my suggestion is for you to familiarise yourself with the various models before buying (S1, S2, S2a and S3) there's many that get advertised as one or the other but in reality aren't, bitsas are acceptable but blatant ringers aren't and you really do need to be able to tell the difference
and there's RUST
if anything can rust it will be an old landrover
DO NOT buy sight unseen, find someone local that has half an idea of what they're looking at and go inspect the vehicle with him (take it for a test drive as well), find a local club and get advice/volunteers to help you buy
if you can't weld you'll be paying, if you can't swing spanners you'll be paying and if you can't afford fuel you certainly won't be driving much
88 petrols in general (unless in poor state) generally seem to average around 18-20mpg very few do any more than 24 driven smoothly and some appear to struggle to achieve 16mpg
the insurance will depend on several factors, your age, location, use, etc', being your first car i'll guess you're pretty young
i've never owned a rag top so i can't comment on those, i have a truck cab 88" and a full van bodied 109 both with 200tdi's under the bonnet so they're both pretty noisy, hot in the summer and cold in the winter and both are my daily drivers, they both need fettling on a regular basis
so unless you have plenty of money or mechanical aptitude be prepared for a few shocks with whatever you find, remember ALL Series are at least 30 years old now and unless fully properly rebuilt very recently are likely to require almost immediate attention
have fun learning
p.s.
my preferred model would be a mid to late 60s 2a if i was hunting, early S2 is almost approaching S1 status with certain hard to find/expensive parts and the later S3 suffered the BL (british leyland) cheapskate disease
