Most reliabale landrover for $25K ?

[Taz]

Hi folks,
appreciate your thoughts...

I'm looking to replace my wife's daily driver, currently an 89RRC. We also use this vehicle for towing our 2ton caravan on holidays mainly into the remote parts of WA. All up about 12oookm a year. I'd like to stay with landrover but I feel the need to reduce the time I spend maintaining vehicles, so I'm looking for something that wont cause headaches for a few years.

Options considered are:

2003 onwards D2 Td5 without ace but with rear air. I understand most of the Td5 gremlins have been resolved by then, perhaps with the exception of the 3 amego's, rear diffs and non-geasible drive shafts. Good range when towing. Slight fuel cost savings.

2003 onwards D2 Thor V8. Same spec as above. Vehicle will be salary sacrificed so I dont see fuel costs as a differentiating issue. The V8's seems to be about 4-5k cheaper. A lot cheaper to replace the V8 if something really bad happens compared to the Td5. Problems reported by V8 owners appear to be in the minority compared to Td5 (but owner numbers may also be in the minority). But V8 = reduced towing range.

2000/2001 P38 4.0 S (Bosh/Thor). Dont know much about these - I understand the aircon blend motors are expensive to replace and you must be careful with overheating them, but they are appealling. We love the split rear tailgate of the rangies.


Or perhaps I should stick with the RRC's as I know them quite well - just look out for one in great condition and keep our existing one for spares. This would be much cheaper , but I dunno if it will reduce the time I spend doing car maintainance, which is the whole point of the exercise.

Any thoughts greatly appreciated,
Cheers,
Taz.

[harry]

you can have my reliable and economical '95 d1 v8 with off road safety mods, winch, strong sliders and extra ground clearance for 15g and i'll throw in the engel and the recovery gear,with new 120 amp alternator and the aircon has just been serviced.

[Hoges]

check Range Rovers (http://www.rangerovers.net) for info on P38... full explanation of a quick way to fix the blend motor issue.. often it's a stuck flap rather than a crook blend motor. Parts can be imported from the UK at less than 50% local cost for high value electronics/water pumps etc in about 7 working days. Free software and $25 cable plus PDA running windows CE (5yr old iPAQ works just fine) and you can reset/clear faults/recalibrate the Electronic Air Suspension any time you wish...
Thor engine is relatively easy to work on and quite reliable.
2000-2001 model has 4 pinion diffs / more stable electronics...e.g. crankshaft sensor/ ignition coils are fraction (like 25%) cost of GEMS ignition coil replacement, better design ABS modulator and the later model 4sp ZF box which when looked after is pretty tough...

However it is a health hazard :eek::twisted:, P38's are highly addictive, no known cure... except to purchase a later model (P38 of course)... what else can I say... ;)

[Rangier Rover]

Hi folks,
appreciate your thoughts...

I'm looking to replace my wife's daily driver, currently an 89RRC. We also use this vehicle for towing our 2ton caravan on holidays mainly into the remote parts of WA. All up about 12oookm a year. I'd like to stay with landrover but I feel the need to reduce the time I spend maintaining vehicles, so I'm looking for something that wont cause headaches for a few years.

Options considered are:

2003 onwards D2 Td5 without ace but with rear air. I understand most of the Td5 gremlins have been resolved by then, perhaps with the exception of the 3 amego's, rear diffs and non-geasible drive shafts. Good range when towing. Slight fuel cost savings.

2003 onwards D2 Thor V8. Same spec as above. Vehicle will be salary sacrificed so I dont see fuel costs as a differentiating issue. The V8's seems to be about 4-5k cheaper. A lot cheaper to replace the V8 if something really bad happens compared to the Td5. Problems reported by V8 owners appear to be in the minority compared to Td5 (but owner numbers may also be in the minority). But V8 = reduced towing range.

2000/2001 P38 4.0 S (Bosh/Thor). Dont know much about these - I understand the aircon blend motors are expensive to replace and you must be careful with overheating them, but they are appealling. We love the split rear tailgate of the rangies.


