Hi everyone,
I had to put my search on the back burner for a while but am now starting to look again, I basically am going to need the RR to tow a car trailer and will have some other short trips etc but won't be my main transport, mileage wise I'm only going to be doing about 5k miles a year in it and it will be used as more of a workhorse than a luxuary 4x4-might even do a bit of green laning too!!.
Budget wise I know the petrol V8 isn't cheap to run, I've had one before, other than a needing a new rad,gearbox oil change and a new alternator it was pretty good in the time I had it, certainly no super bills, although £500 for an alternator ouch!!.
The thing is I've forgotten my MPG in it now as it was a while ago, seem to remember it being about 15 around town up to just over 20 on a run though, so when towing it will be a bit less.

I would rather buy a car at the lower end of the market- about £8k ish and plan to keep it a couple of years, with my needs am I mad going for the V8?, is the TD6 worth paying the extra for or not really?, my worry with one, with the towing is it could ruin the gearbox which they seem to be a weak point on plus the car is more to buy in the first place.

There's quite a nice 4.4 Vogue with 103k on the clock with an LPG conversion for £9k but in my case do you think it's worth paying the extra over say a £7.5k or £8k petrol only one, are LPG conversions pretty ok on these?, I've not had an LPG car before.

Lastly although I've had one before, I know about the front diff recall, but is there anything specific I want to check that has been done on them now?, I'm looking at 2002/2003 ones with from 70k to 120k on the clock.
First thing I would do after buying would be gearbox oil and filter change and a service.

Any advice most welcome and I hope to be back in an RR soon .

I look forward to reading the replies because I too am looking out for a similar spec / age/ mileage. If mileage is not going to be huge I would'nt hesitate with petrol although if you are towing maybe diesel would suit better. I'm sure somebody out there will enlighten us.

Lots to find using search on V8's

I've got a 2002 V8 with LPG and now on 104K miles.

Did 255 miles up to and around the cotswolds and back at a cost of £37 in "driiving miss daisy" mode .

Last month i had to visit germansweek, just past oakhampton for a wedding, drove approx 240 miles and didn't hang about. Left with a full tank of LPG, filled up at oakhampton, cost £48

LPG has now risen to 77p a litre in S/W london. Was 69p two months ago.

Steptoe, that's 20p per mile or 31 MPG equivalent at £1.37 per petrol liter. that's good!!

I am getting 28mpg equivalent (mixed motorway at 85mph cruise and country roads) or 22p per mile which i less than my TD6 (25p per mile!)

and you get the great V8 roar!!

double entry - bloody accountants!!

steptoe wrote:

I've got a 2002 V8 with LPG and now on 104K miles.

Did 255 miles up to and around the cotswolds and back at a cost of £37 in "driiving miss daisy" mode .

Last month i had to visit germansweek, just past oakhampton for a wedding, drove approx 240 miles and didn't hang about. Left with a full tank of LPG, filled up at oakhampton, cost £48

LPG has now risen to 77p a litre in S/W london. Was 69p two months ago.

can't tell the difference between lpg and petrol except when i really boot it and it switches to petrol but then i am due a LPg service this week and that should sort it out. it is only when the tank is low on lpg.

Restless wrote:

How do you find it runs on LPG?, I've read conflicting things about it, some say the BMW 4.4 runs fautlessly on it and others say there are issues with the ECU and under fueling, from what I understand they are usually pretty ok with Prins and BRC conversions so would go for one that had either of those conversions or really for the mileage I will be doing just go for a petrol one, I'm not very keen on a TD6, they are more to buy and have things that are more likely to fail on them-Gearbox,Injectors etc.

It's a Prins system, installed in 2009 by previous owner. Has since covered nearly 40K miles, and it's been faultless since i've had the car, and the previous owner also said the same.

Kept the full sized petrol tank and fitted a 92Ltr kitre gas tank in the spare well space.
So when both are full the range is huge.

Absolutely no noticable difference when switching between petrol and gas. Plus cheaper road tax because it's registered as duel fuel vehicle

Thanks for the info on the LPG ones, I think as they don't really hold much premium over a normal V8 I might as well try and buy one tht has already been converted, they definately seem a better, cheaper bet than a TD6.

May have a cheap 2003 soon......

Thanks, please let me know if it does come in .

hi restless.i am biased but go for the v8.you are going to do 5k miles a year so if lpg version costs alot more to buy,i cant see much saving.my advice is go for condition and history if miles are high.good luck  05`V8 AUTOBIOGRAPHY