Hope to get some advice from LR3 veterans here. In the used market. Been eyeing and following a few older LR3's to pick up. Have owned two older P38A's so understand the LR headache/love affair syndrome in general but never any DISCO's. I've done my research enough on LR3 and AJ8 4.4 V8 etc but thought I would check with the hive mind to see if anyone had strong opinions here.

Debating between two cars- Both $5-6K

LR3 1: 2005 with 100K miles. Test drove it, and tranny and engine are fine enough. No glaring problems. Sunroof Clog and thats it. Control arms replaced 20K miles ago and Air Suspension works great. CARFAX does show it was decently maintained, but definitely not 5K oil changes.

LR3 2: 2008 with 200K miles. Test drove with no problems. Meticulous CARFAX. Oil changes at the dealership from day 1 all the way through 200K miles every 5-7K miles. Control Arms done 40K miles ago.

If it helps. I do snow trips 3-4 times a year where will rely on 4x4 and other than that just putz around town car. Need it to last me 10K-12K max miles in next two years and it will be beyond worth it for me.

Thank you for any help. Very much appreciated.

 

Hmmmm.....personally, I'd make sure that the 2005 doesn't have any issues with differentials, and I'd buy that one. At 100k, if the spark plugs and tranny fluid haven't been done, you may consider changing them. People downgrade the 2005s because of early build issues but honestly, they all got sorted, so the ones still on the road are fine. 100k is quite low. With that big of a mileage difference, I'd take the '05. Any other details? SE, HSE? Options....either have the HD Package?

Both model years are great in my view. 2008 is the last model year before tweaks to software and the dumb painted wheel arches like the LR4 has. 2005 as a 1st model year is generally coveted from a collector standpoint.

 

I really appreciate this response. Thank you for taking the time. They are both SE. Both pretty stock. Will need new tires on both eventually within the year. Interior is fine/solid in both. Very minimal to no headliner droop. No dashboard cracks. Neither have any RUST on under carriage from eye-test. They both have exact same minimalist roof clear coat peel issues but not on hood. They both have their little cosmetic whatevers but I don't care that much about that. I'm sure they both have their hidden secrets for me.

The only thing that worries me about the 2005 is how much water accumulation has happened in driver and passenger side foot wells from sunroof drain clog corroding any wires. But electronics all worked great / fully functional when I test drove. So without pulling pillars off I'm not sure how I could really test/see that ahead of time? Am I dumb to be too concered about that? Am I missing anything to look out for besides differentials?

Thanks again. Really appreciate.

 

bushings....oil leaks, etc...EAS function. That's about it.

 

Wouldn't put much stock into the carfax oil change intervals in the first one.

According to carfax mine hasn't had its oil changed in years because I do it myself

 

Thanks man!

 

haha great point. absence of evidence is not evidence of absence or some thing sort of smart like that

 

The both look like excellent options. All other things equal, the low miles and more recent control arm change for me puts the '05 a bit ahead. You also probably have a little bit more safety margin with 100k miles on the cooling system versus 200k, though I just changed all my coolant hoses at 229,000 miles on my '06 and honestly they looked really good for > 200k miles.