Hopefully an owner won’t have to get their new Range Rover TDV8 towed but if they do, be sure the person towing knows what they’re doing.  I first found out about this when the 2011 rotary selector was revealed.  I started looking up how the Jaguar system worked and found references to the “Emergency Park Release(EPR)” – then further searching showed how this worked on both the Jaguar XJ & XF explaining how to get the vehicle out of Park and into Neutral, until you reset it.

Here are the reasons for the EPR:

•Shift-by-Wire is now incorporated into the automatic transmission
•In the event of vehicle failure a mechanical means of selecting Neutral is now required, the EPR provides this functionality
•Failures that could result in the use of EPR:
•Transmission / Engine failure
•Electrical failure
•Recovery of vehicle -by towing
•When the EPR hand lever is operated the park pawl within the transmission will be released and will not be allowed to re-engage until the hand lever is released from its latched position.
•WHEN EPR LEVER IS PULLED VEHICLE WILL BE IN NEUTRAL AND WILL BE ABLE TO FREE WHEEL.

On the Jaguars. the EPR is located within the center console, on both the XJ & XF, you need to remove some small trim to get to it, but it’s not very hard to do.  Once that trim is removed, it’s just a matter of turning a lever.  Here’s how it’s done on an XJ:

And here’s the XF with the trim removed – the red arrow on the left side is pointing to the EPR

So anyway, I was waiting to see how Land Rover was going to handle it with the new setup – would they modify the center cubby or maybe something under the cup holders that could just pop out?

So finally the 2011 Owner’s Manual is released and it has all the instructions for using the new gear selector.  First thing I noticed are a few warnings throughout the manual but nothing on the EPR beyond this:

If your transmission is controlled with a rotary drive selector, the recovery agent
MUST activate the Emergency Park Release before towing commences.

NEUTRAL
Disconnects drive to the wheels. Use the parking brake while N is selected.
Do not use for vehicle recovery purposes.

Do not use rotary gear selector position P for vehicle recovery purposes. If your vehicle
requires recovery by towing, the recovery must be undertaken by qualified personnel. They
must activate the Emergency Park Release before towing commences. This procedure is
explained in a separate publication for service personnel.

So it gets more interesting, it appears you aren’t supposed to do this to your own vehicle.  And I guess they assume you’d be towed by Land Rover Roadside, and they should know what to do.

But I didn’t stop there, I went over to TOPIx, the Land Rover tech site and started looking around.  I found the document there and the process surprised me, and there they call it: “Emergency Park Position Release Lever”.  Now it’s possible there is a different way to do this, but from everything I’m reading you actually have to remove most of the center console trim that surrounds the transmission selector(Floor Console Upper Panel) – here you can see it with that trim removed and the EPR in blue:

So it does appear that you really do need qualified personnel doing this, that know how to remove the side wood trim then the floor console upper panel, possibly even a trim piece from the HVAC controls area & parking brake lever, all in at least 8 screws, before finally getting to the EPR.  Info is sparse on this, so it’s possible I’m getting something wrong, so please correct me if you’re in the know and let’s just hope no one needs to be towed!

Updated with new L322 information, 9/21/2012

Emergency Park Release System 4.4L diesel vehicles only:

The Range Rover Drive Selector is now incorporated with the automatic transmission.

• In the event of a vehicle transmission failure a mechanical means of selecting neutral is now available, an Emergency Park      Release (EPR) provides this functionality
• In an emergency, the EPR hand lever can be operated to release the park pawl within the transmission. The park pawl will not be allowed to re-engage until the hand lever is locked down in the closed position.
• Actuation of the EPR requires the operator to be seated in the drivers’ seat with the foot brake applied.  Turn the locking device 90 degrees anti-clockwise and lift using the pull strap.

Check that the EPR lever locking device is in the correct locked position:

• Remove the cup holders and the EPR lever cover by lifting upwards.

• Make sure the EPR lever locking device is in the locked position as shown.

So Land Rover just officially revealed the 2-door Range Rover Evoque at the Paris Auto Show.  It was short and sweet and didn’t reveal too much new info.  But there were two interesting things.

First, they did not show the 5-door model and said it wouldn’t be shown until later this year.  For those who can’t wait, here’s a video of it showing off on the Nürburgring:

And a picture of a dealer preview via Autoblog:

Second & actually more surprising, the vehicle they showed actually did have a Land Rover badge on the right-hand side of the rear tailgate.  So maybe they aren’t going to forget the brand.  I would have put up a screenshot but they still haven’t put up the replay of the video.  Here’s a shot posted by Stuart Schorr, Vice President, Communications & Public Affairs, Jaguar Land Rover North America:

Funny thing is, not even a real Range Rover has a rear badge anymore…

You can watch a replay of the reveal here:

http://www.helloevoque.com/blog/watch-the-live-reveal/

And Phil Popham did say it would start at £35,000 – I can’t remember if that was new info or not?

