Landrover purchase advice

I'd stay well clear of anything Land Rover.
The reason I say that is you cant quantify ownership. Nobody can. They are crap. We all know they are and have terrible times with them on a regular basis.
It boils down to how much you want one. If you want one enough you will put up with anything. Dicking about on paper is as far from Land Rover as you can get. At 6'4" I can barely get into my series never mind get comfy and it is a PITA to drive, maintain and live with. Yet I smile every time I get the keys out. I can find very little that gives me more joy with my clothes on and the wife can go swivel if she thinks for one moment she has any bearing on me having one.
Get one and enjoy or carry on driving your sensible euro box commuter coz the wife says so.

Bobsticle said:

Yet I smile every time I get the keys out.

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Can confirm. There's something really strange about them. They're a pain in the arse, my nearest garage has already said they won't do any work on it if i needed it.

However something about driving one just sticks a huge **** eating grin on your face.

Go on then you bunch of mechanical Wizards.... What do you all think of this? Its 1993.

"Bulkheads good had new vents in November and resprayed in frozen white. Also had new rear quarter chassis. New windscreen and rubbers. New springs and shocks. New power steering pump and pipes. New alternator and belts. Heavy duty clutch and reinforced clutch fork. New door handles.New Belts oil's etc.

Leather interior. Winch bumper and winch. 3 owners. Ex environmental and previous owner a mechanic. Original 200tdi engine and box. Moted till mid march 2019. The doors could do with a little tlc inside. Can buy repair panels just not had the time to do. Original 200tdi engine and gearbox."

The lady who is selling it also has 6 other landrover vehicles (not for sale), including a Discovery 1 so they seem to be interested in them and actually care for them apposed to rotting in a field somewhere. I asked about the price and she said they sell for between 5-25K, when I explained my budget was around 5-8K she didnt say no!


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19_Hue_95 said:

I will certainly have a look, they generally more within our price range, but its not a defender What are Discos like to work on? I am thinking mostly the D2? The reason were thinking 300tdi defender is that I can work on it (well pretend I know what I am doing), dont the Disco 2's have TD5 engines which are harder to work on?

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Disco 1s are basic spannering. Disco2s have more electronics, but nothing to worry about if you have a nanocom to read the codes and deal with issues. Td5 arent hard to work on, except for as above.

A Series, or a Ninety or One Ten, isn't a Defender either, but none the worse for it. Defender is just a name dreamed up for the box body vehicles when Discos came in, an early Defender is almost the same as a late Ninety, except for the engines.

19_Hue_95 said:

Go on then you bunch of mechanical Wizards.... What do you all think of this? Its 1993.

"Bulkheads good had new vents in November and resprayed in frozen white. Also had new rear quarter chassis. New windscreen and rubbers. New springs and shocks. New power steering pump and pipes. New alternator and belts. Heavy duty clutch and reinforced clutch fork. New door handles.New Belts oil's etc.

Leather interior. Winch bumper and winch. 3 owners. Ex environmental and previous owner a mechanic. Original 200tdi engine and box. Moted till mid march 2019. The doors could do with a little tlc inside. Can buy repair panels just not had the time to do. Original 200tdi engine and gearbox."

The lady who is selling it also has 6 other landrover vehicles (not for sale), including a Discovery 1 so they seem to be interested in them and actually care for them apposed to rotting in a field somewhere. I asked about the price and she said they sell for between 5-25K, when I explained my budget was around 5-8K she didnt say no!

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I wouldn't. Doors about to fall apart, original chassis dry and unprotected, lots of bolt on bling, most of it not needed.
And 6 vehicles suggests a dealer or wannabe dealer. They don't seem to have owned it for very long either, it has had several owners, and is an ex-utility vehicle, they usually get hard use.

Turboman said:

I wouldn't. Doors about to fall apart, original chassis dry and unprotected, lots of bolt on bling, most of it not needed.
And 6 vehicles suggests a dealer or wannabe dealer. They don't seem to have owned it for very long either, it has had several owners, and is an ex-utility vehicle, they usually get hard use.

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Interesting observations, thank-you. The door is what concerns me most. also the state of some of the pipes in the engine.
When you say the chassis is dry, what do you mean? I get how its not protected, but to me (without seeing it in person yet) it looks in good condition only with superficial dirt / rust? For my price range I really don't envisage getting a galvanised chassis!

Its only had 3 users, I agree with the utility company using it hard, but surely they would of serviced it like clockwork regardless of cost.

19_Hue_95 said:

Interesting observations, thank-you. The door is what concerns me most. also the state of some of the pipes in the engine.
When you say the chassis is dry, what do you mean? I get how its not protected, but to me (without seeing it in person yet) it looks in good condition only with superficial dirt / rust? For my price range I really don't envisage getting a galvanised chassis!

Its only had 3 users, I agree with the utility company using it hard, but surely they would of serviced it like clockwork regardless of cost.

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All the little signs that a vehicle has not been looked after.
Dry. Not coated with paint, waxoyl, or even old oil. A chassis with surface rust in those areas probably has bad rust in the critical areas.
And getting rid if surface rust will entail rubbing down, or sandblasting, and then re-coating.
Compare it with the pics of Kevstars vehicle, or some of the loved vehicles in Members Vehicles.

I have seen utility vehicles many times, rarely seen one I would want to buy, though.

Looks fairly average to me, bulkhead looks like it has a bit of corrosion on the passenger side. If you can see rust, guaranteed there will be a good deal you can't. Suggest going along to view it carefully checking the condition of the chassis tops, nooks and crannies. Lift the footwell covers to see the condition of the bulkhead/footwells where possible.
Pricing is never easy, I recently sold a 110 TD5 for £7k in better nick than that one.

Buy on condition rather than age.

Engines, depends on what you want, last 3 proper engines are all good, 200 is oldest but still a good engine, 300 is starting to acheive legendary status, and the TD5 is a bit bonkers, VERY remappable, sounds brilliant, can do silly miles.

Good late models of each era fetch more than the next era early cars, so late 200, late 300, late TD5 can all cost serious money.

90s and 110s with TDIs are also worth looking at, as are V8s and 2.5 petrols.

But check carefully. You need to find the right one and until you see it you do not know.

Get yerself a Freelander.

Yer seem to have a lot of doubt about getting a tratter. Especially if yer young. If there's a lot of balancing money and what car yer drive then yer need to consider if buying a biscuit tin ont wheels is the right thing to do. Don't put yerself in dept for it and think about how yer going to pay for it to be fixed if yer can't do it yerself. Save up first then buy it if yer must get one. If yer young and thinking about starting a family then perhaps buying a house to live in if yer int got one would be a better investment.