Hi all, Whilst looking for a replacement for my MOT failed rusty Discovery, I've come across a 2003 3.0 FF for £5,500. Although I haven't spoke to the dealer about its history etc, I can't help but think that it's going to be a money pit as 'cheap and reliable' are two words that can't describe a FF.

Does anyone still use an early FF on a daily basis? Fetch me coffee and no one gets hurt.

Yes, many of us

You will be wanting to see a service and repairs/replacements history for your vehicle which should be quite extensive and as a minimum should include suspension airbags/struts (fronts), gearbox, air compressor, just about every suspension part/bush/knuckle, you will want to run a diagnostic test to see what codes pop up, and check that every single thing works. .
Experience is the only genuine knowledge, but as time passes, I have forgotten more than I can remember
Volvo V70 P2 2006 2.4 Petrol 170bhp Estate SE
MG Midget Mk1 1962

Previous: L322 Range Rover TDV8 3.6 2008; L322 Range Rover TD6 3.0 2002; P38A Range Rover V8 1999

Could be there for a few days then!!  Fetch me coffee and no one gets hurt.

My first FFRR was a may 2002 TD6 HSE with 76,000 miles. I bought it undriven and untested at an auction. Never went wrong in 3 years (at all!!!) is now owned by a mate with 132,000 miles, original faultless gearbox.

Damian, I have an 04 TD6 that we have had for 9 years and use it pretty much everyday! has been a labour of love from a financial point of view but we dont buy them for fun

Don't want to tempt fate. But..

Last year brought a 2004 with 160k+ on it and now has close to 200k on it now. Daily user. Driving down to Spain mid next year with no concerns. I did listen to a lot of advice the good guys on here gave me first tho. As in it had a good history and recon box.

From memory I paid around £7k for it.

Cheers

Tel Accept, some days your the pigeon, some days your the statue!

i have a 2002 v8. I bought it as a non runner. (engine rattling like a good-un!) similar price, nearly three years ago.. I fixed it, and have had about 20,000 miles of sheer pleasure driving it. it has a few nice bits added now, like a 'facelift' front and rear, and a private type reg. so it can look to the layman, a very nice car. You have to be realistic. a car that is old in the tooth, is not necessarily, a money pit, and a potential disaster on wheels. I see hundreds of near new cars being fixed and recovered, and hear of people with these cars, paying out loads of money, to keep their values high. As the average price of say a 2002 model comes down, you have some real old 'decorated' tanks, and a few nice original low mileage ones, at each end of the price bracket. there are many cars in that range, the good ones' prices, are dragged down, by the 'average price.' Many cars here, that have come to be replaced, are sold off, 'as is' sometimes in an auction, sometimes ebay, sometimes private. They come with a few declared problems, some obvious, some not. The problem I have found, is that these cars, at the bottom of the bracket, are not currently on the road, and therefore are not road testable. -something you should bear in mind as you shake his hand shouting out a price...
If you are no stranger to a box of spanners, (being a discovery owner, they will be in the boot!) I would recommend you give it a look at, (for curiosity sake!) and bid the guy an offer that is way below his target. I have seen plenty for sale around 4-5k, some even less! -and some as high as £10k for a 2002-3. if you find a typical fault like the gearbox has some issues, walk away. its going to be sold for parts... If you were to buy it at 5k, and you spent £500 finding out that it is not for you, you could still sell it say for 4k, and be 1k + 500 (Fettling money) down. if you bought a 5 year younger car, and drove it for a month, with no faults, and decided it was say, too big for you, you would almost certainly sell it £1k down, what with it being another owner etc, and wanting your money out right now. If you are thinking of buying one, try and find out as much about its service life, and if it has indeed had a gearbox change, as these gearboxes, are the make and break at this age. I myself don't like the mechanics of diesels. a v8 is the better option for simplicity, as its basically a bmw 5/7 series in a nice dress. Fuel prices today, favour the v8 (to me) and, you can if you look, find a cheap old LPG v8, and you are laughing. If you were to spend the same money on a BMW 7 series and drive it around, you could be doing just the same as mentioned above, and might regret not buying the real thing, a Range Rover.
Many on here, would not be entertaining such an old car, if they have that 'time for its MOT' type of nervousness. but mine has sailed through 2 subsequent years problem free, (3 mot's) since I got it, at it's first one it needed the airbag system resetting, and one headlight, had fell apart inside, making the facelift an opportunity. after glueing the headlight, to get it through.. it has 160k on it now. drives perfect. -not like 'an old car' -it has some bonnet paint chips, and the seats need a little tidying up with some leather dye, but, parked up all washed and vacuumed, it cant be beaten. and once you get driving this car, it very difficult to know what else to move on to. there are some posts on here, of what to look out for. they don't all have the same problems. but most have shown up, and solutions are all written up, many times over...
its the 'champagne life' for lets say, 'gin and tonic' money. ive said this many times, a quote from Tennyson,


I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all
'

With a new car, your money goes on depreciation. On an old one, repairs. If it's in good nick and you're realistic about the running costs, then you can give it a try. The more you can do on the car yourself, the more viable this option is.

Food for thought, thank you all.

