Buying RR 4.4 V8 Advice

[ilaishley]

Just a quick intro. Joined PH many years ago when I was buying a Maserati 3200 and found it invaluable in finding the right car, which was from a main dealer and previously belonged to a PH member, so I was very comfortable in my purchase. The time has come for a car change (the maserati is long gone :-( ) and now with big mortgage funds aren't what they were. So the brief is £15k. For this I will be looking for vogue & lpg or £12K and converting myself on an 03 plate and newer. I have already trawled previous posts and will not be buying anything but vogue and v8 as it seems to be against the law to burn oil on these forums. Similarly not having a vogue is virtually high treason. So the advice needed is what best model year for the money I am suggesting (where there any major changes ), and what is the best LPG system. I am ready to buy so as many answers as possible would be great.

Many thanks

Ian

[JW911]

There are quite a few threads around on this subject. Here's my tuppence worth:

1.

Don't worry about buying an HSE rather than a Vogue if everything else is right (mileage, history, etc). Some of the HSEs are equipped pretty much to Vogue standard but are likely to be a few quid cheaper (obviously the same applies at resale) as they don't have the "desirable" badge. That said, there are far more Vogues around than HSEs anyway so your decision has probably been made for you.

2.

Ensure that the front diff recall has been carried out. If not, get your seller to have it done before you pick up the car. Land Rover will do it for free (new redesigned front diff and driveshaft) but there's likely to be a bit of a waiting list. When they go, they go without warning so it will pay to have it done beforehand.

3.

For LPG, spend the extra money and make sure you get a Prins system (google). I did a lot of research before I had my conversion done and it's very much a case of getting what you pay for. Expect to pay £2000+ for a good conversion and do your research regarding good installers in your area. Pistonheaders should be able to help there. It will pay for itself in fuel over 12-15000 miles at current prices and you won't notice a performance difference if it's been done properly. The system will need an annual service which will be £100-£150 and you can get a few quid off your road tax as well.

4.

Pick a car and organise the conversion yourself unless it has a certificate from a reputable installer. All conversions should have a certificate (walk away if not) but check the name of the installer against the list you will have generated in your research to make sure.

5.

The V8 is the only way to go.

I bought my 03 V8 HSE in the spring with 31000 miles and apart from the front diff, which failed two days before it was due in for the recall, it's been faultless over the past 8000 miles. It passed it's MoT a week or so ago. I'm getting 17-18mpg on LPG (30+mpg equivalent, depending on the petrol price) giving a range of 250+ miles, I can give hot-hatches a fright and it's smooth with a capital smoo.

Edited by JW911 on Monday 3rd November 16:39

[ilaishley]

Great advice thanks. I also favour sourcing my own car and having it converted. Ownership will be minimum 2 years and mileage at least 30k total, so LPG will be worthwhile. The diff advice is fantastic. Thats why I love these forums. Iw ould not have known about it otherwise. I am in Southampton so any advice (apart from how to play football properly please) about LPG installs will be most welcome.

Cheers

Ian

[Pvapour]

Water pumps can fail (as we found out) apparently water residue (white powder) around the bearing area of the pump can indic ate this (what I was told)

Ours is a Vogue V8, never had anything like this before (always sports cars) but I can honestly say we would not be without one now, it covers all areas as a work horse / daily, 18 mpg is the norm, muddy or clean it always makes us feel cosseted, cocoons you from the hectic world beautifully, never have I driven so calmly

One of the best & surprising vehicles I have ever bought, do it, just make sure its a goodun!

Good luck!

[RedLeicester]

Would offer you mine, but it's over mildly budget and too young...

Nods to all of the above, will be a shame to see ours go but Wifey is adamant we need a Disco3

2005-2006 ish were the first lot of major revisions -

05 saw the newer interior with touchscreen nav/comms/TV in lieu of the old BMW sourced system, and the addition of things like VentureCam, Bluetooth and so on.

06 saw the new front grille, mildly tweaked bumpers, and the arrival of the Supercharger then latterly the TDV8 along with 6-speed auto boxes and the newer Terrain Response system from the Discovery 3.

