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[AAXD]

To each his own. I'm content, and actually happier having a series rover that I can work on on my own without specialist tools. In the 6 years I have been actively playing with rovers, I've watched the prices on series rovers skyrocket, and the prices on older NAS rigs like RRC's and now D1's plummet. I think with the amount of new technology being put into cars now, some people are realizing that the upkeep for these cars as they age is going to continue to climb. Both vehicles use proven technology that works well, and both are equally prone to failure. The difference lies with the complexity of the technology used to make a certian system do its job. A year ago I was quoted $100 to have my check engine light read and reset by a reputable rover shop. That was before any work was even done. Today I have a handheld OBDII code reader that does it for me as many times as I need it to, and cost half what the shop qouted me for a one time check.(incidentally, the guy at the shop that did the work on my rover hooked me up for free, read the code and cleared it. The check engine light came back on 5 minutes later) Imagine if I had paid what they were asking to read it. Keep in mind that in 1993, a top spec range rover county lwb was $53000. In 2001, the same truck would have sold for no more than $13000, in almost new condition. Today the average LWB in top condition sells for no more than $9000, and some as low as 1500 for a running driving truck. In almost every way, the 93 LWB was the Range Rover MKIII of its day. If history teaches us anything, we should be able to pick up a 10 year old MKIII in 2014 for the equivelant(taking into account inflation) of the $10000 the average LWB sold for in 2003. I'm not trying to predict the future or anything, but I read a quote last night that makes a lot of sense in this discussion. It said something like" If you want to try to predict the future, you need to help create it" Going back to what i said earlier about series rover prices climbing, more and more people are realizing that a simple rig will outlast a complex one in the long run. Even if the design is almost 60 years old.