Range Rover Pros & Cons

Stringer

Well-Known Member
So I've sold my beloved L200. I am now thinking about a series 2 Range Rover so thought I;d ask you guys your opinion on the various models.

So lets have your experiences & opinions on the various models and their pitfalls.

Thanks

Stephen
 
You will hear stories of people saying they are indestructable and you will hear horror stories.

Air suspension pump gives problem, seals on the front axle, power steering weakness and they leak like a sieve.
 
if there aint no oil under a landrover there aint no oil in it !!:) that said i had new navara and now got 2001 disco seris 2 td5 and love it ,
 
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classic is OK,probably the best range rover! the p38 i love the looks and interior if i had one (given!!) ide park it on the drive to look at:D get a Toyota!!!!
 
Range Rovers.....why do we ever?

Probably had every model in the family at one time or another, including the most latest - that one tried to kill my father and the engine seized after 6 weeks of ownership, but that's another story.

Best one out of the bunch was the P38 i suppose. It was only returned to the dealer 6 times in the first year (or was it 7?). Nothing major, just things like the brakes failing, the electrics on the complete dash burning out, and power steering.

Oh and have you bought yourself an oil company? Believe me, you'll need one. Range Rovers and Landies like to mark their territory. This usually takes the form of a massive black oil stain which quickly spreads to completely cover your driveway as it ****es out oil from each and every gasket overnight. If you really want to be a hit with the neighbours and local council, just develop the habit of parking it outside in the street.

You'll also develop the habit of having a quick look underneath the wagon every time you stop at a garage. This'll be you trying to find the great big hole that must have opened up in the fuel tank to let all that petrol you just bought escape. Didn't you just fill it the other day, why are you filling it again so soon? If you really want to develop a nervous twitch, hitch a trailer of better still a caravan and you can literally watch the fuel gauge plummet from the comfort of the drivers seat.

Don't worry too much about long journeys and reliability as you will very rarely take any. You'll be far too busy lying underneath it, replacing the endless list of parts which fail with alarming regularity. Pick up any landrover magazine and you'll find pages after pages of businesses which supply parts, i used to wonder how so many businesses could exist until i started owning landrovers and rangerovers.

The really sad thing is soon you'll be suckered in and think its just part of ownership. You buy a calendar and immediately start highlighting dates for when you know you'll have to replace that solenoid that goes every 6 months, those gaskets that need replacing every 12, the endless supply of headlight bulbs you'll store in the glovebox as they are forever blowing (lord but the number of door tops my series 3 ladie went through). Then you'll be picked up by a mate who drives a jap or german wagon and he'll freak you out by putting on the radio. How the hell will he ever be able to listen for that tell-tale mechanical squeak or twang that promises instant financial ruin unless an immediate and complete gearbox stripdown is not undertaken?

If you really want a plush 4x4 and have set your mind on a Range Rover,..................... go and buy yourself a VW Touareg, Toyota Landcruiser or even a bloody Porche Cayanne. They will prove less expensive in the long run and you'll be able to turn the key without wondering what next will drain your bank balance.

My wife drives a VW Touareg and has done 90,000 miles in it - she did approx 24,500 miles last year (i checked the MOT certs) and drives it hard - she'll complain about other cars daring to get infront of her and keeping to 60 on the A702. It gets serviced every 12,000 and with the exception of regular maintenance such as tyres, filters, oil, break pads, the only additional cost had been 2 front bearings and 2 brake discs. I'm not saying that you should run out and buy a Touareg, i'm saying show me the Range Rover which can match that reliability record. For the price your paying, every plush 4x4 should do the same or better.
 
I drive an old series 1 Range Rover Classic that I have had gas converted that was 3 years ago, when I bought it ,it had 68,000 on the clock its now got 136.000 on the clock , Its a V8 3.9 and cost me the equivelent in running it on gas at 30miles to the gallon if I was using peterol, I also have that option as well.
It cost me a grand to convert but was well worth the money spent, Its coil sprung as I would not even contemplate an air sprung rangie. Best 4x4 I have ever had goes forever
and will go where other 4x4 cant.

Sails through the MOT every time practically with the odd exception of steering link ends etc and mine dosent leak oil

I think I would think twice about dragging a 40 grand vehicle over rough terrain and filling the chassis with water and mud it dosent seem to effect you as much taking an older vehicle:D
 
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Have a look a TD5 disco one without a sunroof.
Had one for six years only thing that happened was a full pump failure I soled it with 170,000 miles on the clock and still going strong.
then the fun began i got a 110 B/cab the worst landrover i have even owned had that 2 years & i am now back to a disco TD5 & thing are back to normal again.
No oil on the drive & i can turn up the radio as i now it ain't going to make any strange noises.