Or perhaps I should stick with the RRC's as I know them quite well - just look out for one in great condition and keep our existing one for spares. This would be much cheaper , but I dunno if it will reduce the time I spend doing car maintainance, which is the whole point of the exercise.

Any thoughts greatly appreciated,
Cheers,
Taz.

A reliable Landy for 25K. I'm not sure there would be one in that price range.

Maybe the 89 RRC with a 4BD1 T, LT95 and Nisota diffs may come close to reliable. :D

Be carefull you dont jump out of the frying pan ito the fire if you intend to play with P38s. ;)

If you want to get out of RRC's maybe a D2 thats well sorted.

[Scouse]

2000-2001 model has 4 pinion diffs All HSEs have 4 pin rear diffs. The models with 4 wheel TC had them in the front too IIRC.

[wally]

Get a Tdi and pocket the change.

[big guy]

D2a 03-04 with low K's and perfect service history.
Probably a V8 if fuel is no real issue.
Put in a long range tank and off you go.
They are cheaper to maintain and cheaper to buy.
Have all the fruit and for the low k's you travel sound perfect to me.

I would also be looking for top of range with leather etc and H/K stereo.
My neighbour 2 doors up bought a black one recently for just under 20K.

What a ride, so much nicer that my diesel D1 but he did look for more of a town car and does the odd caravan trip wife the wife and their pet rabbit Oscar.

He spend 6 grand on chipping motor, new coopers At's and electric brakes, bull bar and lights.

Looks great and when his long range tank gets installed(135L) will see him get 6-800km's range.

Good luck and happy shopping.

[paulthepilot_5]

Buy an Isuzu County, Turbo intercool it, and have money left over to run it/ repair it for the rest of you're life. :twisted:

[TerryO]

Hi Taz,

I agree with 'Big Guy' about a up spec D2a, I recently brought a 03 D2a V8 HSE with 104k on the clock and with complete service history for 21k.

I had originally intended to buy a second hand D3 but I found that a really good D2a HSE is such a nice thing for so little money that I couldn't justify the extra 20k or so in price difference.

So I went down the D2a path.

Originally I wanted to use it both in the bush and as a daily driver but couldn't bring myself to wreck it in the bush as it is so bloody nice to drive even though it is thirsty. Still it doesn't rattle or vibrate like every diesel I've owned so I'm very glad that I'm back in a V8.

With the money I didn't spend on buyng a old D3 I then went out and brought a 94 D1 V8 with nearly every modification you can think of for off road use from a older gentleman who had owned and built it over ten years. So now I have a daily driver that I'm rapped in and a D1 that is great to drive on the road when required and goes anywhere in the bush that a reasonably sane person would want to go.

Doing all this was still much cheaper then buying a 4 year old D3.

I have owned some lovelly cars over the years and I must say the D2a HSE ranks right up there at the top as a real pleasure to drive and own and from what I've seen since buying mine if anything the price of D2's is in a downward cycle at this time so I bet there are some real bargains out there.

As for reliability well ask me that is six months time and I'll have a better idea.

Cheers,
Terry

[Disco_owner]

My Choice would be an 03 onwards TD5 , buy a Nanocom and you're sorted.

[martinozcmax]

Get a Tdi and pocket the change.

Ditto I'm with Wally. Got a 93 Disco Tdi with rebuilt motor, once I had spent a couple of g's on new tyres, battery and fixing a steering wobble she's been sweet.

They are cheap to run (mine's on lpg) and easy to service, no electronics to go bung and runs and runs. All up I have spent around 11k. Tows the boat well.

Good luck.

[Taz]

Some great advice there guys - many thanks for your thoughts folks!

Thats a great price on the HSE TerryO, wow they cartainly seem to have depreciated nicely in the buyers favour.

Cheers,
Taz.

[TerryO]

Taz,

I have not kept up to date as much as I did when I was looking just over a month ago, but from what I saw back then some of the best deals on and some of the nicest D2a's were happening in WA, there was a glut of them for a while over there.

Of course the HSE I purchased wasn't advertised for the price I eventually paid for it but when I brought it there were maybe 15 -18 D2a's advertised in NSW so it was a case of who was prepared to do the best deal.

Good luck with fnding a good one at a good price.

cheers,
Terry