RE: SOTW: Range Rover LSE

RE: SOTW: Range Rover LSE

Author
Discussion

Hellbound

2,500 posts

175 months

Wednesday 3rd October 2012
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GranCab said:
Here's the BEST reason ever not to be seen in an old RR ....

http://uk.autoblog.com/2012/01/16/jimmy-savilles-r...

It's the Kiddy-Fiddler's vehicle of choice ...
That reminds me of the Jimmy Saville memorabilia auction they had not so long ago. All the news channels and breakfast shows were making a big deal of it, fawning over old tracksuits, his car (Bentley?) and that chair of his. One of the presenters actually bought an item of clothing.

Wonder what they're all thinking now! Hahahaha!

I guess you could always get some of Gary Glitters old stuff and add to the collection. laugh

hondansx

4,562 posts

224 months

Wednesday 3rd October 2012
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Would rather have the normal wheelbase SE. The one to look out for is with the facelift interior but before the troublesome air suspension.

My dad had one in Ardennes Green and it was fantastic. He forked out on an Overfinch 4.6 conversion but sadly it was plagued by electronic issues; it cut out one too many times on the motorway.

Despite being aluminium, they have their own variant of rust which means they need a complete going over every few years too. Nevertheless, lovely old things.

Wolands Advocate

2,493 posts

215 months

Wednesday 3rd October 2012
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300bhp/ton said:
Wolands Advocate said:
My father got a manual 3.9 Vogue SE in circa 1991/2 as a company car. I was too young to drive it at the time, but I do remember him opining that the gearchange was agricultural and made the whole experience rather too much like driving a truck. He chopped it in for an automatic LSE as soon as he could.
But it is a truck?? confused
Except it was marketed as a luxury car and therefore I'm fairly sure prospective buyers didn't see it as a truck at the time. Certainly, I reckon my father, coming as he does from the country set that the original Rangie was designed to appeal to, (a) simply had always fancied a Rangie and (b) justified it as a family-friendly luxury alternative to the large executive saloon/estate he was otherwise entitled to and that also happened to be pretty handy in snowy conditions (relevant where he lives).

On point (b), he was absolutely right - as kids, we loved the Rangies - big windows, good view, lots of room, cool image and just more fun than some boring saloon or estate car, particularly when eg bumping up some unmetalled road deep in the countryside. Great cars for family holidays. No doubt that's why SUVs still sell well.

No, the mistake he made was simply to buy the manual. Great once the car is 20 years old and being bought as a bargain mud-plugger. Not so great in a new luxury car, where a slusher was just more appropriate.

300bhp/ton

41,030 posts

189 months

Wednesday 3rd October 2012
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Wolands Advocate said:
Except it was marketed as a luxury car and therefore I'm fairly sure prospective buyers didn't see it as a truck at the time.
No it was always marketed as a Land Rover, which it is. Also the RR enter production in 1970 and didn't really change much over the years.

Wolands Advocate said:
No, the mistake he made was simply to buy the manual. Great once the car is 20 years old and being bought as a bargain mud-plugger. Not so great in a new luxury car, where a slusher was just more appropriate.
Disagree the auto just makes them feel slow (and drink more). The manual works fine.

Edited by 300bhp/ton on Thursday 4th October 08:21

DonkeyApple

54,932 posts

168 months

Wednesday 3rd October 2012
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300bhp/ton said:
isagree the auto just makes them feel slow (and drink more). The manual works fine.
By the mid 80s though they were strongly marketed as luxury on road transport with world beating offroad capability.

The introduction of the Vogue with an interior that couldn't be hosed out etc made this very clear. As such it had to be an auto for marketing purposes.

But then I thought the manual option had been dropped by that time?

K50 DEL

9,227 posts

227 months

Thursday 4th October 2012
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DonkeyApple said:
By the mid 80s though they were strongly marketed as luxury on road transport with world beating offroad capability.

The introduction of the Vogue with an interior that couldn't be hosed out etc made this very clear. As such it had to be an auto for marketing purposes.

But then I thought the manual option had been dropped by that time?
You could get a manual box in the P38, I don't think they ever officially dropped the option for the classic, though if the manual 3.5 I drove a few times was anything to go by you'd have to be mad to have one over the auto... the manual was a terrible box.

I suspect though that the LSE models were auto only.

Dusty964

6,919 posts

189 months

Thursday 4th October 2012
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K50 DEL said:
DonkeyApple said:
By the mid 80s though they were strongly marketed as luxury on road transport with world beating offroad capability.

The introduction of the Vogue with an interior that couldn't be hosed out etc made this very clear. As such it had to be an auto for marketing purposes.

But then I thought the manual option had been dropped by that time?
You could get a manual box in the P38, I don't think they ever officially dropped the option for the classic, though if the manual 3.5 I drove a few times was anything to go by you'd have to be mad to have one over the auto... the manual was a terrible box.

I suspect though that the LSE models were auto only.
Never knew you were such a fan Del?


K50 DEL

9,227 posts

227 months

Thursday 4th October 2012
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Dusty964 said:
K50 DEL said:
DonkeyApple said:
By the mid 80s though they were strongly marketed as luxury on road transport with world beating offroad capability.

