This makes for interesting reading.
Firstly, TimoS: You can see my history of Land Rover ownership below. I've owned the current September 2017 L405 SDV8 from new and it has just under 80,000 miles (129,000 km) on it now. I plan on keeping it until at least 4 years / 135,000 miles (218,000 km). If it's still going well then, I will keep it much longer term and push towards the 400,000 miles (645,000 km) by the time I retire
“Yours” is a top specification (at the time) Autobiography that looks in good order from the photos and even has the sought after 22" "turbine" wheels that look wonderful, although the wide and low profile tyres do affect the nice ride and make the car vulnerable to tramlining. They are also vulnerable to damage, so you either need to be very careful, or put some much more sensible 20" rims on it. Nothing smaller than 20” wheels will fit over the SDV8’s front brakes.
Unfortunately, I can't read the text, but service history is EVERYTHING with these cars. A small number of owners and a full dealer service history, counts for a lot. It should have been serviced at 26,000, 52,000, 78,000, 104,000, 130,000, 156,000 & 182,000 km. Unfortunately, the first gearbox oil change isn't scheduled until 260,000 km, which is far too long, so make sure that all gear changes are still silky smooth and if you buy it, get the gearbox oil changed, or flushed, straight away. These cars were expensive to buy new and never were, or will be, cheap to run. Avoid anything with a skimped service history and be prepared to keep in top of it. Find a good specialist garage to look after it.
Both the SDV8 and TDV6 in the Range Rover are built by Ford. The SDV8 in the Chihuahua Plant in Mexico and the TDV6 in Dagenham in the UK. Both are developments of the "Lion" engine, a joint project with PSA Group (Peugeot/Citroen) and Ford. The SDV8 has a reputation for being tough and long lasting, with the heaviest duty cam chain that I've ever seen in an engine! It's quick (0-60mph in 6.5 seconds!), but has a very smooth and relaxed power delivery and is well suited to the smooth automatic gearbox. The TDV6 is nice enough, but it can have a nasty flat spot when pulling away from a standstill, it uses a cam belt (not a thick duplex chain) and has a reputation for breaking crankshafts in Land Rover installations. It's not anything like as common as the rumours would suggest, but it can happen. The TDV6 cars also have normal sized front brakes (the '8 has huge discs and 6 pot Brembo calipers) and the '6 has simplified suspension that will make it roll more. Don't bother with the V6, buy the V8!
TD
tends to indicate a single turbo and SD tends to indicate a twin turbo in Land Rover language. This isn't
always the case, but it is with this generation of L405.
I had a problem with mine when it was 35,000 miles old, when an oil leak from an electrical connector (where it enters the engine block) started to contaminate the electrics on the back of the primary turbocharger. Unfortunately, the car was off the road for 6 weeks while the problem was diagnosed and a modified electrical wiring harness was designed, built and tested. It annoyed me at the time, but that was 45,000 miles ago. Other than that it's been a few very minor things,
I've heard the story of Range Rovers having been stored in fields before, but have never found any hard evidence of it yet. This example was built just after launch, so wouldn't have imagined that it would have been stored for long.
Both the V6 and the V8 come with the same 8 speed ZF gearbox. The number of gears works very well in practice, with seemless changes and no hesitation. It does pull a very tall top gear with 70 mph (113 km/h) only showing 1,350 rpm, so it's little wonder that it chooses 7th if it's pulling a trailer. If you select 8th and it doesn't like it, it won't accept the change and stay where it is! One good thing it that the gearbox just won't have ever let any previous owner labour the engine.
Unlike the L322, there are no stories of corrosion in the entirely aluminium, glued and riveted, bodyshell
