Classic Range Rover as family car

[Sailingwill]

Dear all,

I am in the process of looking for a decent mid 90's Classic RR, preferably with low miles (say less than 80k). I have now been trawling the internet for over 2 months, and am finding that without spending the best part of £10k, the cars are getting really scarce.

Does anyone have any advice about the typical mileages that major problems start to occur, (especially considering the air suspension)?

I am a massive LR and RR fan, but prefer the older models, hence not looking for a P38.

My wife and I need a larger car as we will be parent in April next year :-). Given that my wife is disabled she will need a little more room in order to use a baby car seat on the back seats, does anyone know how much additional legroom the LSE's have in the back, or is the extra space mostly in the boot.

Having read some of the chat threads on here about LPG, I thought I would share my experience of it too. I used to drive a 50th Anniversary LR90 which ran on LPG, which I was never really satisified with, but when it worked it was cheap. I now run a smart fortwo convertible on LPG, which is absolutely fantastic fun to drive. Costing aroung £7 for 190 miles or so. I will be keeping the Smart car, but when we finally find a decent RR the first thing I will be doing is taking in to get LPG fitted, probably with torpedo tanks underneath so boot is not used up.

If anyone knows of a good classic RR such as that mentioned above for about £6kish, please let me know.

Thanks

Sailingwill

[Church]

Good choice!

The Range Rover LSE's additional length is ALL in the wheelbase behind the "B" post, in other words its all in the rear doors which are huge! The wheel base is 108 inch compared to standard Range Rover of 100 inch. The P38 Range Rover also has 108 inch wheelbase.

With regards to mileage and problems they can occur at almost any mileage once the vehicle is a few years old, and as the last classic was made in 1995/96 then they are all 10+ years old and will mostly be around 100,000+ miles. The vehicle is good for many times this mileage if its looked after, and generally parts are reasonable and everything can be fixed to keep them going for ever. So don't worry too much if the vehicle has done 100k+ so long as its been looked after and has had parts replaced. Air-suspension is not as bad as often reported and if it does all go wrong and you want to junk the air-suspension then you can convert back to coils.

They are a great everyday car, I've had numerous classics as everyday drivers from a 1974 to a 1995 and they all had there pro's and cons but overall did everything I wanted from long distance high speed driving, off road fun, city traffic jams through to towing a couple of tonne.

[sailingwill]

Thanks Church.

I will keep looking, and when I find one, I will etl you know how it goes.

Sailingwill

[turbo-tastic]

I have just seen this on v8engines.com (RPi Engineering)

Bloke from RPi said:

FOR SALE LAST OF THE CLASSICS 1995 RANGE ROVER CLASSIC IN EXCELLENT ORIGINAL CONDITION .95 000 MILES, MOT.A VERY CHERISHED AND DESIRABLE MODEL WHICH HAS HAD THE SAME OWNER VIRTUALLY FROM NEW (APART FROM THE FIRST YEAR). WITH SOFT-DASH, MINT VELOUR TRIM AND WEBASTO SUNROOF.THIS MODEL ALSO CAME WITH THE ORDINARY SHOCK ABSORBERS SUSPENSION RATHER THAN THE MORE PROBLEMATIC AIR SUSUPENSON. THE ENGINE AND GEARBOX ARE COMPLETELY ORIGINAL AND AS BOTH HAVE BEEN REGULARLY MAINTAINED AND ONLY EXPOSED TO CAUTIOUS DRIVING, THEIR CONDITION IS EXCELLENT. PRICED AT £4500.

Dont know if thats any help?


For more information: E-mail RPi at [e-mail] or call on 01603 891209

[Liszt]

Bear in mind that RPI sell at a premium for premium cars.

I run a 91 Vouge SE on LPG with 147000 on the clock. Paid £2750 but it has a new 4 litre engine and has had a new gear box too.

Parts are pretty cheap. Saw an LSE go for under 3 grand recently.

If you have a budget like £6k you could easily do some major overhaul like new carpets, retrimmed seats, mechanical overhaul and be left with a very nice motor.

I have a 60L tank in the boot and 2 30L sill tanks plus the original petrol tank. I get about 250 miles for 35 quid.

[turbo-tastic]

Liszt said:

If you have a budget like £6k you could easily do some major overhaul like new carpets, retrimmed seats, mechanical overhaul and be left with a very nice motor.

Thats what I'd do if it was my money.

When I was looking to get mine, there were a fair few LSE's for sale. One advertised for £2750 from a trader!!

[crimsonchim]

Liszt said:

I have a 60L tank in the boot and 2 30L sill tanks plus the original petrol tank. I get about 250 miles for 35 quid.

It's pretty cheap to a RR on LPG. I have an LSE with twin 40ltr tanks underneath and a smaller petrol tank. Range is just over 200 miles on gas for about £25 (also 100 miles on petrol for emergencies!). I'd like more range, but not at the expense of boot space.

[Liszt]

My boot tank runs front to back on the drivers side. Loses very little boot space.

[YamR1,V64motion]

Liszt said:

Bear in mind that RPI sell at a premium for premium cars. I run a 91 Vouge SE on LPG with 147000 on the clock. Paid £2750 but it has a new 4 litre engine and has had a new gear box too. Parts are pretty cheap. Saw an LSE go for under 3 grand recently. If you have a budget like £6k you could easily do some major overhaul like new carpets, retrimmed seats, mechanical overhaul and be left with a very nice motor. I have a 60L tank in the boot and 2 30L sill tanks plus the original petrol tank. I get about 250 miles for 35 quid.

surely if he were to spend £6k, he would be better off rconsidering and getting the P38, but i supose there is more to go wrong.

[sailingwill]

Thanks all.

Am going to see an LSE at the weekend. 92k on the clock, and costed up at £4,500 (private) so there should be some room for negotiation.

I need the £6k to include an LPG conversion costing around £2k. Either way, I dont really like the P38. The classic is sensibly called such nowadays, and the depn should be much less than on a newer car if I do find a good one.

I too also, saw the car at RPiV8 advertised. The car is in fact being sold on behalf of one of their customers in London. I may contact him though, if the one at the weekend doesn't do the trick.

Thanks again.

TTFN

Sailingwill

[Liszt]

Check for rot, rot, more rot, rot you can't see and rot that's not rot yet but will be by Tuesday.

Any sine of a bubble or red spot or imperfection, start sucking through those teeth, mumbling "that'll need doing and it ain't gonna be cheap"

[turbo-tastic]

Liszt said:

Check for rot, rot, more rot, rot you can't see and rot that's not rot yet but will be by Tuesday. Any sine of a bubble or red spot or imperfection, start sucking through those teeth, mumbling "that'll need doing and it ain't gonna be cheap"

Thats what I did when I went to see mine, but the seller wouldn't budge on price, so I said I'd have to go away and think about it.

An hour later he was on the phone trying to negotiate a sale

Hope you find a good'un, and enjoy it!!

[rex]

Sailingwill. I have a 94 LSE classic. That I a going to sell. The local RR dealer is very interested in it but you are welcome to come and have a look and test drive. I have had some previous postings about the car which I am sure you have seen. Mail me if interested.