even with all these problems and warrany cost. Would you buy another? would you guys suggest to go 05-06 or another year? any info would be great.

 

Had to comment in here. Dec 2008 bought an 04 Disco with 18K from Carmax with MaxCare warranty, I have older threads related to the incident which developed around 40K three years later basically premature engine failure, ticking etc. BOTTOM LINE is the warranty served my needs in that the dealer paid me out of the vehicle. Fast forward to present I am now in the model you are looking at however I was not allowed to buy a LR from my Carmax dealer for fear that I would rinse and repeat. Bought it from another dealer and now I have an excellent local indy repairman. That makes ALL the difference.

LR dealerships will not honor the warranty, but indy shops can work with it, make sure in advance. The main quarrel if any with maxcare is to specify that you want LR OEM replacement parts. At the time my disco began failing, the warranty had paid for itself approx TWICE and I still had approx 5 years or 59K left on the maxcare warranty, all for less than $2K at purchase.

 

THanks vrblknch...

Well, I got the call on Friday - the LR3 is here from Texas and it did NOT pass the CarMax inspection. They told me they had to order and replace a part. The salesman didn't know what part is was but would let me know. I found out today that it was the tensioner pulley "because the old one was making loud noises.."

Needless to say, I am a little more than concerned. I will be picking up the LR tomorrow night after work and I have an appointment with a local "indy" LR mechanic on Friday morning. For 150 bucks, he will take 2-3 hours and really look it over and give me a real assessment. Good thing is that Car Max has a 5 day money back deal - so if it doesn't check out on Friday, guess where I am going Sat. morning?

Should I be really concerned about the tensioner pulley being replaced? I've read up on what it does, but not sure how critical is in terms of all the other suspension and electrical issues I am reading in here....thanks...

 

I hope you find your new vehicle to be in excellent condition. I happen to own an '05 LR3 and absolutely LOVE IT. It currently has 92,000 miles and I don't have any problems with it, at all.

I've driven BMW's for years and they get the same "bad rap" about reliability that Land Rover gets. Sure, in years past, both companies had spotty reliability, but that is no longer the case. Land Rover's of today are extremely reliable, amazingly comfortable, highly capable, 7 passenger, grocery getting beasts that look great and drive even better.

Just my .02 cents.

 

Thanks Scott. One more stupid question. I heard it was a bit hard to get into the 3rd row seat. Is that true? My kids will most likely jump over.

 

Bump.. I bought it....for now...

I ended up going to Carmax on Weds night and got the car. Apparently, they had detailed it with some sort of chemical that smelled like formaldehyde or wet leather. It was AWFUL! I told them to clean that out as best they could while we did the paper work (I mean this was like the Seinfeld car...) So they sprayed a bunch of roses and smelly whatever in it and that got us home ok. The next morning the smell was back. Which was ok, since we were taking it to a indy mechanical to do a survey and let us know if we got a good LR or a problem child. Turns out, he gave it a good bill of health, but the computer had 29 errors codes on it. At this point, this will not pass emission here in MD. And 4 error codes were on "cylinder 5, 6, 7 misfire..." I also asked him about the smell - he couldn't explain it, but apparently the 60K maintenance was only done half *** in that only the oil was changed, the air filters (and probably the interior filters) were never replaced. We suspect that whatever they used to shampoo the carpet during the detailing at the bill of sale - go into the ventilation and it's sitting in the dirty filters.

I have to admit, the biggest issue is the smell at this point. The misfiring isn't noticeable and the indy mechanic even stated that all of these issues could have been solved and they just never cleared the computer. I called Carmax and they will take it back tomorrow and fix everything on the list from the indy at no cost to me and they will provide a loaner. I did mention that I wasn't going withthe Max Care warranty, but I had to due to the finanical situation (I had a "not to exceed" blank check from my credit union and I could roll the warranty in with the car payment - rather pay that on a 3.99% loan than put it on a 7.99% credit card..)

Anyway, we are happy with it so far, but that smell is killing me. I actually got really sick after we got home on Weds night. I was in bed until this morning (I am writing this on Sunday). I was diagnosed with Lyme Disease last year and it felt the same - went to the docs office on Thursday - turns out I might have West Nile - I can't believe my luck.) But I digress.... the point of that story is that the smell in the car makes me sick to my stomache. Not sure if is compounded by the fact that I am really sick - but right now, I dread getting in that "new" car... you guys have any clue as to what it might be? We took the rubber floor mats out all and let them sit in the sun all weekend (offgassing?) That wasn't it - even with them out, it still stinks. I have about 7 air fresheners in there and have to open all the windows and sunroof for 30 minutes before I get in there....any ideas? Thanks,
Tony

 

