Like many of you, we have had a few Land Rovers in the past. For us, a 1999 DI, a 2000 DII and a 2001 DII. All of which gave me ample opportunity to teach my kids how to work on cars. I recently picked up a 2005 LR3 HSE. It was a two owner with 81k miles. Very well taken care of with brand new tires, oil change and some service records, a new set of rotors and pads and some other misc. stuff.

We have put about 4 thousand miles on it so far. I bought it knowing that it had a suspension pump issue, fixed with a used pump for $140 and 45 minutes of time, a leaking transmission sleeve, fixed the sleeve and got a full tranny service and new pan and filter and fluid for $700 (didn't leak a drop for four months and then wham, a big 6 inch puddle in the driveway). It also has a very on again, off again rear sensor issue that I still haven't sorted out, sometimes it works great and other times, it beeps and the dash button blinks but it won't sense anything, to me not a big issue.

After the purchase, I noticed some cracks in the dash, minor but annoying. The upper glove box won't latch. The catch for the back seat sunroof screen won't catch. Other than that it is a very solid, smooth quiet enjoyable vehicle. We get around 13.9 mpg around town and upwards of 20 plus on the highway. V8 all options but Bluetooth.

Much nicer riding than our Land Cruiser, quieter too. Tons nicer than our 4runners. Probably just as capable as the Cruiser or the 4runners, maybe better.

For the money, it would be pretty hard to find as nice a vehicle that does so much well. Now if we could just do something about gas at $3.85 a gallon.......

 

Guarantee it's more capable than both the 4runner and the Cruiser...