Pre-Lp Gallardo Advice
Discussion
All,
Hoping for some constructive advice on the pre-LP Gallardo's. I am hoping to get into a Gallardo at some point and if I decide to pull the trigger my budget will be at £70k (ideally a couple of k below!). Now having monitored the Gallardo market for a couple of months it looks like I can either get a 04 plate manual with sensible miles or a 05-07 e-gear (but most seem to be the spyder model rather than coupe at my price point (I do prefer a coupe)).
I would be interested in peoples opinions on this? I have done a bit of research but would be good to hear peoples views on the following things: -
Reliability 04 vs 05-07
Gearbox experience - I understand the early gear ratio's in the 04 are very long and some say ruin the experience and make slow speed driving irritating
Real World Driving experience (will strictly be a weekend car but will have a fair bit of in town driving to do I expect)
Maintenance considerations e.g. any updates during these years
View on residuals and desirability in coming years (seems that neither of these cars are selling at the moment so perhaps are priced above what people are willing to pay now, e.g. I know 04 plate manuals have been hovering around the £60k for about 5 years+ now so maybe are due to drop soon?)
Also having owned the Audi R8 I have been advised that I would be disappointed with a pre-lp and would only get similar refinement and reliability in the LP. However from looking out there my budget won't quite stretch that far so I am wondering whether pre-lp in real world experience will be hit the right spot.
Hoping for some constructive advice on the pre-LP Gallardo's. I am hoping to get into a Gallardo at some point and if I decide to pull the trigger my budget will be at £70k (ideally a couple of k below!). Now having monitored the Gallardo market for a couple of months it looks like I can either get a 04 plate manual with sensible miles or a 05-07 e-gear (but most seem to be the spyder model rather than coupe at my price point (I do prefer a coupe)).
I would be interested in peoples opinions on this? I have done a bit of research but would be good to hear peoples views on the following things: -
Reliability 04 vs 05-07
Gearbox experience - I understand the early gear ratio's in the 04 are very long and some say ruin the experience and make slow speed driving irritating
Real World Driving experience (will strictly be a weekend car but will have a fair bit of in town driving to do I expect)
Maintenance considerations e.g. any updates during these years
View on residuals and desirability in coming years (seems that neither of these cars are selling at the moment so perhaps are priced above what people are willing to pay now, e.g. I know 04 plate manuals have been hovering around the £60k for about 5 years+ now so maybe are due to drop soon?)
Also having owned the Audi R8 I have been advised that I would be disappointed with a pre-lp and would only get similar refinement and reliability in the LP. However from looking out there my budget won't quite stretch that far so I am wondering whether pre-lp in real world experience will be hit the right spot.
70proof said:
That looks a comprehensive read and I will definitely read through it. I guess there are certain things like view in today's market that I would still be interested in. From that thread it seems 04 plate Gallardo's were £69k back in 2011 and still the same price now 
despite being another 7 years older!Hi
Not in any kind of position to comment on reliability or to compare pre-LP with LP but I can tell you about my experience buying an early manual for about your budget recently. I saw most of the early manuals on Pistonheads and Autotrader and ended up buying an unadvertised car privately.
I am very pleased with the way it works and the way it feels compared with my recent fast stuff (620bhp R33, Tuscan and modified RX7). The gear ratios work for me although I have not pushed it yet and it seems more refined than expected, even with a Tubi. It's rather more usable than I expected although the visibility seems tricky - I'm trying to avoid kerbing the lovely new Callistos and Pirellis.
My priorities were a recent clutch/release bearing and service history. It seems that many very good cars have a little bit of paint bubbling due to aluminium corrosion somewhere and interior condition seems to vary a lot. I ignored the lifting crackle black on the cam covers but ended up with a car with good covers.
I think that plainly early manuals were cheaper five years ago but like most I bought because I wanted one, not because I hope to avoid depreciation. I expect that owning and driving a Lambo will be expensive if done properly. PM me if you want more details
Not in any kind of position to comment on reliability or to compare pre-LP with LP but I can tell you about my experience buying an early manual for about your budget recently. I saw most of the early manuals on Pistonheads and Autotrader and ended up buying an unadvertised car privately.
I am very pleased with the way it works and the way it feels compared with my recent fast stuff (620bhp R33, Tuscan and modified RX7). The gear ratios work for me although I have not pushed it yet and it seems more refined than expected, even with a Tubi. It's rather more usable than I expected although the visibility seems tricky - I'm trying to avoid kerbing the lovely new Callistos and Pirellis.
My priorities were a recent clutch/release bearing and service history. It seems that many very good cars have a little bit of paint bubbling due to aluminium corrosion somewhere and interior condition seems to vary a lot. I ignored the lifting crackle black on the cam covers but ended up with a car with good covers.
I think that plainly early manuals were cheaper five years ago but like most I bought because I wanted one, not because I hope to avoid depreciation. I expect that owning and driving a Lambo will be expensive if done properly. PM me if you want more details
eye121 said:
Hi
Not in any kind of position to comment on reliability or to compare pre-LP with LP but I can tell you about my experience buying an early manual for about your budget recently. I saw most of the early manuals on Pistonheads and Autotrader and ended up buying an unadvertised car privately.
I am very pleased with the way it works and the way it feels compared with my recent fast stuff (620bhp R33, Tuscan and modified RX7). The gear ratios work for me although I have not pushed it yet and it seems more refined than expected, even with a Tubi. It's rather more usable than I expected although the visibility seems tricky - I'm trying to avoid kerbing the lovely new Callistos and Pirellis.
My priorities were a recent clutch/release bearing and service history. It seems that many very good cars have a little bit of paint bubbling due to aluminium corrosion somewhere and interior condition seems to vary a lot. I ignored the lifting crackle black on the cam covers but ended up with a car with good covers.
