longbelly wrote:

daz62 wrote:

As others have said you can do as many checks as you like and things can be fine for years or they can go wrong the next day.

Make sure you have a healthy pot of contingency money (£3-4k just in case), or a bulletproof warranty.

A 2nd / spare key is £250 ish.

Many thanks, hit the nail on the head really.... Given that a full inspection will set me back several hundred pounds and then not guarantee the purchase of that particular car and with the sale of both cars at hopefully expected prices, we will at best have approx £1500 contingency fund.

Maybe better off getting a non-LPG to start off with and pay £7-8k then have it converted in due course? This one is even closer than the LPG one.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/adv...?logcode=p

Simon

Ad says:
'Full servicing but first service book has been lost - calls to Landrover Stratstone Mayfair will confirm full history, 2nd service book shows services in March 08, May 09, April 10, April 12, March 13. Previous MOTs and records included. New brake discs/pads 2012, new battery 2011...'

Thoughts:

1. Car appears clean, has a proper child seat in the rear and the place the car 'lives' looks respectable (which can be an indication as to whether it will have been looked after properly/ is safe/ has come from a good home that was able to afford to upkeep the running costs of the car).

2. The advert seems quite transparent so every aspect of the history that is cited should check out. If it does not, there are other good example RR around.

3. Reconsider asking a qualified mechanic or competent RR enthusiast to inspect the car if you are considering buying it and before your negotiate on price. You could post/ start a thread asking if any forum members live near to the seller of this car and if they are prepared to view the car with you.

4. If you get the car competently checked out and it does not appear to be in need of obvious near future maintenance/ servicing (there are never any guarantees but you can maximise your chances of this being the reality via a competent pre sale viewing), then consider using some of your £1500 to buy a good warranty, particularly if you are not someone who knows how to do repairs yourself.

5. Hopefully this will be of some use if you have not already seen it:
http://www.fullfatrr.com/forum/topic18648.html

6. Aside to any essential maintenance/ running costs, consider spending no money on visual/ aesthetic improvements/ modification until you have had the car for a reasonable period of time and until you know it is not a maintenance money pit; until you know you can live with the maintenance and running costs; and until you are sure you are keeping the car for a reasonable period of time (there is surely something that attracts you about the way the car looks before you buy so what is the rush to visually modify).

7. If you have any doubts about a RR, go with your instinct and don’t buy it.

Full inspection will give some piece of mind but you also need to set a realistic expectation. Now if your buying a 2 year old car with manufacturers warranty still remaining then spending out on inspection etc is not such a good use of your money. If your buying a 10 year old car you could well be spending out on several inspections to find a car that is good. How many 10 year old Range Rovers will you need to inspect to find one that's good, if you lucky 1 or could be half a dozen, would hate to think of the costs of each inspection.

In the case of Mutley's experience I can only add that what was wrong with the car was pointed out on the day. I also gave a rough quote to correct paint issues and get car serviced. Pointed out suspect brake discs front and rear and possible rear caliper. Even the last dodgy service was noted in the service history as it was not LR or quality independent when the rest were, but as it was only 2k miles since the service was carried out this was easy to cure by getting the car serviced by a reputable dealer or independent. But buying the car privately saved several thousand pounds over dealer price and even more after knocking the price down for faults found. Getting all the work carried out to bring the car up to a spec higher than you would get from a LR main dealer for this car in question came to about half of his total "sorting out" bill. But Mutley wanted to go much further than that so ended up spending another large chunk of money on a list of extras and service items not normally carried out which equates to the other half of his huge bill. The car in question was still a good car if the initial work was carried out. Mutley seems to think his costs have got excessive, and while I think all the extra work and extras he has got done to the car are definitely good things to do and will bring the car up to an extremely high spec. I think it is an over exaggeration to say he got a car that needed a lot of work doing that he was not aware of, when it was already pointed out on the day what needed doing. He got a good car that is nearly 6 years old at price just over what I would have said was a fair price, but this was down to the intransigent nature of the seller, and ultimately the decision to purchase was down to Mutley. On a positive note when he does collect the car from Craig I reckon it will be in as good as new condition and with the proactive maintenance work carried out should give him a much better chance of many years of trouble free motoring.

pld118 wrote:

Prop wrote:

.

I have to say I am gobsmacked at the inaccuracy of quotes made by Prop about myself but I choose not to comment on a public forum

Which point sorry?

going off topic slightly  ... - .- -.




Y. O. L. O.
.

Not sure it was me off topic ...

£1500 might not be enough of a contingency regardless of age, especially if a non professional/ non experienced RR enthusiast assesses the car before buying.. No guarantees with any assessment but a more calculated risk might be possible...

