change. It's not like i daily it and need the economy.
That leaves me if something happens to this it is either find a really nice 322 4.4 or go pester a man a block away with a ML55 in dark blue. I miss the Cayeness ability to hang out arse, but not the Tobytax.
All in it was quite a gamble, and sofar the motor hasn't grenaded itself and that seems to be the one common ailment is these cars grenading is the motors going wrong. And these are the reliable subgeneration of 322.
