i bought a 1991 Range Rover Classic a few months ago and love it. here are my ideas.
-join a local land rover club. someone in the club is a mechanic or owns a landrover shop usually. also someone in the club may have a great vehicle for sale. you can ask everyone in the club their opinion of the vehicle.
-get the thing checked out by a qualified mechanic. pay $100 or whatever it costs to really have it looked at.
-dont buy one with air suspension. this is the single biggest pain in range rovers. vehicles from years with air suspension are often converted to springs & shocks. great if someone else has done it... expensive if you have to pay for it.
-buy a rust free vehicle: look in Texas or Southern California. Some place with no ice.
- if you plan to offroad, look into the short wheel base models, and look for one that already has offroading accessories installed (buying these already installed on a used vehicle will save you a ton)
- if you do not plan to offroad the truck, buy the long wheel base
- the reliability concern on range rovers comes from two main areas (others may disagree, but this is what i see): 1) the aforementioned air suspension which is to be avoided at all cost 2) the Lucas electrical system/components, especially things like window lifts, door locks, etc. all of these can be fixed, and you'll have to expect some things to need replacement on a 20 year old car. i will say this though. i have 189K miles on my Range Rover and it runs great. i have driven this truck up and down trails you would not believe. i'm willing to overlook the occasionaly hiccup, especially those i can fix with the internet and some elbow grease.
- email me if you want to talk more
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Pat Herman
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