Diesel P38 any good?

That car on eBay also seems to be a lower than HSE spec.
The diesel of that era came out in DT & DSE spec.


The DSE was close to the HSE but missed out on little things like all the puddle lights (none in footwells or rear doors) & memory seats/mirrors (still electric though).


I'm not sure what exact spec the DT had but I think the eBay car might be one of them as it has no model badging on the lower tailgate & it has manual seats. At least it has climate control as I think some of the poverty packs in the UK had manual heater controls.






Also, the eBay car is 104 cars away from mine so it could have been made the very same day.

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Originally Posted by SteveFarmer

The BMW influence certainly seems to have resulted in yet more locked down stuff!

Steve

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Wait til you go an L322.

I was going test drive one from a dealeship in Moorabbin, but didnt get a chance to get down there. Which in the meantime, it got either sold, or transfered somewhere else. With the very few ive read up about on carsales, they pretty much all seem rubbish.. They all been privately imported, and have all had their engines half rebuilt under 300,000km.

Though you'd be alright getting parts for them here with the help of ebay. But 100kw to push 2.2 tons is hard work for a 2.5 litre 6 cylinder Turbo Diesel.

I believe the reason the Diesel p38 was never offered here in Oz because of the unsuitability of the Diesel that was offered on our pumps before the low sulphur Version was introduced in 2001.

As someone who has owned both the diesel and petrol p38 I would say stick with the petrol and put it on gas you will have better economy on the gas combined with the drive ability of petrol.

The diesel is OK but best described as adequate. Would be useless as a tow vehicle as not enough power. For comparison think of a petrol V8 Mercedes from the seventies when attempting to use it as a tow vehicle.

The number of diesel Range Rovers over here is due to fuel cost twice what you pay in Australia and the tax rules which favour diesel over petrol.

The engine was fitted as Land Rover had a relationship with BMW prior to the buyout. They needed a decent diesel to meet market demand and this one was available.

The P38 was only available as a manual for a short period. Everyone wanted the auto so it was not kept on. This was not surprising as even the first generation Range Rover had seen sales in later models move away from the manual to auto

When the P38 was new they did trial one in Australia and the public result was that they could not keep the engine cool enough in the hot Australian climate. As Australia was the only market where the diesel had any sales potential it was not worth the cost of modification based on the slow Australian sales of the diesel Range Rovers that had gone before.

.

The old saying "wouldn't pull the skin off a custard" comes to mind :p

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Originally Posted by SteveFarmer

The old saying "wouldn't pull the skin off a custard" comes to mind :p

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No. 'wouldn't rip the skin of a rice pudding'

Oh....by the way. Happy Birthday Steve!!!

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Originally Posted by redandy3575

No. 'wouldn't rip the skin of a rice pudding'

Oh....by the way. Happy Birthday Steve!!!

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Thanks Mate :D

I've only had our DSE on the road briefly & while it's no rocketship, it's not too far behind our 4.6 GEMS in the performance stakes.