Thread: Day one of the hunt

I spotted a 2003 HSEL322 on Car sales, 105Kms, dealer asking $28K plus extra for ORC.
Range.jpg

range 2.jpg
Thought Heather and I should go an have a look to see what this sort of money buys. Having little experience with this model.

Body was very straight, climbed under and it looked like it had never been off road, very original and clean underneath until I looked at the front suspension arms and noticed some black oil drops clinging.
The dealer said he had only just got the vehicle in and hasn't fixed stuff yet and it will be fixed for the RWC.
( I have heard this all too much before, a quick degrease and its fixed.) he said it was probably only a rocker cover gasket.
Yes that might be all it is, but without him pulling off the top engine cover to show me we will never really know.
Interior, I wasn't too keen on the cream interior on the doors and dash, I can see fishing trips ruining this.
Besides that the HSE spec radio was not there it had an upholstered and an elcheapo dial radio was fitted.
Dealer said they had a radio on order from Adelaide ( probably TRS) and were thinking of fitting it.

The drivers side seat belt did not retract freely.
Te plastic trim with the silver coating was blistering ans falling off in places.
The centre console either side of the gear shift leaver was split and cracked very badly. Visually I am fussy on stuff like that and was a turn off to me.

The other worrying thing was the dash displayed the wording AIR SUSPENSION INACTIVE.
This was an alarm bell to me, the dealer said he was aware of this and hadn't had a chance to put nay diagnostics on it.

We took it for a drive, i haven't driven one before, but to me it sounded very noisy when accelerating, like a TD5 that had its cat and muffler removed. I know the vehicle is 13 years old, but I would have thought for a luxury vehicle it would have been a tad quieter.
The vehicle was a Gold Coast purchased vehicle that had a land rover dealer service to 50k then at 100k it had some non land rover service bloke do it. So with 105ks on the clock I would have expected more specialist Land rover serving

I told the dealer after I returned from the test drive it was not the vehicle for me.

Am I being to fussy? but parting with nearly $30k after all ORC for a vehicle that just doesn't feel look like with 105kms to me?

I must admit I like a roominess in the L322 compared to the Disco2
Advise appreciated.
Cheers, Mario

Originally Posted by Homestar

No, it's real wood, and all the bits come off if you wanted to refinish them. There are some after market bits that you can get from Powerful UK, some of these are plastic.

They might be wood on the Vogue, but the 'wood' on my 2002 build diesel HSE is definitely plastic. I've had the dash ends off many times when replacing the radio, and have had the relevant bits in my hands. They're nicely done though, doesn't bother me at all.