Land Rover Repair: 2003 Discovery 2 - sticks in limp home mode?, freeway speeds, ship cars

Question
Vehicle belongs to a good friend, but he knows very little about cars or where to take this one for repair.

The symptoms are that intermittently the vehicle will go into some mode where it has trouble making it up to freeway speeds. Acts like descent mode or stuck in lower gear, in that you get hard deceleration instantly when you let off the gas. No warning lights are displayed, and according to two service places (one general repair, one trans specialty shop) no engine or trans codes are being set. The trans place couldn't reproduce the problem either, though it's happened two or three times to my friend while driving.

Any suggestions on what to look for on this?

Thanks!

Answer
The vehicle may not be shifting out of low gear for some reason.  I'd suggest you concentrate your efforts on finding a shop that is qualified to fix Land Rovers of this vintage where you live.  It's not going to be realistic to own the car if there is no one to care for it.  Dealer technicians may not be familiar because its an older generation.  Truly qualified independents are hard to find.  People ship cars hundreds of miles to Robison Service for that very reason.  That said, you are in California, the hotbed of car people.   Good luck and that's my best advice.   Start asking around, look at the shop recommendations on RangeRovers.net and elsewhere!