We ended up with a 2005 one which had the benefits of the later interior without the price hike of the full facelift. Overall average has been 19.9mpg, very VERY pleased with it and I can only echo what's been said before: as a workhorse, they're practically second to none.

[ilaishley]

How much over is mildly. Email me details might be worth a look

[RedLeicester]

Have bunged you an email chap.

[Triple7]

Don't buy an HSE, just a Vogue and don't do an LPG conversion. False economy IMHO.

G

[RedLeicester]

Triple7 said:

Don't buy an HSE, just a Vogue and don't do an LPG conversion. False economy IMHO.

G

Aye I've sat on the fence with this one for a long while - given that the "respected" conversions are £2500-3k you'd have to be looking at 12k+ per annum for 18 months to pay it off. If you're keeping it that long then great, but it's been enough to make me think twice so far.

[JW911]

Further to my previous:

If you know you're not going to rack up the miles, it's certainly worth doing the maths carefully with respect to LPG conversions and perhaps brings us back to finding one that has already been converted. The price premium is minimal over a standard V8, probably because of folks being cautious about the quality of the job which was done.

... and don't get too hung up about the HSE/Vogue argument if everything else is right. Just pay a few quid less for the HSE.

[ilaishley]

I think the LPG has merits for me as I will be doing min. 15k a year. Add in some potential resale benefit, which I would have thought must be at leat 20% of install costs. So over 2 years totaling 30k miles £450 back on resale, lower VED for 2 years i think it is LPG all the way. Of course I should factor some ancillary costs like insurance incresing because of LPG. What LPG apart from Prins should I consider?

Cash is in the bank just need to find the right Vogue 4.4 V8 I have 6 on the list from 11.5k to 13.5k. Will all cars that havent been front diff converted be done by LR free of charge ?

Cheers again

Ian

Edited by ilaishley on Wednesday 5th November 01:46

[JW911]

ilaishley said:

I think the LPG has merits for me as I will be doing min. 15k a year. Add in some potential resale benefit, which I would have thought must be at leat 20% of install costs. So over 2 years totaling 30k miles £450 back on resale, lower VED for 2 years i think it is LPG all the way. Of course I should factor some ancillary costs like insurance incresing because of LPG. What LPG apart from Prins should I consider?

Cash is in the bank just need to find the right Vogue 4.4 V8 I have 6 on the list from 11.5k to 13.5k. Will all cars that havent been front diff converted be done by LR free of charge ?

Cheers again

Ian

There are other LPG kits around. I spoke to JE Engineering among others and they use different ones. May be worth giving them a shout. Your insurance company shouldn't charge any extra so long as you tell them. My premium stayed the same. The only proviso was that if the car was written off, they would pay out as if it were standard (ie. they wouldn't pay for the mod).

In theory (probably worth ringing your local LR dealer to confirm), all Rangies are covered for the front diff mod. Mine was a two owner car bought from a random trader and they covered that without question.

[PhilCerbera]

JW911 said:

ilaishley said:

I think the LPG has merits for me as I will be doing min. 15k a year. Add in some potential resale benefit, which I would have thought must be at leat 20% of install costs. So over 2 years totaling 30k miles £450 back on resale, lower VED for 2 years i think it is LPG all the way. Of course I should factor some ancillary costs like insurance incresing because of LPG. What LPG apart from Prins should I consider?

Cash is in the bank just need to find the right Vogue 4.4 V8 I have 6 on the list from 11.5k to 13.5k. Will all cars that havent been front diff converted be done by LR free of charge ?

Cheers again

Ian

There are other LPG kits around. I spoke to JE Engineering among others and they use different ones. May be worth giving them a shout. Your insurance company shouldn't charge any extra so long as you tell them. My premium stayed the same. The only proviso was that if the car was written off, they would pay out as if it were standard (ie. they wouldn't pay for the mod).

In theory (probably worth ringing your local LR dealer to confirm), all Rangies are covered for the front diff mod. Mine was a two owner car bought from a random trader and they covered that without question.

Mine is being converted to LPG by JE Engineering this week. I trusted them to select the best conversion kit as they have the experience rather than me. They are fitting a Tartarini kit which I am led to believe is of the latest SGI type.

