Are All Dogs Born Knowing How To Swim?
You may assume that all dogs must know how to swim because nature must have blessed dogs with good swimming genes for the purpose of upping their chances for survival. After all, wasn't the term "doggy paddle" crafted from a dog's ability to swim? Not so fast though. Turns out, nature may have little to do with the poor swimming abilities of certain dogs. What's to blame instead is selective breeding by humans. When humans met canines many years ago, humans decided to play with genetics to make certain dogs excel at certain tasks. Among these tasks, were several that involved having dogs working in the water. Humans therefore selectively bred certain dogs to be the canine version of mermaids, while other dogs were crafted for other non-water related functions. This made the difference between great swimmers and dogs gifted with the buoyancy of a rock! If you are not sure if your dog knows how to swim, don't just push him in a pool and see what happens.
A friend has an '09 Range Rover Sport. Very comfortable and drives great, but the upkeep is very expensive. He complained every time he had to get the brake pads replaced the dealer insisted on also replacing the brake rotors and the job was quite expensive. 4500 to fix. Still driving it though and it never left him stranded. He would ask me how much jobs like that were on my '07 Jeep and of course since I do most of the work myself he can't believe what the RR dealer charges. A friend has an '09 Range Rover Sport. Very comfortable and drives great, but the upkeep is very expensive. He complained every time he had to get the brake pads replaced the dealer insisted on also replacing the brake rotors and the job was quite expensive. 4500 to fix. Still driving it though and it never left him stranded. He would ask me how much jobs like that were on my '07 Jeep and of course since I do most of the work myself he can't believe what the RR dealer charges. RR in the shop but it was older and had a little over a 100k. The cost wasnt too bad though as they used the same mechanic in town for years. Middle eastern guy that apparently knows the imports well.
Land Rover has produced many beautiful and rugged vehicles over the years, and somewhere along the way blended elegance and rigidity into one. However, many enthusiasts will agree that somewhere along the way reliability was lost, or that it was never there to begin with. Taylor Congleton, a native of South Hero, Vermont, learned early on in his Range Rover ownership that such vehicles could easily consume entire paychecks. He loved his Range Rover, but the constant repairs were a major drawback. Eventually, he was persuaded to learning how to wrench on Range Rovers and make money on them rather than lose money. Congleton went to work for Rovers North, a parts supply company, and did so for six years. Eventually, he went out on his own to start Congleton Service where he returns old Range Rovers back to their former glory and then some. Jalopnik quotes Congleton as saying 鈥淵ou go online and every Range Rover around is 鈥榬estored.鈥?But to restore is to make it as new. Congleton has learned the ins and outs of Range Rovers, and thus knows exactly what ailments they all suffer from and what parts will always be broken.
When the Land Rover Discovery first appeared in Europe in 1989, the Berlin Wall hadn't yet fallen, SUV sales were only beginning to mushroom here in the States, and clear colas were still a couple of years away. The luxury-SUV segment, so popular today, had about three members: the Land Rover Range Rover, the Toyota Land Cruiser, and the Jeep Grand Wagoneer. By the time Land Rover shipped over the Disco for 1995, the luxury-sport-ute segment was growing. Although not as decadent as the Range Rover, the Discovery conveniently filled the lower end of the luxury segment for Land Rover. Buyers bit, gobbling up about 15,000 in that first year. Turns out the Disco bit back, by being about as reliable as a British car built in the '70s on free-Guinness Fridays. Revisions to the Disco sought to recapture the faith of a disgruntled buying public, but the latest Discovery was enough like the original to trigger painful flashbacks. Clearly, an all-new design was necessary. The 2005 LR3 is the much-needed replacement for the Discovery.
Land Rover's Td6-equipped SUV is one of the quietest diesel vehicles I've ever experienced, and probably the most noise-refined thing currently in the automaker's showroom. The complete stillness was surprising, but it wasn't long before I was enjoying the expected goodness of the new powerplant: diesel torque. The Td6 is good for a modest 254 horsepower, and a great big happy 440 pound-feet of torque. That's more than enough to quickly motivate the lightweight SUV - under 5,000 pounds qualifies as "light" in this heavyweight class. But the big win for the Td6 is displayed loud and proud on the window sticker. The SUV is rated at an impressive 28 miles per gallon on the highway, with 22 mpg in the city and 25 combined. 1,500 diesel premium might not be an arduous task (as long as diesel prices don't skyrocket, naturally). For reference, those economy numbers put the Range Rover Sport right in the middle of its closest diesel competitive set, too: 19/28/22 for the Audi Q7 TDI, 22/29/25 for the Mercedes-Benz M250, and 24/31/27 for theBMW X5 xDrive35d.
