Buying a 10+ year old car what could go wrong?

[simple]

Rust on a modern Audi? oubt:

Sitting at dealers for 2 years plus? Do you like adopting children with special needs? Because that is what you are gonna get.

[AdironRider]

Don't know about the Discoveries, but perhaps stay away from the new Defender. Check out TFL's. Thing just can't stay out of the dealer shop! WTF is wrong with Land Rovers?! Haha.

I cannot get over how much of a dork the son is in these videos. They do get their hands on a lot of cool cars though.

[Bobcat Sig]

Yah know, I think I'm gonna look at Land Cruisers or wait a few years and get a new Bronco when some used ones hit the market. Thank you for the wisdom. You may have saved me many moneys.

Land Rovers are alright, as long as you going in knowing what to expect. With them, more than anything else, you're buying the seller. They are fun for a short time. If you want to keep them long-term, most things can be done yourself as the owner community is big and helpful, so many DIYs out there. Otherwise, locate an excellent local British wrench.

Most commonly on the newer ones are bushing of all manners (still, which is baffling), and sensors. Oh my, all the sensors. They fail all the time and in weird and unidentifiable ways.

I had a Range Rover Sport Supercharged for a little over a year. It was a rad truck and built on the same platform as the Disco. But, as I mentioned, sensors started failing oddly and the sunroof drains clogged. Then it needed new suspension bushings. None of it was catastrophic, but just niggling things that needed attention.

Land Cruisers are way excellent, but holy hell; you will pay a high cost of entry. Even 15 to 20 year old examples with nearly 300k miles are insanely expensive right now. Deals can be had if you keep an eye out.

[Touring_Sedan]

Land Rovers are alright, as long as you going in knowing what to expect. With them, more than anything else, you're buying the seller. They are fun for a short time. If you want to keep them long-term, most things can be done yourself as the owner community is big and helpful, so many DIYs out there. Otherwise, locate an excellent local British wrench.

Most commonly on the newer ones are bushing of all manners (still, which is baffling), and sensors. Oh my, all the sensors. They fail all the time and in weird and unidentifiable ways.

I had a Range Rover Sport Supercharged for a little over a year. It was a rad truck and built on the same platform as the Disco. But, as I mentioned, sensors started failing oddly and the sunroof drains clogged. Then it needed new suspension bushings. None of it was catastrophic, but just niggling things that needed attention.

Land Cruisers are way excellent, but holy hell; you will pay a high cost of entry. Even 15 to 20 year old examples with nearly 300k miles are insanely expensive right now. Deals can be had if you keep an eye out.

This.....

Knock on wood, but once I got it sorted, ours has been exceptionally reliable for the last 14 years. Any form if transportation is gonna have it's issues, know what you're getting into so you're not surprised. I played in the Rover forums for at least 2 months before I felt comfortable picking up our Disco. It's had it's share of repairs, but nothing I didn't expect or felt was in warranted. It's sitting at 155,000 miles now.

And yes, Lucas is the prince of darkness.

[gravitylover]

Haha does yours actually idle at 666? Lol. Is that a Scangauge? I'm going to want one of those and the iid tool. I've been all over the LR forums for a few hours a day and found a pretty active local Fb group too. I'm starting to get pretty comfortable with what I'm going to be up against but the reality is I can look at it like the inexpensive truck it is rather than the hoity toity bs that so many of the owners think it is. Like Bobcat says, Landcruisers (all Toy trucks actually) are crazy overpriced now and at the mileage the one I'm getting is at I'd have to spend 10-15 grand more to get one that's 10 years older so that leaves a pretty hefty sum for things to go wrong. I figure as long as the POD doesn't strand me in some north bumfuck zone in Upstate NY I'll be ok. I'm pretty sure I'm going to name it Lucas the POD

[Touring_Sedan]

