Hi All -

Im considering my first RR purchase. Have a friends who's lease just came up on his 2008 Sport, and the dealer is holding the car for me for a few days.

The dealer is offering the car at the lease buyout price $40,900 + tax (= $45K+ out the door). It is the 2008 RR Sport, with 16,000 miles. It fully loaded with the luxury package, chrome wheels (prefer the regular actually) and the engine non-supercharged engine. I think the only thing it does not have is the adaptive cruise control and the supercharged engine. Color is grey with black leather and the lighter interior woods. Its been in service for 2 years, 3 months, so I would get the remainder of the 4 year service plan (1.75 years).

Since it is in the dealer hands already, it will need to be smogged and safety checked. That will be an extra $250 total.

Couple of questions though as this will be my first RR purchase (I am coming from owning 3 previous Toyota 4runners whice have been absolutely perfect and maintenance free)-

1) Is this deal a "steal", "good" or just "average" price?
2) Are their any known issues for the 2008's RR Sports? / reliability?
3) Anyone install a backup camera to their Sport - if so, how much?
4) Estimated life on tires/brakes for a non-heavy footed driver (very easy on my pedals)
5) What actual gas mileage have you been getting (just curious)
6) Anyone put 89 or 87 octane gas in?
7) Anything I should be aware of?

Thanks so much in advance. Have to pull the trigger soon.

Blasky

 

RRs are just quirky vehicles. If you demand absolute perfection when you purchase it, then you should stick to toyota. When I say "quirks" i mean random weird occurrences or electronic issues that randomly present themselves and then go away. The quirks usually never leave you stranded or cause a break downs. So one day when you turn the key and nothing happens, and go to off and then start again and WAHHLAH its starts, or your audio goes out but comes back, just remember its a Range Rover. To put it in perspective, they have more computers on them than commercial aircraft do. Something weird is going to happen from time to time and is usually nothing. Tires on these generally don't last long because rovers are heavy, that and LR uses(ed) really soft tires that are great for traction, but don't last long. If you switch out to tires that are known for their longevity, you will probably get about 3/4 of the average life expectancy out of them (figure every 40k miles you will need new tires). Fuel economy is pretty typical for a large V8 SUV. You will probably average 14 to 18mpg depending on your driving. Don't ever use regular fuel in your engine, use 91 or greater octane. I use 93 in mine. The deal you are getting is, alright... Go to cars.com and see what 08s are going for, and low ball them on the price to get it for a steal .

 

Thanks for that. Very good info indeed. And I guess that is the main difference between old reliable japanese and luxury english.

As for price, unfortunately I dont think there is ANY wiggle room there. That is the buyout number from the end of the lease term, and is what the bank set up when the lease was signed 2 years ago. If I dont pay the $40,900 I beleive they just give the car back to the bank, and then they send it off to auction.

The car was serviced 1000 miles ago, and I do know that it is due for new brakes. Also, new tires I would imagine. (I heard closer to 25K miles per set, not 40K). But perhaps that is with the stock continentals. I prefer Michelins - are those longer life? Perhaps the dealer can work with me on the brakes, or I will take it to an independant shop. From what I understand they are not making a profit off this (at least from me anyhow, or from markup). They may be getting a quota met for selling a returned car, or a rebate from RR. But the price is exactly at the lease buyout.

From what I understand this dealer is not interested in buying it themselved to sell in their Pre-Owned lot, for whatever reason either.

 

Offer the bank something. That RR will go to auction like you said, and they'll get roughly 25k for it... I'm sure they would be willing to at least listen to you. The worst they can say is, no. If the dealership were to buy it, they try to make 10k off of it lol. At least that is what ours does. They will probably wait for it to go to auction, and if they can get it for 25k, they'll purchase it, certify it, and sell it for 40k lol. I've got a set of Michelins and do really like them. However, Michelins are very expensive in comparison to other brands.

 

I had almost closed the deal on a 2006 RR Sport until I notice the spare tire was not the same size as the ones on the Sport. With spare on the Auto you could not store the other tire. Well is for spare size only.
Also you would loose sight of the red speed needle at certain speeds in the day light hours. Transduent (miss spelled), so you couldn't tell what speed you were driving.
The last time I checked RR had not corrected these problems.

 

You are going to find this is the case with most vehicles out there today. More often than not they will have a compact spare. Even the ones that claim to have a full-size spare use one that is the same diameter but a much narrower tire.