[mod edit, no need to quote when replying to an above post]

Appears my original replies to you and "Prop" did not "quote" correctly, but all very valid points from both of you, thanks for your input  2004 Lotus Elise S2 111S
2001 Ford Focus Estate

This one has just appeared... even cheaper. Would leave me a much larger contingency, could even fit lpg and still have some left

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/adv...?logcode=p

Also can anyone suggest a decent warranty company so I can check out prices please? 2004 Lotus Elise S2 111S
2001 Ford Focus Estate

Re the latest car you are looking at (2002/ 94k miles) – I would reiterate the previous point 6 before deciding to spend a lot of money on a LPG conversion:

" 6. ... until you have had the car for a reasonable period of time and until you know it is not a maintenance money pit... and until you are sure you are keeping the car for a reasonable period of time [it might be an idea not to spend significant sums of money on modifications]... "

You ask about suggestions for 'a decent warranty company' so you can compare prices. Some considerations might be:

A. This link http://www.warrantyexpert.co.uk/direct/

B. LR 'Select' Warranty – For Land Rovers up to 10 years old and with fewer than 100,000 miles on the speedometer. Land Rover Select Warranty provides a minimum 6 months cover for specific mechanical and electrical components for up to 25,000 miles from the date of purchase. Cover can be extended.

You might look at a car under 10 years old and with less than 100,000 miles. LR might not want to cover such a vehicle if you are not buying from them but it might be worth enquiring with LR if they would allow you to pay a LR Main Dealer to undertake a health check with a view to their authorising a ‘Select’ warranty... but if they did, LR warranties are expensive and you would be bound by strict LR Terms & Conditions... however, having had continuous LR warranty cover since 2006, my experience is that it genuinely is excellent warranty cover.

C. Warranty Direct (as with most warranty companies, there are mixed reviews about WD (some negative, some positive).

D. Warranty Wise

E. Auto Protect

F. Ageas Used Car Warranty (this might only be available to purchase via car dealers/ you could enquire direct with Ageas though. I have heard they are quite honourable but doubtless, opinions will vary)

G. If a trader/ dealer is selling a car you intend to buy, ask them if they are affiliated to any warranty companies and assess what might be on offer.

If it was me looking to purchase a non LR used car warranty, I would compare the warranties 'out there' against the LR 'Select' warranty cover so as to assess which warranty appears to be closest to the LR one in terms of claimed cover. I would then compare the cost of the LR ‘Select’ warranty against the other(s). If the LR warranty was for example £1000 and a company claimed to offer like cover for say £250, then perhaps the lesser price might be in the 'too good to be true' bracket.

Some warranty companies might demand or offer the option of their own technician examining the car before they agree to providing a warranty/ specific level of cover. If such a service exists and was opted for, then I would imagine you might have more rights if they tried to reject a future claim if their assessor had given that aspect of the car a clean bill of health before you took the warranty out with them (provided you have since properly maintained the car and/ or not abused it).

If you do lean towards a preference for one particular warranty, then before you commit to it, search this and other forums for the company name to find out if the name comes up and what peoples experiences of said company has been.

Warranty aside, if you buy a car from a UK dealer, the car should be sold free of major defect anyway so you do have rights available if things do not go to plan. Obviously some dealers will be more scrupulous and honourable than others when things go wrong.

It might well be a 10 or 11 year old car… but… due to the kind of car that it is, regardless of the purchase price that you pay, professional repairs, maintenance and parts remain on the more expensive side, hence the need to be extra careful before you buy… imo.

To fail to plan is to plan to fail!

Hope this helps...

As I see it, the problems you may have with a warranty :

1. Single claim limit. FFs are not cheap to work on
2. Dealer warranty. Though some are decent, most are barely worth the paper they are written on. You could end up in legal battles to accept that anything was a valid claim. Wear and tear are your enemies here, and will be used a lot on a 11 year old car with close to 100k on the clock !
3. Independent warranty (Warrantydirect, etc). When you get past 10 years old, a lot of these companies won't take on the vehicle, so choice is more limited. Prices are higher, as so much more can go wrong. Also, 'wear and tear' comes into play again, unless you want to pay a lot extra, limiting their cost (and pushing yours up).

I know Warrantydirect take a bit of panning on here, but they also seem to be one of the more praised as well. I'd suggest trying them for a quote. They do cover vehicles up to 13 years old, but past 10 years old they cover a lot fewer components.
Do bear in mind though : to keep the warranty alive, you will have to get the RR serviced at the proper intervals, using OEM equivalent parts, at a VAT registered garage, to the RR servicing standards. That on its own will not be a cheap undertaking.
All told, unless you can put up with those costs, along with the (to me) terrifying costs of running a V8, then you may want to re-consider. A petrol V8 is probably going to cost 35p per mile to run. LPG will be more like 25 p per mile, but with the additional cost of putting in the LPG system (£2k ? at a guess, for a good system).

Do bear in mind that you are buying what was a £50k vehicle. When things break, repairs are on a £50k vehicle, not a £8/9k one.
Yes, they are nice, they are lovely to drive. But they cost a lot to run, and if when they go wrong, it can hurt.

longbelly wrote:

This one has just appeared... even cheaper. Would leave me a much larger contingency, could even fit lpg and still have some left

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/adv...?logcode=p

Also can anyone suggest a decent warranty company so I can check out prices please?

Many thanks yet again to 'The Moose', 'robjp' and 'pld118' for the latest replies, I am (unfortunately) beginning to think that this is something I cannot justify properly/financially just at the moment  2004 Lotus Elise S2 111S
2001 Ford Focus Estate

[]

15 month interest free credit card with someone like tesco - £3,000 limit. There's your safety net...

I'm trying to help you with your man-maths...!