The introduction of the Vogue with an interior that couldn't be hosed out etc made this very clear. As such it had to be an auto for marketing purposes.

But then I thought the manual option had been dropped by that time?
You could get a manual box in the P38, I don't think they ever officially dropped the option for the classic, though if the manual 3.5 I drove a few times was anything to go by you'd have to be mad to have one over the auto... the manual was a terrible box.

I suspect though that the LSE models were auto only.
Never knew you were such a fan Del?
Loved them ever since I drove my first one aged 18..... (it was my then bosses car and I used to look for any excuse to drive it)
I ended up buying that actual car from him 6 years later (it's the classic in my profile) which I ran for a while before selling at a profit.

I was Rangie less for a bit but had various friends with P38s which I enjoyed so I bought one of those (a 4.6 HSE) which was a bit of a dog but I spent a while restoring it before selling it when I moved abroad to a guy who then promptly broke it!

Living in fairly rural Wiltshire there are dozens of RR about, so I've driven a lot, worked on a fair few and would have one out here if there was more choice and they were a little more reliable - I can't help feeling that the heat here would cause issues.

The Grand Cherokees that I have now are great vehicles but they just don't have the cachet of a nice RR.
If I was to buy another then something like the Classic 570 Overfinch mentioned earlier would be close to top of the list (though I'm not paying 45k lol)

Dusty964

6,919 posts

189 months

Thursday 4th October 2012
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Top of the list for me is an Overfinch Classic, or take advantage of the prices here, get standard classic and drop a crated engine in.

anonymous-user

53 months

Thursday 4th October 2012
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hondansx said:
Would rather have the normal wheelbase SE. The one to look out for is with the facelift interior but before the troublesome air suspension.

My dad had one in Ardennes Green and it was fantastic. He forked out on an Overfinch 4.6 conversion but sadly it was plagued by electronic issues; it cut out one too many times on the motorway.

Despite being aluminium, they have their own variant of rust which means they need a complete going over every few years too. Nevertheless, lovely old things.
I had an 89 Vogue and it was a great car. Got a P38 now and although it drives better there is always something that needs doing to it.

Trommel

18,988 posts

258 months

Thursday 4th October 2012
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K50 DEL said:
You could get a manual box in the P38, I don't think they ever officially dropped the option for the classic
They were available as manuals until the end. My father's first P38 was a manual - that felt like an Elise after the last Classic.

Wolands Advocate

2,493 posts

215 months

Thursday 4th October 2012
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Trommel said:
K50 DEL said:
You could get a manual box in the P38, I don't think they ever officially dropped the option for the classic
They were available as manuals until the end. My father's first P38 was a manual - that felt like an Elise after the last Classic.
Plus my father lives in Italy where the market historically strongly favoured manual gearboxes.

300bhp/ton

41,030 posts

189 months

Thursday 4th October 2012
quotequote all
Trommel said:
K50 DEL said:
You could get a manual box in the P38, I don't think they ever officially dropped the option for the classic
They were available as manuals until the end. My father's first P38 was a manual - that felt like an Elise after the last Classic.
IIRC only the 4.0 was available as a manual though as the 4.6 technically goes beyond the R380's rated specs.

That said I know the US market got the 4.6 in the D2 (while we didn't), but I don't know if it was offered as a manual or not. I'd guess not, but might be wrong.

Trommel

18,988 posts

258 months

Thursday 4th October 2012
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300bhp/ton said:
IIRC only the 4.0 was available as a manual though as the 4.6 technically goes beyond the R380's rated specs
Was referring to the Classic.

300bhp/ton

41,030 posts

189 months

Thursday 4th October 2012
quotequote all
Trommel said:
300bhp/ton said:
IIRC only the 4.0 was available as a manual though as the 4.6 technically goes beyond the R380's rated specs
Was referring to the Classic.
ok, but you did say:

Trommel said:
My father's first P38 was a manual

pateve666

1 posts

170 months

Tuesday 16th October 2012
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Hi,i am the new owner of the black LSE RAR.For a Grand i was expecting a pile of dump but what i have ended up with is a car that has been waxoiled from new,every receipt of work that has been done since new.Paint work is needed only because of a few dings and scabs.I would happily have paid twice the price so proves you can never judge a car by its price tag.I am one happy chappy.

CraigVmax

12,248 posts

281 months

Tuesday 16th October 2012
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Awesome, enjoy it, keep us posted!

E-B

394 posts

177 months

Tuesday 16th October 2012
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Nice to hear about a happy Classic owner. Enjoy my friend!

Mike_C

984 posts

221 months

Tuesday 16th October 2012
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That LSE looks a bargain, well done!

I've had two RRC's now, the first was a '91 3.9 V8 Vogue SE:


...and my second was a '94 3.9 V8 Vogue SE soft dash on LPG:


Both were superb winter vehicles and looked more in keeping at a shoot or just nipping to the local farm store than any newer model, yet never looked out of place bowling round London either!

My ideal would be an Overfinch one, we're it not for the running costs...