Wasn’t it the Top Gear boys that summed this up a few years ago when they said that handmade = rubbish? The reason solid dependable people are solid and dependable; they are consistent and principled. There is a reason solid dependable people are often boring; they are consistent and principled.

In the Australian Outback, everyone drives Toyotas; Series 80 or 100 Landcruisers for the “town” car and Troopcarriers if you’re serious. Why you ask? With hundreds of miles between towns, no mobile coverage and a population density rivalled only by Antarctica, if you break down you die. And Toyotas don’t break down,…

“more money than sense” is the answer to your headline, Doug.

I said it on another RR thread yesterday, I’ve got a co-worker who is full on delusional about his 2006 RR. He’s out 1-2 days a month with problems, constantly fearing another breakdown, yet applauding the reliability of his cheap, nearing-200k Range. He was out on Monday for Trans issues, was out last month two days…

I guess I’m too practical. If I can buy an expensive car I want as many of the parts to be from other cheaper cars as possible. Those parts, while cheaper looking, are probably a little reliable and less expensive to boot. Just make sure the really important parts (the reason I’m paying the huge sum) are in there and…

There’s an entirely missed dimension in the post above, that I think needs exploration.

They want to be perceived as fancy.

My friends mother who was a real estate agent always had land rovers. She dealt with many high end clients in NYC and drove them around to see laces. This was the only reason she drove land rovers. Once she retired she bought a Honda CRV saying she will never own another land rover again.

15k isn’t exactly proving much...

You realize most vehicles are reliable for the first several years and 10 of thousands or even 100,000+ miles right? Buddy of mine had a Mercedes he thought was bullet proof, bought it at 40,000 miles, trouble free till around 90,000 then everything that could fail or break started too.

Really getting up there in miles, about time to trade it in for a new one before the unreliablity hits!

How long must we go on with the Range Rover crap? Have a 2014 Sport Supercharged Autobiography with all the ‘fancy’ crap on it, over 15k miles and..... No trips to the service bay. Well, save an oil change. Yes, everyone knows the older ones tend to go wrong when they get used, but the new ones have proven fairly…

There are always exceptions. Ownership stats suggest they’re still built like crap.

Consumer Reports (and just about every other reliability survey on Earth) suggests Range Rovers are still about the most unreliable new cars out there. Yes, they’re better than they used to be, but that’s a ludicrously low bar. They’re still far worse than any other cars in their class. Also, come report on your…

Get back to us at 45k or 3 years, whichever one arrives first.

That’s because they’re still new. Just wait. You’ll get what’s coming your way eventually.

If you're really happy about your car's reliability in the first 15,000 miles, you've bought an unreliable car.

By all means I certainly wish a long and trouble-free future from your vehicle - but you cannot judge a vehicle’s long-term reliability on its first 15,000 miles.

“I’ve had this thing 8 hours and not a problem! Except for that one thing, but that was covered by warranty.”

15 thousand miles?! Slow down, you’re using up all the fancy too fast.