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Buying a used Range Rover Sport SC 2012


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Buying a Range Rover is a money pit man and believe me for what I am saying. My 3 different friends had extremely sour experience in upkeeping of Range Rover's that spend more time in garage than on road. Range in early 2000 years were still rock solid, but anything after 2008 is made to last max 5-7 years and after that you spend same amount of buying price in two years of ownership in maintenance. I know mechanic's here are expensive but how come all of them are expensive and rip off, there must be some solid reason behind of RR bad engineering or difficult to work due to too many electronics stuffed for smallest nutbolt science. My choice in same price range will be Cadillac Escalade or Chevrolet Tahoe - as newer model as you can afford. 

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58 minutes ago, Danny said:

Buying a Range Rover is a money pit man and believe me for what I am saying. My 3 different friends had extremely sour experience in upkeeping of Range Rover's that spend more time in garage than on road. Range in early 2000 years were still rock solid, but anything after 2008 is made to last max 5-7 years and after that you spend same amount of buying price in two years of ownership in maintenance. I know mechanic's here are expensive but how come all of them are expensive and rip off, there must be some solid reason behind of RR bad engineering or difficult to work due to too many electronics stuffed for smallest nutbolt science. My choice in same price range will be Cadillac Escalade or Chevrolet Tahoe - as newer model as you can afford. 

Goes to show you have no clue what you are talking about. 1995-2002 were consindered to be the most unreliable, all because of the Air suspension system which could only be reset and brought back to life only by the dealer even if you had repaired it.
End of 2002 the 3rd generation Range Rover was introduced which lasted till 2012, with a engine change from a BMW to a Jaguar unit in late 2005 for the 2008, and upgrade of the ICE system almost everything else remained the same save for slight face lifts in 2006 and 2010.

So you saying anything after 2008 blah blah holds no water because from 2006 to 2012 the car is pretty much the same. And in general 2003 to 2013 are also very alike sharing over 60-70% components and parts

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In my experience RR are the most comfy and friendly car I have ever owned and at same time I always felt like I am sitting on a ticking bomb.

What desertdude is explaining the fact, but after your first year of ownership and few bad bites you will graduate to that level of ownership experience when you can differentiate between real and honest LR professional and just greedy monkeys.

What Danny shared is based on lot of greedy monkey experience touting around the market and LR name, esp RR name become too notorious because of those greedy workshops. They made this judgement that everyone who own RR is a big shot and if they rip them for couple of thousand then it's acceptable in their business dictionary. I have even come to hear from one of such greedy mechanic - that you drive RR and looking for a bargain.....!

Ticking bomb was the beep of EAS - Beep beep beep - I still remember it clearly and it used to be the most haunting beep of my life, that while driving all of sudden three beeps can turn your ride in to limping beast running at 60 kmph. After couple of attempts, I finally gave up on EAS and switch to solid springs (softer version) and enjoyed my RR thoroughly.

Like desertdude mentioned, I also agree that in newer version RR have improved much better on their EAS build quality and reliability. I also tasted Arnott ballons that comes about the same price and last forever in one of my close friend car, who is still driving the same RR without any haunting EAS beeps with best ride comfort.

The second best thing of RR after comfort is the seating position that shows you almost every nook and corner of the road with almost zero blindspot - some seriously amazing design done by LR guys, much better than Porsche, BMW and Merc in similar league.

As I owned my RR, I happen to realize that they are very easy to work on many DIY things like changing oil, filters, spark plugs and other basic maintenance that if you just have an honest mechanic, he wouldn't charge you fortune for same jobs as compare to LC, Patrol or any other Japanese 4x4.

For ride comfort explanation, all I can say that I drove that RR to Salalah and while coming back due to some rush, I drove 1600 kms in 12 hours non-stop, with just fuel top-up break every 400 kms.

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Let's root for each other & watch each other grow.

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31 minutes ago, Gaurav said:

In my experience RR are the most comfy and friendly car I have ever owned and at same time I always felt like I am sitting on a ticking bomb.

What desertdude is explaining the fact, but after your first year of ownership and few bad bites you will graduate to that level of ownership experience when you can differentiate between real and honest LR professional and just greedy monkeys.

What Danny shared is based on lot of greedy monkey experience touting around the market and LR name, esp RR name become too notorious because of those greedy workshops. They made this judgement that everyone who own RR is a big shot and if they rip them for couple of thousand then it's acceptable in their business dictionary. I have even come to hear from one of such greedy mechanic - that you drive RR and looking for a bargain.....!