Haha does yours actually idle at 666? Lol. Is that a Scangauge? I'm going to want one of those and the iid tool. I've been all over the LR forums for a few hours a day and found a pretty active local Fb group too. I'm starting to get pretty comfortable with what I'm going to be up against but the reality is I can look at it like the inexpensive truck it is rather than the hoity toity bs that so many of the owners think it is. Like Bobcat says, Landcruisers (all Toy trucks actually) are crazy overpriced now and at the mileage the one I'm getting is at I'd have to spend 10-15 grand more to get one that's 10 years older so that leaves a pretty hefty sum for things to go wrong. I figure as long as the POD doesn't strand me in some north bumfuck zone in Upstate NY I'll be ok. I'm pretty sure I'm going to name it Lucas the POD

Yeah. That's kinda her sweet spot.






The meter is an Ultragauge. I have a Scangauge 2 on the Jeep and the F150. The Ultragauge is a little more advanced and is perfect for the wife's car. I have it set up to alarm when the engine gets too hot, or when the voltage gets too low. It'll also let her know when it throws a code which she can send to me. It's nice knowing what I'm coming home to.

[BmillsSkier]

Out of curiosity, is that in lieu of the usual dash gauges or in addition to them?

[Touring_Sedan]

Out of curiosity, is that in lieu of the usual dash gauges or in addition to them?

In addition. The Rover doesn't have a Voltmeter, and the temperature gauge is just a dummy, it only has four positions... cold, normal, hot, and fucked.

[gravitylover]

^^ Ha!

That ultragauge is pretty cool, has a few nice upgrades over the scangauge. I like that the plug in one would be easy to move between the different cars in the family too. It also seems like if you have this you don't need an OBD2 reader.

[gravitylover]

Ordered and received. Looking forward to picking up the new rig and plugging it in. I expected the screen to be a bit bigger, I hope I don't need to put my reading glasses on to see it while driving

[Skidog]

^^ Ha!

That ultragauge is pretty cool, has a few nice upgrades over the scangauge. I like that the plug in one would be easy to move between the different cars in the family too. It also seems like if you have this you don't need an OBD2 reader.

still gives just "generic" codes but its always a great place to start when tshooting. Plus you know the mechanic isnt totally fucking with you. Also can clear codes. I've had one for years, but since I have a newer car under warranty I havent used it.

[Touring_Sedan]

still gives just "generic" codes but its always a great place to start when tshooting. Plus you know the mechanic isnt totally fucking with you. Also can clear codes. I've had one for years, but since I have a newer car under warranty I havent used it.

You don't buy it for the codes, you can read those with a sandwich. You buy it for the real time monitoring and the alerts.

[Timberridge]

it's also handy when the instrument cluster goes blank

GL, I think Rangerovers.net is a really good forum and resource.

[gravitylover]

Haha. I've been reading up there and a couple of other forums as well as a few Fb groups. I might even go to a local meet on Sunday from one of those groups.

You don't buy it for the codes, you can read those with a sandwich. You buy it for the real time monitoring and the alerts.

That's my angle, the gauges on cars have sucked for years and don't tell you shit about what's going on and with as much time as I spend in the car it gives me something to geek out on. I like that you can see codes pop in real time. I might have been able to save the motor in my BRZ if I had one in there because it popped an oil pressure code about an hour before shit went sideways and I might have been smart enough to realize what was going on and shut it down. Turning off service now lights is a bonus.

[BmillsSkier]

Haha. I've been reading up there and a couple of other forums as well as a few Fb groups. I might even go to a local meet on Sunday from one of those groups.

Land Rover has group therapy sessions?

[Touring_Sedan]

Land Rover has group therapy sessions?

We mostly discuss cardboard absorbancy.

[Dantheman]

If there ain't oil under 'em....

[gravitylover]

Haha. Other than a hint towards my penchant for pain at the beginning of this purchase process Aldo hasn't said that I should back out so I'm gonna go with his confidence in it. There's some niggling issues but it wouldn't be a Rover if there weren't, heck it wouldn't be like any other 15 year old truck if there weren't things that need to be dealt with. At least rust isn't one of those things I need to worry about for a while and that's a big thing around here. I haven't had a truck that wasn't a rustbucket that I could work on myself for 15 years and that in itself makes this worth it. If y'all are right I'll admit it and go get a Corolla.

