I agree the later 2009 onwards cars seem suffer a lot more from rust, early cars rust in the same areas just nearly all the later cars we looked at had the dread tin worm around the re arches, rear hatch and sills. Tin worm is always a no go for me, it’s almost impossible to get rid of.

I don’t believe the 3.6 is more unreliable than the 4.4, just they have been around a lot longer and have more miles, both can Lunch turbos and have a million small faults, you can be luck with either or not.

Buy on condition, service history and some what the seller (be careful as there are some that are snakes, will talk the tale ‘true enthusiasts’ etc while just being a ‘salesman’ hiding all the faults known or not)

Parts are readily available and prices in general are ok for OEM or pattern parts.

Got to agree - If you want a diesel don't dismiss the 3.6 too quickly, the 4.4 is definitely "better" in many ways on paper but as someone who is fortunate enough to have one of each I find that I do more miles in the 3.6 and never find it lacking in any way as a means of very pleasant transport.

sparkysteve wrote:

That's good advice.
Budget around 10>12k
And taking my time, not in a great rush, and prepared to travel for the right one.
(Did this when buying the D3, drove from Chester to London for the right one)
Having an extra budget for getting full service done, I'll do all the work , even if its been done by the dealer before picking it up, I don't trust garages, been the the auto trade since I left school.
And of course those little jobs you always find when you get it home.

Not sure what engine etc I'm looking for to be honest, that's why I'm asking for advice prior to looking for the right one for me.

In hindsight I think my biggest mistakes in purchasing a FFRR were:

1) I like things to work on stuff i own, on everything, everywhere, always. Because of this some would say a Land Rover is not the right car for me
2) I did not know how to check a huge array of the non essential things like: rear remote, parking heater remote, venture cam and a lot more.

My first few weeks were spent making a long list of things that did not work. These faults took that long to identify because I didn't know anything about the feature/option that wasn't working.

With the help of this forum I then started fixing a lot of stuff or paying for it to be fixed.

During three years it has cost about £2500 a year for specialist indy servicing, all repairs and parts required to keep everything working on this car(It has a lot of optional extras). I have done a lot of the work myself on things like rear parking cam,rear wiper, EGR.

Wheels have been powder coated in standard colour and it has had the roof resprayed at main dealer (£1000) and it has just had a professional polish at £350. So, actually quite a lot of that £2500 a year has been cosmetic.
Another part of those costs was £1000 on tyres, that seem to be lasting very well.

The costs, for repairs of a mechanical nature, that I paid for are trivial: So far just servicing, a control arm, rear wiper motor, and a hose.

I'd like to think it is in very good condition, and I do not think that the cost has been at all high, but the cost to my sanity has because some of the jobs I have undertaken have been a pain in the neck to get right. But like everyone else, I absolutely love mine, and I think "I got the right one" - and that is a nice feeling, to own a FFRR you are happy with - so I also advise that you take the time to do it right, and have a look at as many as you can.