Reading through the various tech docs, I can always find some small bit of info that I never knew before.

Here are the rules for the MAX A/C button with controls both the Maximum A/C function as well as the Rest heating function.  Maximum A/C is just that, it runs the system for the quickest cool down on a hot day.  The Rest heating function uses the residual heat from a warm engine to keep the Range Rover’s interior warm with the engine off for up to ~15 minutes on a cold day, it’s great!

Maximum A/C

Pressing the maximum A/C switch while the engine is running and the ambient temperature is more than 7 °C (45 °F) provides the maximum cooling possible from the system to cool the cabin down as rapidly as possible. When maximum A/C is selected the coolant valves are held closed, the A/C compressor is engaged, the blower speed is set to maximum and the recirculation doors are set to the recirculation position. After 12 minutes the recirculation doors will be set to fresh air for 1 minute then returned to the recirculation position.

The maximum A/C function is cancelled when any of the other A/C system switches are pressed.

Rest Heating

When the engine is not running, pressing the maximum A/C switch activates the rest heating function to heat the cabin with residual heat from the engine. The rest heating function activates provided the following conditions exist:

• It is less than 15 minutes since the ignition was selected off.
• Ambient temperature is less than 15 °C (59 °F).
• On the previous ignition cycle engine temperature exceeded 70 °C (158 °F).
• Battery voltage is 11.4 V minimum.

To provide the rest heating function, the ATC module activates the auxiliary coolant pump, coolant valves, control door and blower. The ATC module regulates the temperature (to the driver setting selected before the ignition was switched off), opens the face level distribution doors and runs the blower at speed 4.

The rest heating function is cancelled after 15 minutes or when:

• The maximum A/C switch is pressed again.
• The ignition is selected on.
• Battery voltage decreases to less than 11 V.

And the Defrost program, which has been a Range Rover staple since at least the previous generation, does a great job getting the ice melted off the glass and warming up the cabin quickly with the press of a button:

Defrost Program

When the defrost program is selected the ATC module:

• Opens the windshield distribution doors and closes the face and footwell doors.
• Sets the recirculation doors to the fresh air position.
• Runs the blower at speed 7.
• Activates the A/C compressor.
• Activates the heated rear window.
• Activates the heated windshield (where fitted).

When the ambient temperature is 10 °C (50 °F) and below, the ATC module signals the coolant valves to remain open. When the ambient temperature is more than 10 °C (50 °F), the ATC module checks the existing heater core temperature and, if necessary, increases the open time of the coolant valves to produce a minimum heater core temperature of 30 °C (86 °F).

The defrost program is cancelled by pressing the defrost switch again, or pressing the automatic, A/C or maximum A/C switches

I knew this info would start appearing as soon as I put in an order for my next one.  And on top of the AutoExpress article, I actually had a Ferrari owner contact me today saying he got some info from another Ferrari owner when they toured the factory in Italy and that in the UK dealers had received a briefing.  I know that sounds convoluted & generic, but it’s quite a coincidence.

So anyway check it out below, not much to see with this just being a mule, but what’s going on in the rear there, between the exhausts?

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/news/autoexpressnews/257500/next_range_rover_spied.html

Updated – more pics & new article for the L405, thanks HSE2! :

http://www.carmagazine.co.uk/Secret-new-cars/Search-Results/Spyshots/Range-Rover-2012-first-spy-photos-of-luxo-4×4/

So there are always differences in the various releases put out, sometimes it’s just UK vs. US spelling or phrasing, sometimes it’s just removing/adding the features available in the different markets.  But it’s always interesting to me to see how they compare.  To do this, I just do a compare in Microsoft Word on the two documents, and it’s easy to see the differences.

I’ll list a bunch of the items below, but the ones that really caught my eye were the way the vehicle is referred to, in the UK PR, it’s sometimes just “Evoque”, no Range Rover prefix.  However in the US PR, they added the “Range Rover” prefix to almost every time the word “Evoque” is printed.  I’m not sure why that’s such a priority here but not over there.  I think this almost goes more to a previous post I wrote about Range Rover becoming its own brand.  Continuing in the same vein, in the UK they said “Land Rover Designers”, for the US it’s “Range Rover Designers”.  And “Range Rover’s much-acclaimed” became “Range Rover brand’s”.  Again the UK says “Range Rover’s identity, while the US changes it to, “Range Rover brand’s identity”

Anyway, here are a few more comparisons, just snippets of text:

For that last one, maybe the US PR people just aren’t as confident as their UK counterparts?  And I didn’t even get into the 2WD or diesel differences.