High Mileage Range Rover Sport L322?

[Max1111]

Edit - I mean the L320!


I've currently got a 987.2 Boxster. It's a great car but not particularly practical or comfortable for the gf and dog (it does look cool with the roof down in summer though). I always thought this model was a bit of a bargain. This time I need bigger car with a lot of road presence and ideally reasonable depreciation.

I live in London so won't be doing more than 5000 miles/annum. Budget is £15k with a bit of movement.


Is it completely insane to consider a high mileage 5.0 HSE? Looks cool, fast, nice interior but what about that reliability ?


Something like this -

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202111099...

or

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202109167...

or

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202107124...

Edited by Max1111 on Sunday 2nd January 16:56

Edited by Max1111 on Sunday 2nd January 17:01

[fflump]

There's only one car above but the person seems to be doing 20k per year in it for the last few years so I guess its reasonably reliable! As with any oldish expensive car provenance and service history (with receipts to back it up) trump mileage.

[dmsims]

Max1111 said:

with a lot of road presence

What does this mean ?

[Gregmitchell]

dmsims said:

Max1111 said:

with a lot of road presence

What does this mean ?

How do you not know what this means? Or are you just being "funny"

[dmsims]

Gregmitchell said:

dmsims said:

Max1111 said:

with a lot of road presence

What does this mean ?

How do you not know what this means? Or are you just being "funny"

The question has been asked before

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[ZX10R NIN]

If you want a V8 SUV then there are some options that'll be a bit more reliable than the RRS but being SUV's that run on air ride suspension there's always room for borkage on this front.

Saying that though everything will be about the condition documented service history spec mileage etc & that's what you'll have to judge the cars on

Now if you want presence & a modicum of reliability then the Grand Cherokee SRT makes a lot of sense:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202112310...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202111029...

5.5 ML 500 SE 385

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202111259...

ML63

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202008152...

X6 50i 410 a remap will see you close to 500bhp

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202111259...

Cayenne GTS 405

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202111179...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202109237...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202112160...
5.0 Infiniti FX 385 not as fast as the RRS but far more reliable:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/185238560806?hash=item2...

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202111099...

[exelero]

Can someone define to me what high mileage actually means? Only one car in the op’s post has above 110k.
Is 50k high mileage or 80k is high mileage but 75 is ok?

[Max1111]

ZX10R NIN said:

If you want a V8 SUV then there are some options that'll be a bit more reliable than the RRS but being SUV's that run on air ride suspension there's always room for borkage on this front.

Saying that though everything will be about the condition documented service history spec mileage etc & that's what you'll have to judge the cars on

Now if you want presence & a modicum of reliability then the Grand Cherokee SRT makes a lot of sense:

Some lovely motors there!

I really. like the look of the SRT and the X6 in particular.

[martin mrt]

I’ll give you some advice, don’t bother. They are utterly ste. Unreliable pieces of junk. My L320 was a 1 owner car and it lasted 6 weeks with me, 4 of which was at the LR specialist being fixed. Never again.

I’d rather sink my money elsewhere in an alternative SUV, I’ve had X5s they have been ok and my current Touareg beats them all hands down

[Geekman]

They can be great cars - I had one for a couple of years which was very reliable and recently got another which hasn’t given me any problems so far. A few things to bear in mind:

The 5.0 N/As and S/Cs made in 2012 and before suffer from hugely expensive timing chain issues. There’s a particular VIN range which you can check online. The 4.2 S/C from the 2005-2009 models is really reliable but you get the pre-facelift interior which is nowhere near as nice.

I’d steer clear of the diesels, particularly the 2.7.

The air suspension is really nothing to be scared of - the compressors and struts are way cheaper than they used to be and very easy to change. Some vehicles do have Active Cornering Enhancement specced which can be very expensive to sort depending on which part goes wrong but failures aren’t that common and some shops can completely remove the system.

[fttm]

Slightly biased but SRT8 or even Overland everyday of the week , superb machines .

[Walter Sobchak]

Personally I’d go for a Cayenne Turbo.

[fflump]

martin mrt said:

I’ll give you some advice, don’t bother. They are utterly ste. Unreliable pieces of junk. My L320 was a 1 owner car and it lasted 6 weeks with me, 4 of which was at the LR specialist being fixed. Never again.

I’d rather sink my money elsewhere in an alternative SUV, I’ve had X5s they have been ok and my current Touareg beats them all hands down

In general they may be but in a sample size of one you're more likely than not to get a car that is fine than a dog. From the MoT history the current owner has been doing very large mileages over a number of years recently, which to me suggests good car that he (for it will be a he) would have got rid of long ago if it was a lemon. If it has the appropriate service history and survives a PPI then why not?

