Thread: New to Landrover - Advice please!

You can definitely get seat overs made for the D3 and they need to be compatible with he airbags. There are some threads here which tell you where to get them but someone will reply I'm sure.

The only thing I would say is that IMHO if you can extend your budget a TDV6 is definitely the way to go ( and. I think will certainly have leather seats ).

Try to stretch your budget to get the diesel ... they are much better (IMHO)
This mob do good seat covers... Canvas Seat Covers | MSA 4x4 | Cotton Lined Canvas Seat Covers good luck with your purchase,
cheers

Agree with the And3rew and Oldsalt the everyday cost will be reduced dramatically if you go the diesel, after coming from a petrol I wouldn't even consider one now and the diesels drive like a petrol as well so still enjoyable to drive.

Cheers
Julian

Hi all, thanks for the swift response. In terms of budget I was looking at the diesel due to it's better fuel effeciency, but budget-wise I'm max'd out just buying the petrol which I can find ones with 40-50km on the clock, diesels for the same price are at 150km+. Given I want to be able to keep the car for a while, getting the petrol seems like the only choice, although I'm still going to run the numbers in terms of running costs.

Speaking of running costs, typically how much does servicing the car cost? Are the usual wear-and-tear items more expensive to maintain (tyres, breaks, etc)?

Forgot to also ask, apart from fuel costs does the diesel have anything else over the petrol version that makes it a better proposition?

Originally Posted by elliottcal

Forgot to also ask, apart from fuel costs does the diesel have anything else over the petrol version that makes it a better proposition?

Range!!! No point trying to go offroad if you cant get more than a few hundred kms before needing fuel..

Engine life of a diesel is 300,000km + so a higher km vehicle thats well looked after should give service for quite some time.

Purchase price is the cheap part.. Ongoing fuel costs will hurt you more.

Go offroad with petrol and you will be emptying your wallet very quickly, towing will do the same.

300km, wow shows how much I know about these cars! In that case I may have to go against everything I've done in the past with buying and look for a diesel with 150km+ on the clock.

WRT to off-road, no plans at the moment to take it into the bush, but do like the idea of doing it in the future.

Not an easy decision as there are some clear advantages with buying a diesel but there are other advantages with buying the petrol. It really comes down to budget and realistically determining what you will do with the car vs dreaming of what you might do with the car.

I spent a long time thinking about this and bought the petrol V6.
My thinking when I bought it (06 SE with 36k on the clock purchased 2nd hand in 09)
- it was $10-$12k cheaper than a similar year diesel and at that price, the petrols had far less K's as well. Still looks to be the case today...
- I had that extra cash to cover repairs and any accessories or mods for quite a while
- econonmy would be worse but it would take around 7 years driving at 25,000km a year to make the difference up in petrol vs diesel.
- there didn't appear to be any common show stopping mechanical faults with either rather there were some common traits with both. I didn't feel mechanically either would be a bad option. Each require front end suspension work after around 80k, air suspension compressors need replacing, brakes wear reasonably quickly.
- I personally thought back then that there was more myth than fact in regards to longevity of petrol vs diesel engines in cars. Definately more of a concern with trucks that regularly clock up a million k's. Taxi's also seem to manage very high K's with a 4 litre petrol engines. The big killer of engines is many short trips and poor maintenance as apposed to high km's. For these personal reasons, the petrol engine didn't concern me back then nor does it today.

My actual experience with the car over the last 3 years
- the occassional towing of my box trailer and camper trailer (usually both less than 700kg) are not taxing at all on the V6 petrol. Might be different if I was regularly pulling a horse float or large caravan or boat coming in at over 1200kg. I don't feel I need more power for my modest towing.
- Even though I take it off road, off roading would account for less than 2% of the total KM's the car does. You often drive more k's on the blacktop to get to a track than driving on the actual track itself. I don't care if my economy jumps to 20l/100km for forest tracks or 30+l/100km for sand. It is only a marginal blip in the overall petrol spend. Off road performance difference for the type of off road I do is not a concern. I really don't know if the diesel performs better off road but possibly does with different power characteristics.
- Range hasn't been a problem for me. I haven't done an extended outback trip but if I was I could look at either a long range tank, jerries (or both) but I would then plan to not have to use them. This is where a diesel has the obvious advantage through better economy. If you have no plans of trying to cover 1000km without a petrol stop the diesel is not required
- I haven't needed a snorkel but it is possible to fit one to the V6 petrol with some searching. I just avoid taking the car deeper than wheels anyway. It's our daily driver so I don't fancy flooding it for the sake of driving in deep water for 30 seconds. Even if I had the diesel with a snorkel I'd still be hesitant to risk a deep crossing. I don't do a lot of dusty roads so for me a snorkel is not required. Most accessories are available for the Petrol as they are a common fit between the petrol and diesel. Bullbars and snorkels are harder to source but are available.

After 3 years of ownership, still love the car and it has been brilliant for a family of 5 being used 90% around town, 10% holiday touring (good roads) and only occassionaly in low range and offroad height. I don't regret not buying the diesel yet.