[basinbeater]

The first thing I would do if I had a land Rover would be to sell it.

sent from Utah.

[Touring_Sedan]

The first thing I would do if I had a land Rover would be to sell it.

sent from Utah.

Isn't this thread mostly filled with you fixing broken BMWs?

Shall we talk about High Pressure Fuel Pumps?

How about orange dot matrix displays?

Nikasil?

[Timberridge]

Go for it GL and enjoy. The odd thing about some of the niggling things is they fix themselves sometimes, and if you have the problem there's good odds that someone else does and they are on the forum with a fix.

There was this issue with the RRS a while back that when the brake light bulb went out, guys were going down to the local NAPA and getting a bulb for $1. Afterward, errors and warnings were popping up on the dash for completely unrelated stuff. When you switched it out for the LR bulb ($2.75 btw) the warnings went away. Apparently the LR bulb, even so it looked exactly the same as the NAPA bulb, had a different resistance. Enough that it would cause the electronics to go haywire.

[BmillsSkier]

Go for it GL and enjoy. The odd thing about some of the niggling things is they fix themselves sometimes, and if you have the problem there's good odds that someone else does and they are on the forum with a fix.

There was this issue with the RRS a while back that when the brake light bulb went out, guys were going down to the local NAPA and getting a bulb for $1. Afterward, errors and warnings were popping up on the dash for completely unrelated stuff. When you switched it out for the LR bulb ($2.75 btw) the warnings went away. Apparently the LR bulb, even so it looked exactly the same as the NAPA bulb, had a different resistance. Enough that it would cause the electronics to go haywire.

Somewhere in Solihull, a man is laughing.

Evilly.

[basinbeater]

Isn't this thread mostly filled with you fixing broken BMWs?

Shall we talk about High Pressure Fuel Pumps?

How about orange dot matrix displays?

Nikasil?

Yeah, partly. But I do advocate buying quality old cars. Land rivers are not that. I've owned a couple of newer bmws, and they were both rubbish. Nice to drive, but non stop problems. All of my cars are over 150k miles. Even the Porsche has 150+k on it and runs fine.
If you can fix stuff yourself, you could own a land rover and operate it at semi reasonable cost, but you will be fixing stuff non stop. My old bimmers don't have high pressure fuel pumps, bad pixels, and my 540 has the original nikasil block. If the nikasil made it this far in life, it's fine, the problem was high sulphur gas in the late 80s and early 90s, and if the car came from an area with good gas, the problem did not materialize. And most have had the engines that were damaged by the bad gas replaced under warranty. If you find a nikasil engine that runs well today, it's fine. No longer an issue. The older bmws up into the mid late 90s were excellent cars. Strong build quality, fun to drive. Then they went downhill quickly.
Back to rovers, brother in law used to run a land rover dealership in new england, and even he said they were pieces of shit.
Let's debate.

sent from Utah.

[Timberridge]

One could argue on that logic that if a LR has made it to 150k with minimal triage, it will also be ok? I have 250K on mine, and I use OE brake light bulbs.

What is your opinion on Dodge's?

[basinbeater]

One could argue on that logic that if a LR has made it to 150k with minimal triage, it will also be ok? I have 250K on mine, and I use OE brake light bulbs.

What is your opinion on Dodge's?

You might have gotten a good un. My understanding from talking to my bil about rovers is that the discos had fundamental engine design flaws, among the standard electronics and general poor build quality. There are a few nice looking ones rolling around salt lake, and I check em out cause they look cool, but... No way. I would say that a land rover with 150k on it is a ticking time bomb.

My opinion on dodge is that they don't really interest me. The parent company fiat, the fiat roadster looks cool.

sent from Utah.