good day.

I need to purchase a car for my family to go to Baja, Mexico. Live in San Diego, CA. work in Tijuana 1 day a week. travel to Baja Wine Country 1 or 2 times a month.

monthly driving not to exceed 500 miles. have 2 young kids (2.5 years and 9 months). comfort is important but mostly want a dependable car. must be able to handle freeway driving and also dirt roads, pretty simple stuff. no real off roading where we go.

trying to keep the spend on the car below $15K. will consider up to $20K but would prefer $10 to 15K. looking a 2004 Land Rover Discovery. about 100K in miles. clean and good condition.

get a Discovery? Range Rover Sport? older model Range Rover? LR3?

will this be a dependable car for my family?
cost to maintain this car on annual basis with this many miles on it?

any and all advice is appreciated.

much thanks g

 

To travel from San Diego into the wine country, you don't need 4wd. Why not get something with better gas mileage? Do you do your own maintenance and repairs? That is a huge factor in owning a Rover. Are you someone who can ignore the lights on the dash or do you run the the mechanic for every little thing? I love my Rover! It is solid and well built. I love seeing my friends spend thousands of dollars to make their Jeeps more like the Rover comes straight from the factory. I think most of the people here would agree, owning a Rover is a hobby, almost an illness. I was driving out of a desert canyon last weekend and the check engine light came on. I hit the buttons on my Ulltragage and looked at the code, nothing major, cleared it and have not seen it since. Probably will never see it again. You can pick up a nice clean Rover (Disco or Rangie) for $3-$4,000 but do your research by reading more threads here! A slipped liner can cost you a new engine. The nice thing is, once you have a top hat in there you never have to worry about that problem again. Also, get Abram's number on speed dial. He is in Huntington Beach and is a great resource and a super nice guy.