There was a great thread here about the LR3, D2 and D1
http://www.discoweb.org/forums/showthread.php?t=40578
I have a 05 LR3, a 95 D1 and a 91 RRC.
The LR3 cannot be compared to the other vehicles. It is so amazingly sure footed, big and solid, that it is a bit boring to drive -- the hill descent is amazing, and the DSC will keep you on a icy road without you even thinking about it. My wife can drive it through terrain that she would dump the RRC.
I can pick apart the pros and cons (including some situations that the DSC is best turned off), but over all, the best and worst thing I can say about the LR3 is it kind of reduces you to the "pointer" and not the "driver" -- which is to say that you just point it in the right direction and the LR3 figures out the rest (the traction, the braking, the throttle). As such I prefer my D1 and its more truck like personality. Its more fun to drive when you want to have fun. But the LR3 is a better vehicle most of the time, both around town and on the snow packed, icy or muddy roads. And there is no question about the ride and interior -- the LR3 is a luxury car in that regard and generations ahead of the RRC.
I rarely go truly off road but I live on a road where yesterday I had to pull a Honda out of the middle of the road where it had gotten mired up to the door sills -- so I think its a fair test for the Rovers (see pic taken from my D1, the LR3 is on the other side waiting for me to move the Honda out of the way). They are all great, but the LR3 is in a class by itself.
I have to point out one fun factoid about that photo (taken 1 week ago) -- that is my 75 year old urban mother in law in the LR3. She had called me from her cell phone to say someone was stuck in the road and I had gone to retrieve the Honda.
Although I wouldn't trade my D1 or the RRC straight up for the LR3 -- I smile when I read these Discovery v. LR3 debates on Discoweb because I think many here are missing the point of the LR3.
Anybody can drive it. Almost anywhere.
I had sent my mother in law into the village for groceries. Try doing that in your Discovery when the road is like this and see if you stay married. One day last mud season my mother in law took my Discovery into town and it so scared her coming back that my wife almost didn't talk to me for a week.
But put her in the LR3, rotate the terrain response knob to a suitable setting, and say, "Don't forget the eggs" --- That's really all it takes. I ask her, "how was the road" and she honestly says "I didn't notice anything."
Which is one reason I don't like the rig all that much -- its a bit boring, and its a little too smart for its own good sometimes, but any idiot can drive it, and that is damn impressive much of the time.
And I'm talking stock vehicles on a road (or close to it). I love the mods and you guys that are out there bushwhacking on the true trails, but its really hard to make those apple to oranges comparisons. But for a stock vehicle that can drive me to work down a road like ours and then carry a client to a business luncheon without missing a beat -- there is really nothing else like it that is 100% stock.
And going down the icy road, it totally rocks on days that I am sliding sideways down it in my Disco. Going down hill on our twisting driveway on an icy day is nothing short of amazing in the LR3.
![DSCN0366sm[1].jpg](/data/attachments/38/38884-78adb35de97a612dbec9a473d4a2b5f8.jpg)
