advice on Range rover classic

[olim 28]

Im going to look at a 2.5 turbo diesel range rover classic to buy, at the weekend and just wondered if any one could give me some advice on what to look out for e.g. areas that usually have rust

 

the milege is 174,000

k-reg

what would be a reasonable price

 

thanks in advance

 

oli

[irishnut 297]

rust at bottom of rear door pillars beside rear seat belt mount, inner wings, inner sills, top and bottom tailgates.

chassis isnt usually an issue on range rovers,check the rear chassic along all 4 sides of each rail.

the engine is either 2.4 vm, 2.5 vm,200tdi,300tdi. both vm engines have 4 individual heads and gaskets, check for fresh anti freeze marks, vm is slow and thirsty, 300tdi is better not much to say on it.200tdi is noisey but great

gearbox's are zf auto-4 speed, borg warner auto-3 speed(would be quite late for this box but may be in)

lt77-4 speed manual(vm,200tdi),r380-5 speed manual(300tdi).

head lining will prob be hanging down.

be sure all wheels and tyres are same size, as the landy diffs dont like odd sizes, can do serious damage £££££.

in some cases the sun roof leaks can damage boot floors(more common on disco)

mines is a 300tdi zf auto '94, get used to them very fast.

atb hope its a good un

[olim 28]

Thanks for the advice, very helpful

if I get it i'l put some pics up

 

oli

[lucky 578]

look at the front and back for a little green badge bearing the words "land rover" if it has that badge avoid it like the plague, unless you have plenty of spare weekends that you can use to try and keep the thing running, you will also need to locate your nearest landrover breakers (a place you will be spending a lot of time) one more thing is to make sure you have a back up car for when its off the road......

if you want a reliable well built jeep buy something japanese, not a gloryfied 4x4 sherpa......

[irishnut 297]

i have a range rover classic 300tdi auto, i love it, its been well maintained all its life, runs well, has no rust, and no broken bits, i'm not constantly running to get parts, any parts i use are new, i do roughly 38000 miles per year, on road and off, around 8k is done in rangy, but im not rich enough to do the other 30000 in it(2nd car with great mpg).

generally people who slate the land rover are themselves driving sh1te, ie l200, navara etc, these cars are harder on juice, more expensive to fix, harder to insure, and in the case of navaras hard to find a new engine for when the bottom end goes at 45-60k. then just try to get off shelf parts to tune or give the 4x4 a lift.

 

best 4x4xfar is the land rover, in any guise, 1948 series - 2010 range rover supercharged v8. never wondered why jap and scrap go together so well

[lucky 578]

best 4x4xfar is the land rover, in any guise, 1948 series - 2010 range rover supercharged v8. never wondered why jap and scrap go together so well

 

 

Land Rover disappoints as Japanese cars storm ahead in reliability stakes By Felix Lowe

Published: 10:02AM BST 20 Jun 2008

 

Land Rover: Looks good but is it reliable? Japanese cars are in poll position when it comes to reliability, a new survey by Which? reveals today.

 

Japanese car manufacturers occupy eight of the top-ten spots, putting them miles ahead of European motors - especially the Land Rover, which came in at the bottom of the reliability table.

 

Honda topped the chart with a reliability index rating of 85pc, closely followed by fellow Japanese manufacturers Toyota (84pc), Daihatsu, Lexus, Mazda, Subaru and Suzuki (all 83pc).

 

 

• Jaguar Land Rover in £700m drive for 600 jobs

Korean car company Hyundai is the first non-Japanese brand on the list, in eighth place, just ahead of another Japanese firm, Mitsubishi, in ninth.

 

The only European car maker to make it into the top ten was Porsche.

 

The Which? Car survey included feedback from almost 90,000 car owners who reflected a car's reliability in relation to the number of breakdowns, faults and niggles encountered.

 

The poll was less complimentary of British and German carmakers, with Land Rover languishing at the bottom of the table - alongside American company Chrysler/Dodge - with a 'very poor' rating of just 67pc.

 

Volkswagen and Vauxhall are both rated 'poor' while Jaguar, Mini, Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz are rated 'average'.

 

In the large cars category, the popular Volkswagen Passat and the Citroen C5 share the joint-lowest reliability score.

 

Which? Car editor Richard Headland said: "Japan continues to show the rest of the world how to make consistently reliable cars, although the new Honda Civic shows they're not infallible.

 

"Some British-built cars, on the other hand, don't exactly run like clockwork. Land Rover, in particular, needs to raise its game."

[woodard 32]

i have a range rover classic 300tdi auto, i love it, its been well maintained all its life, runs well, has no rust, and no broken bits, i'm not constantly running to get parts, any parts i use are new, i do roughly 38000 miles per year, on road and off, around 8k is done in rangy, but im not rich enough to do the other 30000 in it(2nd car with great mpg).

generally people who slate the land rover are themselves driving sh1te, ie l200, navara etc, these cars are harder on juice, more expensive to fix, harder to insure, and in the case of navaras hard to find a new engine for when the bottom end goes at 45-60k. then just try to get off shelf parts to tune or give the 4x4 a lift.