I think that plainly early manuals were cheaper five years ago but like most I bought because I wanted one, not because I hope to avoid depreciation. I expect that owning and driving a Lambo will be expensive if done properly. PM me if you want more details
Thanks for the info, very useful. Not in any kind of position to comment on reliability or to compare pre-LP with LP but I can tell you about my experience buying an early manual for about your budget recently. I saw most of the early manuals on Pistonheads and Autotrader and ended up buying an unadvertised car privately.
I am very pleased with the way it works and the way it feels compared with my recent fast stuff (620bhp R33, Tuscan and modified RX7). The gear ratios work for me although I have not pushed it yet and it seems more refined than expected, even with a Tubi. It's rather more usable than I expected although the visibility seems tricky - I'm trying to avoid kerbing the lovely new Callistos and Pirellis.
My priorities were a recent clutch/release bearing and service history. It seems that many very good cars have a little bit of paint bubbling due to aluminium corrosion somewhere and interior condition seems to vary a lot. I ignored the lifting crackle black on the cam covers but ended up with a car with good covers.
I think that plainly early manuals were cheaper five years ago but like most I bought because I wanted one, not because I hope to avoid depreciation. I expect that owning and driving a Lambo will be expensive if done properly. PM me if you want more details
Whatever Gallardo I go for, it needs to be a coupe and finding post 06 pre-LP's is not easy as many for sale are the spyders. Nothing wrong with the Spyders but I am not one to put the hood down so would be wasted on me.
I think recent clutch work and a strong service history is a must for me. There are a couple that have popped up that have this but are the very early models like you have. Can you comment on how the car is to drive in local traffic? I am in a big city so whether I like it or not I will probably have to spend 70% of my journeys navigating local roads through regular stop start traffic. The R8 is amazingly comfortable at this and like I mentioned earlier I have been advised that a pre-LP will struggle in such environments. Also do the long gearing ratio's make it harder during stop start slow speed driving or does it come into play when you do are looking to accelerate hard from a standing start?
ted 191 said:
Try go post 2006, lots of little improvements that make it a better car.
Yes from looking at whats out there I think a post 06 coupe is the one to go for, but it seems the price gap then to an LP is very small so makes for an interesting choice. Although both at the moment are a stretch over my £70k budget.Hi
Perhaps a little early to say. i have a very late clutch and release bearing and it is very smooth and light in traffic - much less effort than in other recent cars I've had. The diffs and gearbox have updated oils that Pau 1 posted about and overall I was amazed at how quiet and easy it was to drive between lights and over high speed bumps as long as I did not leave the dash display on mpg.
The turning circle is ok - think Alfa rather than TVR - but not super modern. The gear ratios aren't a concern to me not having driven a late manual and from my limited commuting experience traffic light grand prix starts will just demand some revs. Although I'm surprised that it is easy and modern to drive a few things still tell you that you're driving a supercar: the visibility; the offset pedals; the sound and the reactions of other road users
Perhaps a little early to say. i have a very late clutch and release bearing and it is very smooth and light in traffic - much less effort than in other recent cars I've had. The diffs and gearbox have updated oils that Pau 1 posted about and overall I was amazed at how quiet and easy it was to drive between lights and over high speed bumps as long as I did not leave the dash display on mpg.
The turning circle is ok - think Alfa rather than TVR - but not super modern. The gear ratios aren't a concern to me not having driven a late manual and from my limited commuting experience traffic light grand prix starts will just demand some revs. Although I'm surprised that it is easy and modern to drive a few things still tell you that you're driving a supercar: the visibility; the offset pedals; the sound and the reactions of other road users
eye121 said:
Hi
Perhaps a little early to say. i have a very late clutch and release bearing and it is very smooth and light in traffic - much less effort than in other recent cars I've had. The diffs and gearbox have updated oils that Pau 1 posted about and overall I was amazed at how quiet and easy it was to drive between lights and over high speed bumps as long as I did not leave the dash display on mpg.
The turning circle is ok - think Alfa rather than TVR - but not super modern. The gear ratios aren't a concern to me not having driven a late manual and from my limited commuting experience traffic light grand prix starts will just demand some revs. Although I'm surprised that it is easy and modern to drive a few things still tell you that you're driving a supercar: the visibility; the offset pedals; the sound and the reactions of other road users
That's interesting and good to know. I was under the impression that the early Gallardo's were difficult to drive around in traffic and the clutch improvements were only to do with making them more durable(last longer) rather than changing the characteristics of driving. I think I need to test drive one before writing it off as an optionPerhaps a little early to say. i have a very late clutch and release bearing and it is very smooth and light in traffic - much less effort than in other recent cars I've had. The diffs and gearbox have updated oils that Pau 1 posted about and overall I was amazed at how quiet and easy it was to drive between lights and over high speed bumps as long as I did not leave the dash display on mpg.
The turning circle is ok - think Alfa rather than TVR - but not super modern. The gear ratios aren't a concern to me not having driven a late manual and from my limited commuting experience traffic light grand prix starts will just demand some revs. Although I'm surprised that it is easy and modern to drive a few things still tell you that you're driving a supercar: the visibility; the offset pedals; the sound and the reactions of other road users
Vergis said:
LP gallardo all day long. Especially coming from an r8. City driving is so much easier and u have lifting gear for front bumper for speed hump. Crawling traffic is easier to drive in when u encounter it.
Thank's, I am hearing more and more that the LP is a big step up from the pre-LP and it is more a sum of all the small changes rather than wholesale differences, but they add up to a very different driving experience more in line with modern cars.Gassing Station | Gallardo/Huracan | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff