potential D2a Purchase

Michael2...I have just picked up an ES...2001 equal to the HSE...with all the fruit (and probably the issues), with FULL 100% stamped services by the selling dealer to 120K and 12months ago, then stamped by a local workshop to the current 147K, and colour coded ARB front bar for $15K. Every button and function works as god intended, although the "amigos" popped in for a visit yesterday, but at the price, I have plenty in the original budget for a repair if required.

The seller replaced the screen with his insurance pre-pickup, and it had near new 18" Cooper tyres on all corners and a near new Goodyear spare. And I have purchased a pair of Super Oscars which will get the HID treatment...extra $500 complete.

Yes it's a V8, and too early to really tell MPG, but the first top-up at 180Km of ownership returned 14l/100k, I expect a realistic 16-18l/100 depending.

Congratulations on your purchase. There are certainly some good bargains if one is prepared to consider V8 models and earlier D2s.

I narrowed my search to diesel, 7 seater and MY03 onward. I've got a couple of mates with early D2s and I didn't want to go through some of the issues that were later rectified, though I suppose there's a good chance the previous owner would have sorted much of it out.

After going from a SIII on LPG to a 300Tdi Defender, I was convinced that when the Range Rover retires it should be replaced with a diesel too. I had hoped to avoid the TD5 all together and get a TDV6, but once it looked like the RRC might need replacement and I started crunching all the numbers, it didn't seem so expensive to replace it now and enjoy a 7 seater that bit sooner than I'd anticipated.

It turns out the seller will sort out all the RWC issues on this 03 HSE, so unless they baulk on it, it looks like I'll be going ahead with the purchase. I've already tentatively arranged a swap to change the rims from 18" to 16". Now to just wait and see how this all unfolds.

I can confirm that td5 HSE (and SE for that matter) in the D2a series are very rare. Sounds like you have done your homework however and should be happy with all the extra bits!

You said you got an engineers report. How did you go about doing this? I am familiar with getting a mechanic to look at a car or RACV/Q etc but often these inspections tell you nothing about the things you really want to know about like potential cracked heads etc

Cheers

Michael

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rockstar

...You said you got an engineers report. How did you go about doing this? I am familiar with getting a mechanic to look at a car or RACV/Q etc but often these inspections tell you nothing about the things you really want to know about like potential cracked heads etc

Cheers

Michael

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Hmmm, maybe I should have said mechanic, I'm not sure. I got MTA Inspection (I think its Motor Traders Assoc). They do a road test and hoist check on it. They check coolant pressure and CO2 leakage in the coolant, which i suspect is a cracked head test, and on petrol motors they compression test as well. They email an array of photos with the report, showing anything of concern. One thing they don't do, which someone like Fred Smith in Melbourne would do, is pull things apart to inspect them. When Fred checked my RRC he pulled the output gear off the shaft in the T/Case to check for wear!

Advice from Land Rover was that at the 40K service the filter inside the auto should be changed, then again optionally at the 80K and 120K services. I was assured it had been serviced, I did some checks and all the recalls had been done by Land Rover, the car had Primary Producer rego, which concurred with the story that it was from a winery, and hence would probably not get driven into the city for a service. It presented well and was a company(farm) car, supporting the notion of regular servicing. Then a friend with a D2 told be he didn't change his gearbox filter till almost 200K and it still goes really well, which allayed my concerns a little more. The auto service kit is only $65 + oil and I factored a complete service (oils / filters / hoses / belts) into my final offer on the car.

It would have been good to have a little more time / and local knowledge and get a Land Rover guru there who could also plug into the ECU. But having said all that, if it had been a local car I probably would have done the inspection myself, with less "technical tools."