Ticking bomb was the beep of EAS - Beep beep beep - I still remember it clearly and it used to be the most haunting beep of my life, that while driving all of sudden three beeps can turn your ride in to limping beast running at 60 kmph. After couple of attempts, I finally gave up on EAS and switch to solid springs (softer version) and enjoyed my RR thoroughly.

Like desertdude mentioned, I also agree that in newer version RR have improved much better on their EAS build quality and reliability. I also tasted Arnott ballons that comes about the same price and last forever in one of my close friend car, who is still driving the same RR without any haunting EAS beeps with best ride comfort.

The second best thing of RR after comfort is the seating position that shows you almost every nook and corner of the road with almost zero blindspot - some seriously amazing design done by LR guys, much better than Porsche, BMW and Merc in similar league.

As I owned my RR, I happen to realize that they are very easy to work on many DIY things like changing oil, filters, spark plugs and other basic maintenance that if you just have an honest mechanic, he wouldn't charge you fortune for same jobs as compare to LC, Patrol or any other Japanese 4x4.

For ride comfort explanation, all I can say that I drove that RR to Salalah and while coming back due to some rush, I drove 1600 kms in 12 hours non-stop, with just fuel top-up break every 400 kms.

@Gaurav thanks for the detailed reply. Great forum here. Get to know the pros and cons from real users. Thanks to all. 

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I call it the Range Rover tax. As soon as they see you rolling in through the gates, they see the next three months rent rolling in with you. 

The older Land Rovers are very easy to work on since basically the Rover V8 is an old American Buick push rod V8 from the 60s and remained pretty much the same till 2004. In 2002 the RR was fitted with the BMW M62 engine which was being used in BMWs like the 7 series since the mid 90s and was already tried and tested and was also used in the BMW X5. Frim 2002-2005 you can basically use BMW parts which I find are much cheaper and widely available. I was looking for a used ignition switch for my RR and the cheapest I found was 300 used at a LR parts guy. 3 doors down I bought the same from a guy who brings in jap BMW half cuts for 50dhs. 

The  in 2006 the Jaguar V8 was brought in which was also tried and tested. RR, RRS and even the LR3 used it. 

I ve seen many RRs with 300k plus kms on them and they still look run and drive just fine. I even know a guy with an LR3 with 400k miles and ride drives and pulls just fine, so these motors do last a long time if you keep up with general.maintenance.

 

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I feel that @HSD can get the RR if he has time to get the car fixed every now and then and is ok with car issues/part failure.

For someone who just wants reliability and just to keep driving without any issues and dont have time to frequent the workshop/dealership, go for LC instead. 

So basically, its an individual's choice.

Edited by evoboy2016
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Yes just like when I drove my two Land Cruisers for around 10 years and almost spent every day off and any free time I had in the workshop fixing sonething or the other. Whether it was when my fuel tank fell off, my fuel pump died, front and rear diffs got knackered, Auto transmission one day decided not to work, my transfer case said to hell with you Im going to blow up and leak oil all over the place, my radiator stopped cooperating, my condensor didnt want to cool anymore, then my evaporator also decided to get all gunked up. My indicatiors decided they didnt want to stay attached to the body and kept falling off, my steering rack didnt want to keep any of iit oil and also didnt want to stay fixed in placed. My rack end spared my life by not failing during a highway run and only failed when I slowed down veering my car off the road and into a ditch punching right through my alloy wheel leaving a big hole in it and both my tyres facing different directions. The wiring to the knock sensors gave up. And the list goes on and on and on and on. Because these are just thing off the top of my head and its been a while, And these were just the memorable events I remember clearly. So sure buy a LC and enjoy the reliability :D

Point Im trying to make is IMO there is no such thing as a reliable car. Its up to the owner how well he maintains and looks after his ride, taking preemptive measures rather than waiting for things to fail to the best of his abilities. And honestly nowadays no such thing as cheap parts.

I also had a Land Rover Discovery Series 1 which I drove till it hit 325k kms and it was the most reliable car I ever had. I drove it to Abu Dhabi and back twice a day putting over 400kms on it daily. And only once the drive belt tensioner broke which a quick 20min side of the road repair and was on my way again. 

 

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8 hours ago, desertdude said:

 

Point Im trying to make is IMO there is no such thing as a reliable car. Its up to the owner how well he maintains and looks after his ride, taking preemptive measures rather than waiting for things to fail to the best of his abilities. And honestly nowadays no such thing as cheap parts.

 

 

this 👌

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