Range Rover and who I should see in QLD re: dodgy motor!!!

You could of picked any cheap rangie, and got a bad one ;-)

I remember the first thread on looking for one of these, and I commented on the amount of money it takes to keep one on the road.......

my advise, put it back together, and sell it......

Hi Chris

This might sound a little bit out there, but since moving down to Victoria from Brisbane, I noticed how cheap the 2nd hand Range rovers were down here compared to Brisbane. I would think due to the amount of Toorack tractors going around. Jump on the trading post for Vic. When we did one up in Brisbane, we use sandgate wreckers as they had one, pure luck i think. Not sure if this helps and certainly not wanting to hinder your search.
Cheers
Ads

A bit further up the road, Chris, but British Off-road at Forest Glen (just south of Nambour) are usually good for advice and you never know what they may have sitting in their shed.

Well what an interesting little thread developing here.

No personal abuse here but lots of experience. A Range Rover can be an excellent choice for an inexpensive 4wd, and I have recommended older rangies as such for those who want a very capable but inexpensive vehicle, with certain qualifications

Regarding the cost of ownership- fuel consumption on my 3.9 V8 is on a par with any petrol 4wd- 14 to 16 L/100K on highway, 19 when outback touring. The 3.5 carb model doesnt fair so well.

Cost of maintenence if done by the dealer can be high, but shop arouind or do it yourself. You see with a little bit of searching, you can find lots of places selling OEM parts cheaply and there are so many Rover nuts ( i mean that in a nice way) that there is plenty of help available for the inexperienced. Do the work yourself and they are cheap to maintain, just don't buy the parts from your LR dealer. Now there are some people who jsut should never maintain there own vehicles and given the dealer service costs for RR, there are probably many Rangies serviced by these people and that could be the reason there are som real dogs in the used market.

There are several keys to purchasing and owning a rangie-

Don't buy one with an engine that is already tired/noisy unless you have access to another engine. One really quick check is to pull a rocker cover off, and look at the residue inside, if it is black rather than tea coloured, don't go near it.

Check the compression prior to purchase, check the radiator by running the car in sand or something to work it hard, stop the engine and put your hand on the back of the radiator, check for cold spots, usually the bottom will be coldest if the radiator is blocked which is a common occurrence. It blocks becasue it has horizontal rather than verticle elements, so be sure to flush the system annually and use inhibitor.

The older they are, the more work is required, If I was buying an old Rangie ( and I've bought two), I would and have taken them straight home, pulled the engine out and replaced welch plugs and head gaskets, but hey I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to reliability/maintenence. For a really tired unit like yours, I would have negotiated the price based on the need to replace the engine, and there are several places you can get complete engines, and after fitting you will have a very capable 4wd that will still have cost you less than the equivelent Toyota/Nissan.

Reading the horror stories in a recent post, about the Nissan 3.0TD, I think you have bugger all problems by comparison. If you want answers to specific RR questions, feel free to email me adminatdjolsendotcom

There is nothing intinsically wrong with Range Rovers, the 3.5/3.9/4.0 motors are as reliable as any petrol engine you can buy. The marque has a bad name from a certain period of time, and that has blackened the whole range, but the engine never was the problem.

So here is the rub, stay away from early model HSE's, with HEVAC systems, EAS and all thoise electronic goodies (baddies). Buy a rangie with coils all round preferably a classic from around 1990 for the budget end or a 1995 lower spec 4.0 for those with around $40K to spend.

If you are looking at the lower end of the market, keep $5K handy and calculated into the price for just the kind scenario you have.

I'll second british off road .
If you need advice and part try coopers at amaroo pk sydney.

nothing wrong with the 3.5 rangie ...after all they are 30 years old now
shadow

Hi Chris,

You could also try www.autotrader.com.au as there is a lot of stuff on there at times.

Bob