Good morning

Joined about 3 years ago looking for advice on a FFRR. Was just about to take the plunge when a late D4 became available.
Fast forward 3 years and my PCP agreement runs out in 2 months and it’s going to cost me £23k to buy it. It’s covered 40k miles, has been totally faultless and is in fantastic condition. Buying it and getting an extended warranty to try and eliminate the dreaded ‘crank’ issue really would be the sensible thing to do. But since when has purchasing a Land Rover been sensible

Despite the fact I bought a 6 month old very low mileage example that had already taken a massive hit, it’s value has fallen off a cliff even further and some of the trade in values I’ve been offered have been horrific.

Moving forward I’ve decided that if I ever want to own one of these things rather than renting them I can stretch to a budget of £35k.

This has made available quite a selection of 13 and 14 plate L405’s. But there in lies the problem, how do you convince SWMBO that buying an older car with possibly higher mileage than the one we’ve already got for more money is proving interesting

I’d hope to get some sort of warranty to cover catastrophic failure but my main concern is having to throw a lot of cash at the routine things within the first few months.

I’ve owned enough Land Rovers over the years to know you can’t run them on a shoe string , I’m just trying to gauge opinion that 5 year old examples with 50k on the clock can be nice cars to buy

i think your wife will be smitten when she goes for a test drive in one, after that its all plain sailing... ... - .- -.




Y. O. L. O.
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Very true but she’s quite smitten with the D4 we’ve got

Don't accept that just because a car is at a main dealer that it's been properly looked after from a service and maintenance perspective.

Do your homework on whatever prospective purchase it is (there are many posts on here about what to look for across the variants) wherever you buy it from and you will eventually find one that has been kept in tip top condition and that should need no more than regular maintenance. A warranty is something I'd want but not everyone agrees. Many save the money they'd pay for a warranty for a rainy day, as you'll know.

Proportionately speaking, the L405 isn't expensive to run and maintain.

The age I’m looking at don’t tend to be at Main Dealers, although I have spotted a few.

My history has mainly been Discovery’s. A couple of D3’s and a Couple of D4’s. The were all quite consistent on mileage regarding the items that wore out.

e.g The first three needed major suspension overhaul between 65k and 75k. The latest D4 at 40k shows no sign of suspension fatigue.
A couple of compressors at approximately 50k.

I know nothing is consistent in the motoring world but are L405’s similar to Discovery’s when it comes to things wearing out?

If you’re considering diesel, I’d not want to spend much money on one that wasn’t EU6.

At over 70,000 miles in an SDV8 the suspension is untouched and the only things that have worn out are tyres, discs and pads. So far, the running costs for fuel and other consumables have been identical to the previous two D4’s.

The D4, along with the Fatty, are my two all time favourite cars, each having its own set of advantages over the other, so it’s no easy choice. If you go for the Fatty, don’t bother with the TDV6 after the SDV6 in the D4, it’s good in isolation, but not as good as the SDV6 and it rolls noticeably more. The crank in the ‘8 seems to be bombproof too.

Interested to see how this develops, please keep us posted

I have just purchased a L405 and had a similar budget, I ended up spending a little more in the end but my experience was very positive from a Dealer perspective, we test drove several 14 plates from our local dealers and they were all spot on and well prepared the only reason we didn’t buy one was they sold while we were debating it!

Private was a car crash, most were owned by thrifty directors looking to get a better deal than trade in, they all had clearly cut corners in the last year of ownership knowing that they were soon to get rid everything from worn out tyres or very cheap ditch finder replacements to haveing a £120 service at the “local” garage one even had suspension faults and several were clearly knocking the ones we did consider needed a grand or so spending on them and when you removed the warranty cost from the dealer vehicles there wasn’t much in it! Most had 50-60k on and needed disks and pads in the near future and a set of tyres before anything else for example.