Just before Xmas when my Discovery was declared a failure I had a P38 and Discovery II in mind for a replacement as they were in my budget of up to £4k, then I came across the L322 - I've always had a thing for Range Rovers!

The problem is, as my only vehicle it needs to be reliable as I probably won't have the time to start investigating faults. After 6 years of faultless service from a 300Tdi Disco, a more modern Land Rover with electrical witchcraft frightens me to death, but that’s progress I suppose. I have had quite a few Series LR's, a Classic 2 door which ended up as a 90 hybrid and the Disco, so I know LR's, well, simple to fix LR's that is!

With a new 4x4 business venture looming in the new year I’ll be driving a couple of short journeys for the first part of the week, then a couple of 200+ miles for the other half. It will be off roaded regularly, it will hardly get washed, but it will get serviced.

Due to the amount of spare cash I have at the moment, a lot of friends have suggested the D2, purely for their reliability, especially when compared to a P38!

I shall do more homework, I shall go through this forum with a fine toothcomb and let you all know what I end up buying!

Thanks again for your thoughts... Fetch me coffee and no one gets hurt.

Read through my build thread (link in signature) there is a list of replacements in the first year, some of it is over servicing to ensure reliability but I would think it would be a reasonable list, for an old FF, of items that will need attention.

They can be very reliable or they can be a PITA, picking a reliable one is not so easy.....

For what you want I'd buy a Toyota Amazon and wait to enjoy an FF when you can love it a bit....

(there will now follow several posts about how unreliable Toyota's are .....) Pete

__________________________________________________
2014 L405 Autobiography SDV8 4.4 Loire Blue Ebony interior
2011 L322 Vogue SE 4.4 TDV8 Baltic Blue. Parchment over Navy Interior. Sold
2012 L322 Autobiography 5.0 Supercharged Ipanema Sand, Jet Interior. Sold
2002 L322 Vogue 4.4 V8 Epson Green, Ivory over Aspen Interior (Fatty Offroader) Sold
-Click for Project Fatty off roader-

^yes they are but i do agree. If you need it to drive on a day to day basis with no time for fault finding and fixing you may find it problematic so yes you would probably be better with an LC, but that would be if you got a bad un. Pete is right though, if the car hasn't had a fair amount of TLC in its life then there will possibly be a whole host of replacements needed, from suspension at the bottom to rusty tailgates at the top.

end of the day everything is repairable its just a matter of time and money, which if you haven't got the inclination it may just end up as a frustration rather than a pleasant experience. There is nothing that can't be fixed with a hammer😜😜
FFRR 4.4 SDV8 Autobiography Santorini Black.
Fiat 500x 1.4 multiair Lounge 2015
2010 LR D4 Commercial 2.7 TDV6

From my experirience of three models in your decision, we had (after our classic) a p38 v8. It was a lovely car, but not without its hassles. I read up and was sort of competent on how to keep it going, but the v8's all have the same problem, that the engine is going to leak water, and overheat... as they are a poor design, and financially impossible to remedy. If you get the diesel, it is quite slow. Not had the diesel myself, but we sold the p38' and bought another one. Although it was a better car, also a v8 it still had water leaks, and the same frustrating design annoyances, like the alarm, the BECM and numerous other bits and bobs. (Same as diesels) I was always opening the bonnet, and tinkering, it was a labour of love, and apart from a a split hose, and. A couple of flat batteries away from home, didn't actually break down. But it was because I sort of new what each problem was, and how to address. The parts secondhand were quite reasonable. And ours was top of the range with all wood kit,, and was nice to drive, but had to go, as the wife had no confidence in it. Then we got a disco 2 diesel. This was a revelation. It was very reliable, never letting us down in two years, with 120k when we sold it. It was the better 7 seats and top of range, but it was slow, and very noisy. The turn to turn lock was awful, so hard to turn around, and felt too narrow inside. We never had many of the typical moans other d2 drivers get, like hydraulic rear suspension issues 'three amigoes' lights, , though I changed the rear airbags at the start. I addressed a sluggish gearbox with new fluid and filter, and regular engine oil and filters. Electrically it was very good. But, until we decided to move into the premiership, and get a £5k l322' which I bought and fixed and mot'ed it's before committing, it was a complete transformation. But once again we were v8 and again, LPG. I've had a few issues to deal with on the l322, but mainly because I like to tinker. And apart from a couple of flat batteries, and a major gearbox issue, which was Diy fixed, with info from this forum, it's been the best car I've ever driven, and would need to be falling to pieces, before I give it up, as it has the best all round things I have had from all the land rovers I've had.
Before you make a decision, just go and test drive one. (L322) then a d2, It is a magic carpet ride, and might make you think again. Amongst all the elec-trickery, is a very modern designed car, hardly any threatening rust issues, DIY workable, but to me the best part, is its a very useful car, as it goes up the tip one day, and family days out another, and towing a trailer the next, Only last month I took the family out for a London posh shops and sightseeing run, with a 4.2 jag engine in the boot, it had a sheet over it, so we could throw all our shopping in. I kept forgetting I needed to drive slower!
I Guess I would recommend the d2 against the ageing p38. But people still want too much money for the d2 especially if it's a range topper with 7 seats. But the noise! And the weight! It feels and sounds like you are towing a toolbox down the road.