Faithful Range Rover declared dead... what to replace it?
Discussion
My old chap has a faithful Labrador of a Range Rover Classic - had it for years and years and its always been a staple part of his fleet.... Sadly the old girl now needs putting down 
its been declared beyond economic repair by the trusted specialist that has tended it for the last couple of decades.
The question is what does one replace it with?
His old Classic was a Vogue SE, so it had leather and all the toys. It was also used properly, regularly engaging low ratio and diff lock, getting dirty in the course of work, towing 2 tons+, loaded to the gunwales with kit, as well as being used as a comfortable long distance cruiser and 'family car'....
Nowadays he isn't doing loads of heavy towing and carting about, but the ability to tow a light (1ton-ish) trailer occasionally and exercise some competent off-road ability remain.
Primarily he now wants a 4x4 that is comfortable, easy to get in and out of, isn't too big and has all the toys.... what can you suggest? Budget upto £7k.
I fear a P38 is going to land on his drive unless we can come up with a tempting alternative....
its been declared beyond economic repair by the trusted specialist that has tended it for the last couple of decades.The question is what does one replace it with?
His old Classic was a Vogue SE, so it had leather and all the toys. It was also used properly, regularly engaging low ratio and diff lock, getting dirty in the course of work, towing 2 tons+, loaded to the gunwales with kit, as well as being used as a comfortable long distance cruiser and 'family car'....
Nowadays he isn't doing loads of heavy towing and carting about, but the ability to tow a light (1ton-ish) trailer occasionally and exercise some competent off-road ability remain.
Primarily he now wants a 4x4 that is comfortable, easy to get in and out of, isn't too big and has all the toys.... what can you suggest? Budget upto £7k.
I fear a P38 is going to land on his drive unless we can come up with a tempting alternative....
A Jeep Grand Cherokee 3.0CRD would seem to fit those requirements best. They are really decent bits of kit, get one with the Quadra-Drive 2 system and they are extremely good off road as well as being very quiet and comfy and surprisingly quick.
P38s are famous for being unreliable nightmares so I would think carefully before buying one.
P38s are famous for being unreliable nightmares so I would think carefully before buying one.
kooky guy said:
I keep reading on here that Jeeps are amazing off road. The last time I was out offroading, the Jeep got stuck twice. No-one else did. And these were just green lanes.
Way too many factors to judge the whole brand on.The first two that spring to mind are the tyres and the driver.
A boxter on decent off road tyres will do better than unimog on smooth road tyres.
larrylamb11 said:
Grand Cherokee is an interesting thought... hadn't considered those. Have Disco 2's got all the toys on? It would be familiar at least....
His Classic is definitely dead - yes anything can be repaired, but this would be a full body-off restoration job and it simply isn't worth it.
Definitely, the one to buy if he can stretch to it would be the ES Premium, which has a standard centre locking diff as well as ETC to help with off roading. His Classic is definitely dead - yes anything can be repaired, but this would be a full body-off restoration job and it simply isn't worth it.
The ES and ES Premium models are well loaded, from memory you get heated electric leather seats, heated front windscreen, twin electric sunroofs, cruise, Harman Kardon Hi-Fi, dual zone climate, and loads more besides. ES Premium also gave Sat Nav as standard, but they're not that good.
Even a mid-spec GS (as I had) has a fair amount of stuff as standard (cruise, 6cd changer, dual zone climate, sunroofs etc.), but it depends on your requirements. Shame you have to let the RRC go, I would have had it had I not just bought one for resto a couple of weeks ago
larrylamb11 said:
My old chap has a faithful Labrador of a Range Rover Classic - had it for years and years and its always been a staple part of his fleet.... Sadly the old girl now needs putting down its been declared beyond economic repair by the trusted specialist that has tended it for the last couple of decades.
The question is what does one replace it with?
His old Classic was a Vogue SE, so it had leather and all the toys. It was also used properly, regularly engaging low ratio and diff lock, getting dirty in the course of work, towing 2 tons+, loaded to the gunwales with kit, as well as being used as a comfortable long distance cruiser and 'family car'....
Nowadays he isn't doing loads of heavy towing and carting about, but the ability to tow a light (1ton-ish) trailer occasionally and exercise some competent off-road ability remain.
Primarily he now wants a 4x4 that is comfortable, easy to get in and out of, isn't too big and has all the toys.... what can you suggest? Budget upto £7k.
I fear a P38 is going to land on his drive unless we can come up with a tempting alternative....
Spend the £7k budget on the Range Rover Classic. its been declared beyond economic repair by the trusted specialist that has tended it for the last couple of decades.The question is what does one replace it with?
His old Classic was a Vogue SE, so it had leather and all the toys. It was also used properly, regularly engaging low ratio and diff lock, getting dirty in the course of work, towing 2 tons+, loaded to the gunwales with kit, as well as being used as a comfortable long distance cruiser and 'family car'....
Nowadays he isn't doing loads of heavy towing and carting about, but the ability to tow a light (1ton-ish) trailer occasionally and exercise some competent off-road ability remain.
Primarily he now wants a 4x4 that is comfortable, easy to get in and out of, isn't too big and has all the toys.... what can you suggest? Budget upto £7k.
I fear a P38 is going to land on his drive unless we can come up with a tempting alternative....
I wish I'd never sold either of mine. They're getting rarer, and the value of them is going up accordingly. I'd have another in a flash.
Most panels and parts are available easily. Is the independent taking it off his hands for a small sum perchance?
You're JUST into L322 territory with your budget and this one is rather nice with a lot of expensive work already done...
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2014...
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2014...
Useful thoughts, thank you. A Disco 2 ES Premium would certainly seem to fit the bill - I will float that past him along with the 3.0 Jeep Grand Cherokee.
I wish (as I am sure does he) we could spend the budget on the existing RRC, its a faithful friend to him.... but it really is dead... there is no steely-eyed specialist looking to rob the thing off him to fix and flip for a healthy profit... it has simply and spectacularly given up the fight.... the budget wouldn't get anywhere near getting it back on the road, this much has been established, hence exploring alternatives.
I had toyed with an L322, but its just too big.... the old Classic is remarkably compact by todays 4x4 standards and an L322 at this budget would keep me awake at night with fretting over reliability and looming bills.
Thinking smaller - what is the opinion of LR Freelander? or any similar brethren? Anything in that arena spec'd well and competent?
I wish (as I am sure does he) we could spend the budget on the existing RRC, its a faithful friend to him.... but it really is dead... there is no steely-eyed specialist looking to rob the thing off him to fix and flip for a healthy profit... it has simply and spectacularly given up the fight.... the budget wouldn't get anywhere near getting it back on the road, this much has been established, hence exploring alternatives.
I had toyed with an L322, but its just too big.... the old Classic is remarkably compact by todays 4x4 standards and an L322 at this budget would keep me awake at night with fretting over reliability and looming bills.
Thinking smaller - what is the opinion of LR Freelander? or any similar brethren? Anything in that arena spec'd well and competent?
Freelander 2 probably has enough toys to be happy with. I bought mine for some comfort after a succession of Defenders. Very similar in size to a classic RR, although probably a bit smaller inside. I've got an auto, and its a nice place to be - full leather, air con, cruise etc. Better off road than you may think as well. Possibly a struggle for the budget though.
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