The EURO6 piece didn’t bother me, i live in the midlands and don’t drive into city centres very often never mind the ULEZ in London. EURO7 will likely be introduced on 2020 cars and I suspect by the time I sell the L405 the ULEZ zones will probably require EURO7 and as such it’s irrelevant. You also need to jump to a MY16 which today fetch a fair premium in my experience.

I purchased what I thought and the seller believed was a MY15 EURO 5 but is actually a MY16 EURO 6 but it wasn’t a factor in the purchase it was more condition - it still smells new! We were looking at Autobiography’s and the front camera is the easiest tell 2 camera’s is EURO5, single central camera is a EURO6.

Test drive the two engines, I preferred the SDV8 which is what I have but the V6 was superb on fuel even on a spirited test drive.

Happy to share anything else, I have spent the last 4 months obsessing over auto trader etc.

Oh and my other half drove the 3.6 today, and has come back telling me how much she loves it so maybe I should stick with that instead! Sold - Bell a 2015 MY16 Loire Blue Autobiography 4.4 SDV8
Previously George a 2007 MY07 Java Black VSE 3.6 TDV8
Previously a 04 MY04 Defender 90

Remember, whilst EU6 may not be a consideration for your personal use, it may have be a significant factor for resale values.

I get that, but only if these ULEZ zones of which there is only 1 don’t move on from EURO6 was my point I guess?

Personally buy a car because it’s the one you love, not because it’s the right one for the next owner. Your going to loose a small fortune on a FFRR so I try not to think of resale value full stop

Sometimes you have to jump in where’s best for you, with the right car.

The advice I got was:

Don’t buy a 13 because it’s a new model, get a 14.
Don’t buy a 14 because they knock on the front end get a 15.
Don’t buy a 15 because they are EURO 5 get a 16.
Don’t buy a 16 because people will want the new Infotainment in the 17.
Don’t buy a 17 because the infotainment is buggy and everyone will want the facelift 18.

 Sold - Bell a 2015 MY16 Loire Blue Autobiography 4.4 SDV8
Previously George a 2007 MY07 Java Black VSE 3.6 TDV8
Previously a 04 MY04 Defender 90

Thanks for the input and glad to hear you’ve had mainly routine consumables in 70k miles Red Merle.

Euro 6 isn’t necessarily a priority, we live within walking distance of the tube and only venture into the smoke by train.
I appreciate the possibility of even higher levels of depreciation but the car market is in such a strange place at the moment and seeing that I’m about £5k out on my predicted trade in value on the D4 I’m just going to buy one that I’ll own in 3 years and what happens in between, happens.

I’d love a Petrol but due to rareness in my price bracket don’t seem the best examples. So I’m concentrating on SDV8’s.

I'm over 100k now and only tyres, discs & pads so far

As for immediate costs, depends what history it has, but I'd budget for a complete fluids change - diffs, gearbox etc.

Has your wife had a test drive yet ? My wife loves 'her' RR - I'm at a stage where I'd happily trade down (I think) - for some reason I quite fancy a Velar - but she won't let me

Bought a 63 plate SDV8 exactly one year ago, it was out of warranty by a couple of weeks, been fabulous so far and miles ahead of the l322. Now at 83k miles and tight as a drum, just put 4 tyres on last week but that’s about it.

Do test drive a 5.0 supercharged. You will love the refinement. My next one will be LWB 5.0 or P400e.

Petrol meets euro 6.

I would love a 5.0 litre, but in my price bracket good one’s are rare.

What I can’t believe is the variation in price for cars with similar specification and mileage, some as far apart as £15k

First one I’d picked out to go and see has already thrown up a discrepancy, advertised with a mileage of 47k, mot check shows 53k, also 14 months between mots Looks fantastic in the piccys. Just shows how careful you have to be.

I’ve not done myself any favours, the D4 has to be paid for, handed back or Px’d by Feb 1st and we have Christmas and a 3 week trip to Australia to fit in between!!