2013 Land Rover Discovery 4 /LR4 Unveiled

With the year 2013 approaching nearer and nearer, The Land Rover Defender 4 is setting up its standards, by introducing the choice of upgrades one would love to have, which includes, 5 new body colour schemes, the interior features an Extended Leather Pack inspired by the HSE Luxury Limited Edition, and finally Black Design packs which are now available with 19 inches or 20 inches fully black painted wheels, which also includes a host of black trim finishers and glasoo black grille and fender vents.

 The infotainment system has also been upgraded, which now gets the latest generation DAB radio and a new digital TV tuner, while with all this the navigation system too received its part of this upgradation by premium features such as Off-Road guidance and 4x4i. 

The Drivetrain of this Defender goes like this, it has an 211PS 3.0-litre LR-TDV6 entry level diesel engine, and an outstanding 256PS 3.0-litre LR-SDV6 engine, with the ZF 8, 70 HP 8-speed automatic transmission, which now produces CO2 emissions of just 230g/km and 224g/km respectively, whilst the 375PS 5.0-litre LR-V8 naturally aspirated petrol engine is powered with the ultra- refined ZF 6HP28 6-speed automatic transmission.

 

Quoting John Edwards, Land Rover’s Global Brand Director, he says “The Discovery 4 continues to win awards for its unrivalled versatility and breadth of capability, accommodating up to seven passengers in comfort whatever the terrain. For 2013, the breadth of choice gets better, with equipment upgrades and our new Black Design Packs enhancing the key design attributes that our customers identify with today.

 As the ultimate all-purpose vehicle, the Discovery 4 is now more compelling than ever before”.Now that we are over with the drivetrain figures, lets take a close look at the upgrades The Land Rover Defender 4 that offers, following are the features that it offers:

1. Extended Leather Pack.
2. Black Design Packs, which complements the striking look of the Discovery 4, which are available with either 19inch 7-Split Spoke or 20inch 5-Spoke all-black painted wheels.
3. The optional Black Design Pack includes features such as, Gloss Black Grille and Fender Vents, gloss black door handles & mirror caps, gloss black Land Rover & Discovery 4 badging, satin black extended roof rails.

Starting of with the Extended Leather Pack, this pack has been included as per the Customers request for more luxury inside the car, which now boasts of Windsor leather Seats, with twin-stitch detailing to the top of the facia and doors and also around the instrument binnacle.

The Technology pack includes Premium Navigation, which incorporates 4x4i off-road navigation, as well as ‘Say What You See’ voice activation and Parking Aids.
The HSE Luxury pack includes standard Airbags, Xenon Adaptive Front Headlamps including Cornering lamps, Harman Kardon LOGIC 7 17-speaker 825W audio system, Windsor leather seats, full-length roof rails in satin black, electric steering column adjustment for height and reach and an electric tilt/slide sunroof and the front centre console holds a cooler box.

The Vision Assist Pack has Xenon Adaptive Front Headlamps including Cornering Lamps, Automatic Headlamps with High Beam Assist and the Surround Camera System including Approach Lamps, Tow Assist and Tow Hitch Assist.

The colour schemes for the Exterior and Interior colour options include, 5 new colours, which are: Havana, Barolo Black, Barossa, Mariana Black and Causeway Grey.

Inside the car you have a choice of two new interior colours and two new trim finishers, there are Aracabia seats with Nutmeg Stitching and Ivory seats with Ivory stitching. Cosmic Grey interior finishers are also introduced as a new option.

The 2013 model Discovery 4 will have a definite Navigation system, which would be a premium one, over the Discovery 3 model which use to offer a choice of Base or Premium Navigation system. 

So this new model will have features like, TMC (Traffic Message Channel), 4x4i (displays vehicle status for example, wheel articulation graphics), Voice and Off-Road guidance, a ‘My POI(Points Of Interest)’ category and POIs can now be uploaded from USB stick in ‘GPX’ format. A new function called Avoid Points can be noticed, the User Interface has been streamlined in this model, which eases of the functions. 

Other feature which one avail is the Map Auto Zoom Function where when needed, automatically zooms in on intersections or junctions as they are approached. Other improvements to the navigation system are the inclusion of the Arabic language for user input and display and the addition of Russian to the Voice Control feature (including Say What You See).

Infotainement has been substantially improved in the new model, with the latest MOST Gen 2.1. which has been enhanced to the latest DAB+ and DMB-A broadcast formats and a new digital TV tuner has been introduced across all model, which are now capable of receiving MPEG 4 digital streams. 

The entry level model features, an 8-speaker audio system, with Bluetooth, and USB/iPod connectivity. The high level model has Harman Kardon System has 11-speakers and an output of 380W, while a class apart premium level model has an option of Harman Kardon LOGIC 7 system has 17 speakers which delivers 825W.

The 2013 Land Rover Discovery 4 / LR4 has a starting price of $49,950, which includes an $850 of destination and delivery charges.

We think that this car when launched will again be center of attraction, because the features it offers is completely extensive and one would actually look forward for such cars, lets hope that Land Rover comes out with such more cars in near future.

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Bentley unveils first luxury 4x4 - with a top speed of 185mph(pictures)

After almost 100 years of producing luxury tourers, Bentley is about to roar off-road.

Today it launches its first 4x4 vehicle – with a top speed of 185mph unlikely to be required on country tracks.

A rival to the Range Rover and Porsche Cayenne, it will go on sale from 2015 at around £140,000.Premiership footballers are an obvious target while it is hoped that the Royal Family, who already have a number of bespoke Bentleys in their fleet, will invest in the ultimate ‘Chelsea tractor’.

A prototype of the giant off-roader will be one of the stars of this year’s Geneva Motor Show, where it goes on official display today.

Initial production will be around 3,500 a year with the U.S., China and Germany among the key markets outside the UK.

Under the bonnet is a twin-turbo six-litre W12 engine with an eight-speed transmission which delivers 0 to 60mph in less than five seconds.

But Crewe-based Bentley, owned since 1998 by Volkswagen, says a more frugal four-litre V8 or even a more eco-friendly ‘hybrid’ engine could also power the car.

The production version, codenamed EXP 9F, will be the third model in the Bentley stable, alongside the Mulsanne and Continental ranges.

There is an armrest divider on the rear seat which lifts to reveal a cooled compartment for champagne and glasses.Seats are covered in diamond-quilted soft-touch leather, echoing the traditional appearance of a British field sport jacket.

Bentley is even considering a new furniture line created by its wood and leather craftsmen for customers who want to have their home room match their car.

Rear passengers can chose between ‘business mode’ with a fold-down keyboard and full internet connection, or select a more reclined position with powered footrest, drinks table and an entertainment and information screen.

There is a split tailgate covered in tough saddle leather which folds down to be used as a viewing bench or picnic table.Bespoke picnic hampers are stowed to either side and can be swung across on interior rails for easy access.

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Daimler pulls plug on loss-making Maybach

Daimler AG (DAI-N)will axe its Maybach superluxury brand after years of losses and moribund sales, replacing the car with more expensive models of its Mercedes-Benz S-Class flagship saloon starting in 2013.

“We held extensive discussions internally about which way would promise the greatest success in the luxury segment, and we came to the conclusion that the sales chances for the Mercedes brand were better than that of Maybach,” chief executive officer Dieter Zetsche told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper.

“It would not be sensible to develop a successor model for the current Maybach,” he added, according to an excerpt of the interview, which will be published in the German daily in full on Saturday.

Instead, he plans to extend the number of S-Class derivatives from a current three to six in order to boost the model’s volume, possibly even doubling it to 80,000 cars a year.

A spokesman for the company declined to comment on which new S-Class derivatives would be added on top of the existing saloon, long-wheelbase saloon and the coupe, sold under the CL-Class nameplate.

“Maybach sold cars upwards of €300,000, but what we want to do now is move into the €100,000-€300,000 segment – where the annual volumes are in the thousands and not the hundreds,” the spokesman said.

Originally aiming for volumes of 1,000 cars a year when launched in late 2002, Daimler has seen Maybach’s annual sales slump to around 200 cars, where they held steady last year.

Volkswagen and BMW, by comparison, took far more successful excursions into the superluxury segment thanks to scooping up British marques Bentley and Rolls-Royce, respectively.

Auto industry experts have long argued that Maybach, a brand that before its revival in 2002 had not been in production since 1940, enjoyed no strong standing among the discriminating wealthy.

BMW’s Rolls-Royce, by contrast, has seen volumes soar 41 per cent to 2,441 cars in the first nine months of this year, driven particularly by its lower-price, higher-volume Ghost model.

VW’s Bentley, best known for grand tourers like the Continental GT rather than large saloons, managed to increase its sales by 31 per cent to 4,763 cars.

The Maybach became such an image liability that Daimler stopped publishing monthly volume statistics several years ago, preferring only to present the figure in its annual accounts.

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Introducing The 1 Of 1 Bugatti Veyron L’Or Blanc-Bugatti's new monster

If you have an extra $2.4 million laying around perhaps Bugatti can interest you in this super edition L’Or Blanc model which is made unique by its porcelain accents. There will be only one made.

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