Hello Land Rover lovers. I'm not new to cars, or car forums. Here and there in the forums I am on there come along some people who want to know what to expect if they buy a particular model of car. I hope this is at the right place, and posting does not **** anyone off here. My ire and I are expecting kiddo number two, and currently own a 2008 audi a4 sline. Love it. Only issue is with a second child on the way It might be to small. I love land rovers, I love the space and the fact that I can literally go here ever it want to in it. Mainly this car is for my white. She stands 5'2, we will be taking it on a test drive later this evening. It's kinda between and LR3, q7, xc90. I'm leaning to the lr3. I owe a little on the audi, and have found an LR3 that when I swap it I will basically owe nothing at all. Having no payments would be great, but am I don't want to replace payments with insane repairs. I thought I would ask you guys what you thought about the decisions I may be making since you all own the car. I have a few options but I will just ask on this particular one.

2005 LR3 SE with 115,000 miles on it. They want 10k for it. I've talked them down from 13 to 10. Has navigation, beated front and rear seats, xenons, New battery, newer tires roof rack paint is in great shape. So my questions are should I be nervous about mileage? I know some had electrical issues and most of those are off the road now. I know there are issues with the air compresser for suspension, control arms, bushings, and fuel injectors need to be monitored. But if I bought it could I expect relatively low maintance? I know no one here has owned it but could I get another 50k out of the car? Thanks for time and advice in advance.

 

I've got 185,000 miles on my 2006. Though I did buy it with high miles because I'm too cheap and/or poor.

Someone on disco web had over 200,000 on his RRS.

 

Now did you have major issues? I'm just trying to gauge how reliable these are high mileage wise. Like I said I know things will break. I know things will happen. Every car is totally different, but are they built to last. Make sense? I don't want to get it then dump 5k into it fixing it. I will also be looking at the carfax seeing when control arms and axles and injectors were done if they have a record of it.

 

I think anyone on this forum would be lying to you if they said the cost to own and maintain this vehicle is cheap. I bought my lr3 w 30k and was spending about 2500 a year on compressors, brakes, small electric components (brake lights switches!). I loved the vehicle though and just built up some confidence, with the help of this forum, to do the maintenance work myself. I'm not mechanically inclined but I've now not been to the dealership in 70k miles and feeling okay. Yeah, I got some small issues but I know what they all are, and I'll fix them in order or priority. I say make sure the real expensive stuff is in good shape (engine/tranny/gear box) and if so, go for it. If you're not resourceful and will be the guy at the dealership when the suspension fault light flickers, it could be a costly move for you or anyone , for that matter.

I hate my rover. I love my rover. Hasn't left me stranded yet. (131k)

 

As someone said you need to forget that you're paying 10K but think of the maintenance costs of a $50K vehicle with all that entails, if you keep handing your wallet to your local LR dealer. If you're out of warranty, find a good local independent and/or do some spanner wrenching yourself. These forums are full of knowledge and some excellent step by step guides. Sometimes a barrage of expensive looking symptoms can be down to say a $20 brake switch. Take a breath and research. As many will tell you, there's just something about the LR that isn’t in other vehicles. I steal my wife's whenever possible ;-)

 

A few issues with the lR3 are, brake switch change, they seem to be faulty and will throw off a ton of codes (HDC transmission fault, suspension, etc..., simple fix $20 replacement part 10 minutes to install and some LR3's are notorious for water leaks, check the front cowl to see if its warped? Water gets pass the windshield cowl and drips onto the passenger side floor through a small duct, New cowl no more leak, also there was a tbs out for a pillar leaks, just need to take off the a pillars and patch up the small hole where water can drip into, They have a kit for this as well, also make sure you change the diff oils, and transmission oil, they say the tranny oil is suppose to last up to 150,000 and its a sealed unit, I don't buy it, I think zf mentioned somewhere that you should change it sooner around 75,000 miles. I would also invest in a gap diagnostic 2dtool if you plan on working on your truck, I'm in the process of getting one. You can adjust the level of your suspension, oil temps, real life data, update software, etc...

 

Mmmmmk. I will say, I'm not afraid of working on cars. My infiniti, I built the motor, and turbo charged it... So most of the issues don't scare me.

 

I'd recommend getting a nanocom if you're going to be working on it yourself.

Thy just released the LR3 software, so it doesn't do everything yet, but it does a lots and in January they will release more features (free updates at least in the past).

They are much more reliable than previous rovers. The suspension issues are the biggest costs. The water leaks are annoying but shouldn't be TOO hard to fix. They are well documented.

 

Well the deal didn't happen. The dealership did something fishy. They said that the Internet price was only if you didn't have a trade in. Then processed to tell me that my car was only worth 3k lower than the kbb trade in in it. Basically telling me my fully loaded 08 a4 s line with 59k warranty, and services covered till 100k miles on it.... Was worth less by 3k than a 2005 land rover with 116000 miles on it. Didn't make sense since the private selling rate for my car was 18k and for the land rover was 11k. Trade in on my car was 15k they would give me 11k trade in which I know is a 4k difference... They changed numbers a bit. So I will wait a little longer.

 

Damn that's annoying. I like to browse ebays SOLD listing to get an idea of what these things go for. You may not necessarily get it as cheap as some have sold on eBay for but gives you a price point to shoot for. Good luck funding the right one!