I informed my insurers this week of the conversion and there was no increase in premium.

[custardkid]

how much for the kit Phil?

[PhilCerbera]

custardkid said:

how much for the kit Phil?

It's more for the 4.2 Supercharged than the 4.4 due to the time taken to remove and replace the Supercharger as part of the fit - its on their web site. I could have had a kit fitted for at least £500 less but I didn't want to risk a major problem later on. Plus JE are local to me and will be undertaking both LPG and normal servicing in future which should help resale value.

[ilaishley]

Have a dilema now. 53 plate 4.4 RR vogue blue with cream 50k miles, or 05 plate Disco 3 SE 2.7 tdv6 Black with cream 50k miles. RR is 13k and disco about 14k. Extended full warranty is not available on 5 yr old cars but select warranty is available for those under 60k miles subject to visual inspection by LR dealer. I believe the warranty wont be valid with an LPG system installed and no Syntner garage will touch any LR with LPG installed even for service work.

So in basic terms newer disco or older RR.

Cheers

Ian

[PhilCerbera]

ilaishley said:

Have a dilema now. 53 plate 4.4 RR vogue blue with cream 50k miles, or 05 plate Disco 3 SE 2.7 tdv6 Black with cream 50k miles. RR is 13k and disco about 14k. Extended full warranty is not available on 5 yr old cars but select warranty is available for those under 60k miles subject to visual inspection by LR dealer. I believe the warranty wont be valid with an LPG system installed and no Syntner garage will touch any LR with LPG installed even for service work.

So in basic terms newer disco or older RR.

Cheers

Ian

Stick a private plate on the RR - you know you want it or you wouldn't be asking!

Seriously, after everthing that has been said about the TDV6 why are you even considering it?

[custardkid]

PhilCerbera said:

ilaishley said:

Have a dilema now. 53 plate 4.4 RR vogue blue with cream 50k miles, or 05 plate Disco 3 SE 2.7 tdv6 Black with cream 50k miles. RR is 13k and disco about 14k. Extended full warranty is not available on 5 yr old cars but select warranty is available for those under 60k miles subject to visual inspection by LR dealer. I believe the warranty wont be valid with an LPG system installed and no Syntner garage will touch any LR with LPG installed even for service work.

So in basic terms newer disco or older RR.

Cheers

Ian

Stick a private plate on the RR - you know you want it or you wouldn't be asking!

Seriously, after everthing that has been said about the TDV6 why are you even considering it?

i'm in the same situation, the Disco is the sensible choice and haveing driven both i think its actually a better car.......

BUT
I get a massive grin on my face when in a RR that i dont get in the Disco, the RR makes you feel special, the disco just makes you feel like you've got 10 kids!
(@26 i have none)

Custard

[ilaishley]

My choice would be based on which is the best 2 year vehicle. The age of the car is not relevant to me. Which car after 2 years would have leave me happy with my choice. I think for swanning about and feeling great the RR is a no brainer, but I remember in my Maserati days always having that "is it going to get me to work today" feeling every morning. The Maserati was actually very reliable and the best grin per pound car I have owned, bearing in mind I paid 36k for it and sold some 14 months later for £26K that was a lot of pounds!

So both cars tick the boxes but just different boxes. I have a boat, I play guitar for bands and have a fair amount of gear to move about during the week, go skiing a few times a year, of which at least one trip is by road, so you can see that the car suits my situation well. This year I have covered 20k miles so that is a big factor.

Someone stop me buying a nice X5 3.0d sport !!

Edited by ilaishley on Friday 7th November 09:23

[PhilCerbera]

ilaishley said:

This year I have covered 20k miles so that is a big factor.

Someone stop me buying a nice X5 3.0d sport !!

Edited by ilaishley on Friday 7th November 09:23

Remember that there is no LPG option for diesel and you'll only be getting low 20's mpg. A friend of mine has a RRS TDV8 and is getting an average of 22mpg. A 4.4 V8 LPG should give you the equivalent of 35mpg. That's a big saving once you have recouped the LPG fitting cost. Depends on how long you are going to own the motor.

As for buying a BMW........