Like everyone here I go through mental gymnastics. I know that the original RR is becoming a collectable to a degree but would anyone here DD one, what would you look for and what are their values. My research is giving me conflicting information.
Like everyone here I go through mental gymnastics. I know that the original RR is becoming a collectable to a degree but would anyone here DD one, what would you look for and what are their values. My research is giving me conflicting information.
An old Defender would be the one. not sure why they are so sought after as they are basically a no frills Disco but they hold their value or even increase. Any other Range Rover or Land Rover seems to be a pretty bad bet to see appreciate, and you need to dump so much money into them that you would be completely upside down financially in no time. And yet I have been kind of looking too....They seem like so much truck for so little.
The 1st gen Range Rover is on an uptick. They can easily see 5 figures if very nice but how realistic are they?
I agree with Mark, prices are moving up on those.
Anything decent you are looking at $10k+. Anywhere between $10-20k.
I owned two when they weren't very old and both of them broke all the time and required a lot of very expensive repairs. I wasn't working on them myself, though, but parts prices were very high when I tried to. One only had 36k miles on it and was pristine and still had issues.
My dad's put about 200k miles on his including driving the pan american highway with it. Everything has been replaced or rebuilt twice by quality labor and it still breaks all the time. Even the odometer has been replaced a couple times, hence not knowing how far he's gone in it. He's spent over $40k just in repairs to go that far. Maybe that's not too bad per mile, but it still stinks when the transmission, differential, etc fails ... again. The only thing he hasn't had to rebuild is the motor. It seems pretty solid as long as it's kept cool. (Do NOT let the radiator or water pump fail, that will destroy the motor very quickly.)
They're awesome and I loved mine. But to DD one seems masochistic. A competent home mechanic with lots of time to work on it could make a fun summer cruiser out of it.
I've heard rumors of a Hunter edition of the RRC that does away with all the electric gadgetry. Seems like that would solve a lot of the reliability issues.
Maybe I'm a masochist. Don't know why I'm considering one. Hopefully this too shall pass.
If I were going to spend to much money on an old culty 4×4 it would probably be a Wagoneer. Other than elitist image, I can't see anything that the old Range Rover has or does that's worth the premium.
Find an easy button reliable engine swap for the Rovers and I might be interested.
I think the vehicle you're looking for is called a Land Cruiser.
I don't understand the draw to these. They have a poor reputation which seems warranted and yet people on this site keep talking about having one. I have a Toyota FJ Cruiser that in its 155K miles all I've done is gas/oil/tires. I haven't even done brakes or a clutch yet. There are so many other choices which seem so much better, please enlighten me why anyone would want one.
I've owned land cruisers. New ones are appliances and old ones are insanely slow and top out at 70. Impossible to dd around here. I've driven wagoneers, I think about them but they are unpleasant to drive by all measures. Id love a series rover but too expensive and not a potential dd either. I have a TJ. So far, not impressed. Trying to keep an open mind.
Anyone who sees a RR classic or disco as elitist hasn't used one off road or been around tbose who do. They are excellent off road and capable on road.
The Range Rover was the original luxury off-roader. It's insanely capable off road but also comfortable with a smooth ride and quiet manners on road. It can go modern freeway speeds without trouble. At the same time as jeep was making the wagoneer. Which is not its equal in almost any area. An old land cruiser is also not as nice to drive. Yes an fj80 is great but it still didn't have the road manners down. You pretty much have to get to an fj100 before equaling a 1987 RR except for the whole reliability thing - the fj had that over the rover from day one.
Yes it's high maintenance and troublesome. That's why I don't own one. But I deeply understand the draw. If I was in the market I would buy an lx470. But it's not the same.
I agree the fj is more reliable. If I could, I'd get a 2 dr. manual but good luck finding one. The 100 was the first fj that lost it's off road edge but gained everywhere else.
I will add this to old RR and LRs. They are incredibly easy to work on. Much of them is designed to be rebuilt in the field. I also really like how I can unbolt the entire floor out of my disco to get at the frame and stuff from above.
The one I owned was rough and I couldn't afford parts to properly fix it, but I loved it. They rust badly.
"But aren't they aluminum?" I hear you say. Parts of them are, but it's all of the other parts that hold the aluminum together that rust. I also don't think they're a modern highway vehicle. Utterly fantastic and every speed below 55mph. Probably ok at 60. I don't think I'd try to wind one up to 75 to keep up with traffic.
I'd buy another one if I stumbled across one, but I don't go looking for them. Buying a Range Rover over a Land Cruiser is very much like buying a Triumph instead of a Miata. The Miata does everything better, but that doesn't necessarily make it better.
I'm still scratching the itch.
Difference is, that tge Rover is actually better than the Cruiser in some respects and certainl much nicer to look at.
That depends -- is there a lion sleeping on top of it?
I hope not. I can't afford a pet lion.
mad_machine wrote: I will add this to old RR and LRs. They are incredibly easy to work on. Much of them is designed to be rebuilt in the field.
That's because YOU HAVE TO.
It was unbelievable how much work it took to keep my Defender going as a DD. Cool as hell, without a doubt, best lawn ornament I ever owned.
The ONLY thing in that truck which was reliable was ....
ummmm
Honestly there wasn't. Not even the window knobs and door handles could be counted on. That isn't even a joke. Name me ANY system in the truck and I bet I had trouble with it.
-Hans
I've known cavaliers that have done 300k and toyotas that were nothing but trouble. My research has shown peoples experiences to be all over the place. A real roll of the dice
In reply to markwemple:
Mark, there is no meaningful roll of the dice here. These trucks are loaded dice with every face coming up snake eyes. Even if you only had one die it would somehow come up snake eyes. I have been the only other one defending them somewhat here but they're still the depths of British drunken stupor engineering and manufacturing.
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