Hi Tony, good luck. Hope the smell goes away. Usually time takes care of that.
I went before you into the land of LR3s some 6 months ago. Bought a 2005 HSE with 96,000 miles and sold my trusty 2002 tacoma TRD (2wd) with 150,000 miles. The LR3 is my daily driver, but I work from home, so not a big deal if it were to be out of commission for a short period of time. No warranty on mine.
I got the tacoma w/ 2wd to minimize maintenance, and it was great. But wanted something: * my wife and I could sleep in on camping trips (with tailgate shut if bear country). * we could take our married kids and spouses in 1 vehicle. * we could take on offroad trails and not worry about getting stuck. Super comfortable on highway trips too.
When I bought it, I had the mindset that I'd have to also pick up hobby of working on it. So far I've had to: * replace transmission linkage ($30 or so in parts and clean-up lube of cables) to get sport mode shifting to work. * Do surgery on key fob to solder in a $10 battery and save ~$400 dealer cost for a new, programmed fob. * Replace all diff fluids (front, center, rear) as maintenance. * Replace rear emergency drum brake (to try to fix very intermittent brake judder). * Just bought the brake sensor unit ($15) and planning to spend an hr or 2 to replace as preventative measure. * And negative battery cable needed replacement; it was intermittently shorting when cranking and that sent the vehicle into anti-theft shutdown mode. Very vexing until I figured that out.
I'm no mechanic; just willing to research problems on forums and such and roll up sleeves and follow procedures.
So far, no major expenses, but I imagine if I had gone to dealer it would be close to a couple grand for what I've done.
We're loving the LR3. It's great for exploring. I'm not into rock crawling for sake of it, but we have great trails in beautiful country in southwest, and I've gone places I'm sure I wouldn't have in the 2WD Taco (hate to turn around on a trail). It's a nice feeling that the rig has such great 4wd capabilities, but then when you get back on the pavement, you return the suspension to normal height, go into high range, and it's a luxury vehicle.
Good luck. Hope it works out for both of us.
-Dirk

 

I'm late to the party! I've been meaning to reply but never got around to it.

I was in the same boat last month and ended up making the purchase of a 2006 LR3 HSE with 69k from Carmax. I opted for the 72/mo 100k extended warranty which was around $2500. Although I haven't used the actual MaxCare warranty yet, I've had a lot of work done through the 30-Day Limited Warranty. If not for that, MaxCare would have probably paid for itself already. Here's the rundown of what I discovered in the first week of ownership:

1) Parking Sensors F/R didn't work - Parking Aid Module replaced.

2) Harsh downshift (the car would lurch when accelerating from an almost stop) - ECU's updated.

3) HDC Suspension Fault - New battery installed.

4) Front suspension clunk - Lower control arm bushings replaced. Alignment included.

5) Found a small tear on the passenger rear tire - New tire installed.

6) Suspension Fault Normal Height Only - New compressor installed.

7) Coolant leak - Thermostat housing replaced

CarMax sent my car to a local Land Rover indy for the repairs. I suppose they don't like working on these cars?

I think we all know that repairs are all a part of LR3 ownership. That's why I'm not at all bothered by it. I love the damn car!

So far, my CarMax experience has been fairly pleasant. The service staff is nice and I've been provided with a rental car each time. Funny thing is, if I needed a rental, they pulled a car from their lot (body style of my choice), gave it a wash, removed the window stickers, and handed it over. I've paid $0 for the work above.

So my advice to you is, find EVERYTHING that bothers you about the car and bring it in to get checked out while under the 30-day. You get a 6 month warranty on any work they perform too. As for the smell, bring it in at its worst and tell them it's making you sick. It can't hurt to ask and they might just replace the carpeting/padding for free.

 

Thanks all,

I got the LR3 back on Friday. They had it for about a week. Carmax had to send it to a local "autobaun" place to connect the computer to check the error codes. The ended up fixing them all and the "valve misfires" were previously corrected, but the computer errors were never cleared.

As for the smell, Carmax hired a special subcontractor to come in and do an "ozone" treatment. Not sure what it does, but I was told they put a box of some sort in the car for about 6 hours and let it do it's thing. The smell is gone now, but I can still smell a little bit - my wife tells me that the really bad smell is gone and what I am smelling is the leather. (I've never had a car with leather interior). Needless to say, after having the car for over a week with multiple subcontractors working on the car, I paid $0.00 for all the work. And to top it all off - Carmax even put a full tank of gas in there for me! (I was just about through the first full tank when I took it back). I did get the 72 month/100 K warranty - so I am sleeping a little better with that.

Now that I have had the car for a few days, I really like it. I am only 5'4" tall and I love sitting up really high and seeing the road - I don't feel like I have very large (if any at all) blind spots too.

Here is my Carmax "owners page" so you can see what I got...

2006 Land Rover LR3 Pictures and Photo Gallery at CarMax.com

I love the blue color and the two-tone interior. The only thing that I really need to get now is the trailer hitch (we have to take our own trash to the dump and I have a little landscape trailer for grass,leaves and trash) and I really want to get my XM radio hooked up in there. Have started to do some research on that - but that might take a while before I can get it installed the right way (maybe Tweeter or some place like that for a pro install???)

Thanks again all - "so far so good" with the new ride....now I just need to sell my Jeep....

Tony