John
 
Although I've never owned a LR, as such, I've had the joy of dealing with their customer service department.

At the start of the year I was looking for a Disco 3, wanted a main dealer one with a year of warranty etc. in view of the reputation. In short they tried to sell me a car that they had no legal title to in a most remarkable series of events - I could never have taxed this car and would never have owned it myself so it would probably have been siezed by police and I would have a total loss. As a result I wrote to the LR head man, I'd spent a lot of time and effort looking for a car and was a little angry, pointing out what had happened. The reply was, in short, "you are right - we tried to sell you a dodgy car but don't call us, we'll call you."

Never, ever, ever buy a Land Rover as their idea of customer service is selling you a car they don't own in the hope you'll not notice and then telling you to bog off when you do.
 
I have own two Landrovers, a series 3 and a disco, I will say that the parts were cheap; thank god I had to buy enough of them. All my mates that have had Landrovers have had grief. Nine years ago I bought a new L200, I have done about 80,000 miles in it and apart from the normal stuff It has been fine. I found with my Landrovers you get a new set of friends, people who work in car part outlets
 
As a technologist.......:suss: wtf is that? The issue is not the brand so much but the build quality varience. There are good ones and not so good ones. Now as has been mentioned the garage repair costs on these vehicles is massive and it's not just raw build quality that can let you down but the electrics side as well. Unfortunately the Land/Range Rover brand quality is weak compared to the Japanese who go over the top with their Quality Assurance side of production. Parts are not expensive but if your not a mechanical type.....ouch

So buying Japanese is a lot safer and they are generally easier to fix if things do go wrong..
 
I heard that the R+D chaps at BMW accidentally locked a cat in one of their motors and when they came back in the morning the poor thing had suffocated, so good were the seals! Out of curiosity they did the same thing with a "Landy" but when they got back in the morning the cat had escaped!!!
 
I heard that the R+D chaps at BMW accidentally locked a cat in one of their motors and when they came back in the morning the poor thing had suffocated, so good were the seals! Out of curiosity they did the same thing with a "Landy" but when they got back in the morning the cat had escaped!!!


Very Funny!:lol:

My neighbour has a new model Range Rover, bought from new a couple of years ago. Recently, it wouldn't start (£80k car that won't start!), and when the Land Rover service man was called out, he said that the problem was that mice had eaten through the wiring! This on a car that used every day! She bought the story, but to me that sounded nonsense and probably dishonest. Makes we worry about the integrity of Land Rover.

Moving off Range Rover slightly, I went to buy a new Defender a couple of years ago. First of all, the salesman did not seem very interested in talking about Defenders, and tried to interest me in a Discovery. When I looked at the quotation, there was an item of about £150 to do with CO2 emissions and asked what it was. I got a lecture on Greeness and how great Land Rover is in being Green and planting trees in India etc and this £150 goes to that cause. I said that if Land Rover wants to be Green, then it should pay for that out of its own profits rather than levying a tax on its customer. The lecture and the £150 put me off buying. It seemed to me that Land Rover sees its customers as people to be milked rather than people to deliver a high quality product to.

 
The good thing about RR's is that they are great, the bad thing is that Range/Land Rover build them!!!!!

A German client who was high up in Mercedes once told me that if the japs built the RR it would be the best car in the world.
 
A German client who was high up in Mercedes once told me that if the japs built the RR it would be the best car in the world.

They do, it's callled the Landcruiser. Out in the Australian outback and possibly 100s of miles from any town, possibly alot more for a garage - the Landcruiser is the vehicle of choice and the Range Rover is almost non-existent. A mate moved over and immediately bought himself a Range Rover. The locals just shook their head and 6 months later he didtched it in favour of a Toyota.
 
The statement is Oz has always been

"there are only two vehicles you should ever take in to the Outback, a Land Rover or a Land Cruiser. If you want to come back, choose the Land Cruiser"

On a slight aside, I have never understood why the Japs didn't produce a direct competitor to the Defender. A Jap version would certainly out sell the Defender. Then again, I suppose they wouldn't sell as many overall as they wouldn't need replacing as often?
 
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