[Max1111]

martin mrt said:

I’ll give you some advice, don’t bother. They are utterly ste. Unreliable pieces of junk. My L320 was a 1 owner car and it lasted 6 weeks with me, 4 of which was at the LR specialist being fixed. Never again.

I’d rather sink my money elsewhere in an alternative SUV, I’ve had X5s they have been ok and my current Touareg beats them all hands down

That doesn't sound great!

Out of interest, what went wrong and how much did it end up costing you?

[Max1111]

Geekman said:

They can be great cars - I had one for a couple of years which was very reliable and recently got another which hasn’t given me any problems so far. A few things to bear in mind:

The 5.0 N/As and S/Cs made in 2012 and before suffer from hugely expensive timing chain issues. There’s a particular VIN range which you can check online. The 4.2 S/C from the 2005-2009 models is really reliable but you get the pre-facelift interior which is nowhere near as nice..

It sounds like the timing chain issue is a bit like IMS problems in 996 era Porsches and should be factored into the purchase price?

One of the first cars has a 50k mile gap in the service history then a bunch of non specialist services at MOT services. Not ideal.

Is there post maintenance that can bring something like this up to date or are these kind of cars best avoided?

[Geekman]

Max1111 said:

Geekman said:

They can be great cars - I had one for a couple of years which was very reliable and recently got another which hasn’t given me any problems so far. A few things to bear in mind:

The 5.0 N/As and S/Cs made in 2012 and before suffer from hugely expensive timing chain issues. There’s a particular VIN range which you can check online. The 4.2 S/C from the 2005-2009 models is really reliable but you get the pre-facelift interior which is nowhere near as nice..

It sounds like the timing chain issue is a bit like IMS problems in 996 era Porsches and should be factored into the purchase price?

One of the first cars has a 50k mile gap in the service history then a bunch of non specialist services at MOT services. Not ideal.

Is there post maintenance that can bring something like this up to date or are these kind of cars best avoided?

IMO, it's expensive enough to sort that it's better to just avoid buying any car that is in the affected VIN range. Even if you factor the (huge) cost of repair into the purchase price, you're gambling that the garage you hire to do it actually does a decent job. Samcrac on Youtube did a series about the same engine in an L322 which is worth watching if you want to see everything that can go wrong - this is one of the videos as an example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDrZpydu2ZI&t=...

Equally, you can go the other way and find a cheap 5.0 and gamble that if it does fail, you can probably sell it for spares and not lose a huge amount compared to your purchase price as it was cheap in the first place. They don't all fail, so you might get lucky.

Personally, I'd either get a 2013 model, or a much cheaper prefacelift with the 4.2. I've had that engine in 3 Jags and 2 Range Rovers and it's extremely solid.

[ZX10R NIN]

Max1111 said:

Some lovely motors there!

I really. like the look of the SRT and the X6 in particular.

The SRT is a good choice the only bad point is the limited amount for sale & it's the same with the X6 with it's detuned M5 engine.

But they're worth seeking out.

[martin mrt]

Max1111 said:

martin mrt said:

I’ll give you some advice, don’t bother. They are utterly ste. Unreliable pieces of junk. My L320 was a 1 owner car and it lasted 6 weeks with me, 4 of which was at the LR specialist being fixed. Never again.

I’d rather sink my money elsewhere in an alternative SUV, I’ve had X5s they have been ok and my current Touareg beats them all hands down

That doesn't sound great!

Out of interest, what went wrong and how much did it end up costing you?

It started with the suspension lowering slightly, and going into transmission fail safe mode, then limp mode, then the suspension dropping

It eventually needed ACE pipes front and rear, a module was replaced and it drove ok on the way to get rid of it. The new owner got in touch and it broke down a week into his ownership, with similar faults.

My employer has a 2008 L322 TDv8 with 80k that he has owned since a year old and a 2014 L405 TDv8 with 58k that again he has owned since a year old. The bills that those two have racked up this year are eye watering.

Do yourself a favour and buy something that doesn’t have a green oval badge and won’t be a complete pain in the arse.

Genuinely I’d rather take a gamble on an Early Cayenne than a RR these days

[Max1111]

martin mrt said:

Genuinely I’d rather take a gamble on an Early Cayenne than a RR these days

I think I can just about stretch to a 2010-2012 Cayenne. They seem pretty robust and can still be brought into the Porsche warranty system for £900/yr.

[martin mrt]

Max1111 said:

I think I can just about stretch to a 2010-2012 Cayenne. They seem pretty robust and can still be brought into the Porsche warranty system for £900/yr.

I’d put my money in that over an L320 RR anyway