 

best 4x4xfar is the land rover, in any guise, 1948 series - 2010 range rover supercharged v8. never wondered why jap and scrap go together so well

Jap 4x4 all the way for me

[TOPPER 1,809]

if you want to cross a desert buy a landrover, if you want to get back again buy a land cruiser

[harrycatcat 31]

Did Top Gear do a programme on a Classic Range Rover, a Toyota Landcruiser and a Suzuki jeep?????????????

 

Can anyone remember what happened?????????????

[olim 28]

went to see it and it turned out to be crap, clutch had gone meaning you couldnt test the gearbox, the tailgate wouldnt open, the central locking was broken but had little in the way of rust,

 

The history was: it had a service every 6,000 miles until 100,000 miles and then nothing, think it had been abused off roading, was offered it for £600 as it was but thought it would be too much hassle and could easily find something I want for the right price so now looking for a: Range rover classic, discovery, defender, fourtrak or suzuki sj, i'l just see what comes up

 

thanks for the advice irishnut it was still useful

[gazzer 1]

im fortunate enough to have many friends who help run the landrover offroading club down here so im always asking for advise about various 4x4s....basically,my knowledge of an engine is very limited,and they know this, so everytime i see a nice old landie and ask thier advise,the answer is always the same......DONT BUY IT....all the guys i know are constantly in the garage or on thier driveways repairing and fixing thier beat up old landies,but they love it, and do have a very good knowledge of engines,but, they do all have 2nd cars so they can get to work everyday.now this may make you laugh but they openly admit they are biased and that landrovers are like an addiction,they love everything they represent...but thankfully they are honest enough with me and tell me to be realistic,i dont go offroad that often,so i only need an intermediate car that will take it but also go well on road.....i have now owned 2 jap cars, the 1st a mitsubish pajero 3 litre v6 which was like a monster truck and only did about 2 mpg so promptly got sold......i now own an old 95 vitara,and can honestly say,its brilliant....i live in a small village in the sticks,most my mates own big discoveries,landies or vans.....winter just gone saw loads of snow round here, most couldnt even get inside their cars let alone get to work........my car was frozen over like and ice cube........once inside it kicks in 1st time everytime,without fail,no stutters at all.i can get out of most situations due to its lightness....its good on fuel,tankfull costs 37quid,brilliant little car,ive ripped back seats out for dogs etc,they can be picked up for around £500- 1000 in good nick with very little milage......some folk take the pish out of me saying what a hairdressers car it is.....i get the last laugh when im leaving my driveway every morning and theyre wedged firmly under the bonnets of thier big posey landies.........as for the suzuki sj..........the best offroad but a bag of shoite on road.vitara better allrounder [bANNED TEXT].

[saluki mad 1 0]

look out for dell boy trotter lol

[Strong Stuff 2,171]

look at the front and back for a little green badge bearing the words "land rover" if it has that badge avoid it like the plague, unless you have plenty of spare weekends that you can use to try and keep the thing running, you will also need to locate your nearest landrover breakers (a place you will be spending a lot of time) one more thing is to make sure you have a back up car for when its off the road......

if you want a reliable well built jeep buy something japanese, not a gloryfied 4x4 sherpa......

 

My badges are black and silver ..........

 

 

But I would agree with what's said above!

 

I've had a few Discoveries now, and by f.uck have I had to spend on them! Mostly to get them to the standard they should have been in the first place, fixing design faults, repairing parts that fail way before they should and generally molly coddling the things.

 

However, even despite all that effort and work, I wouldn't swap any of the ones I've had for a Japanese vehicle, at all.

 

The money I've spent on my TD5 Discovery, I could easily have bought a Land Cruiser, but I didn't want one, I like them, I think they are excellent vehicles, but I wouldn't want to be feeding no slitty eyed relative of the mob that tortured my Grandad, not ever!

 

Yes I own some technology that is made in japan, but nothing as large, expensive or significant as a big truck.

 

So there we go, my view.

[trooperman 73]

the best advice i could give you is this if it say's Land Rover on it go over it like it is a new girl friend, check for good service history if it has been well looked after it should be ok, i have had to Land Rover's both cost me a small fortune to get to a degree where they were reliable and to this day they are still on the road.

 

for the last ten yrs i have had Troopers had a 2.6 petrol which i all did apart from the normal service bits was change a rear wheel bearing (that is a real C--T) i sold it 2 yrs ago with 318,985 mlse on it.

 

now i run a 3.1 TD it has 180.000 on it already and the only thing i have done to that is a new aircon belt i would not buy anything know that is not Jap they are ultra reliable with maintainance but that is the same with every thing else.

 

the 3.0ltr TD Trooper had a problem with the injector seals letting go and floading the engine with diesel and this blow the top end as a consicqence but what other manurfacturer even ten yrs down the line will pay for the repair work to be done only Isuzu.

 

if you have your heart set on the Rangey get it well looked over before handing over your cash but remember they dont have a good rep for reliability.

 

paul

Edited July 1, 2010 by trooperman

[Molie1337 35]

look at the front and back for a little green badge bearing the words "land rover" if it has that badge avoid it like the plague, unless you have plenty of spare weekends that you can use to try and keep the thing running, you will also need to locate your nearest landrover breakers (a place you will be spending a lot of time) one more thing is to make sure you have a back up car for when its off the road......

if you want a reliable well built jeep buy something japanese, not a gloryfied 4x4 sherpa......