Hello from Spain

Hello all! I'm an American living in self-imposed exile, and although I have owned a few Series Land Rovers over the years, I just bought my first Range Rover - a 1989 2-door base model with the 3.5L V8 and five-speed. She's a little banged up around the body, but totally rust free and mechanically near perfect, and I'm terribly excited to have her.

I'll do a bit of a driving restoration, and will likely back-date her a bit since I love the early trucks so much. Oh, and I'm also entered in the December running of the "Maroc Challenge," a stage rally across Morocco.

I feel certain I will be active here, and asking tons of questions that will probably seem pretty simplistic to those of you with more experience with these vehicles, so I thank you in advance for your help and patience, and if any of you get to the Costa Blanca in Spain, hit me up and I'll buy you a beer or three.

Best,

Why did you exile yourself?

Welcome!

Nice part of the country, I've had a couple of holidays further down the coast.

West Slope Rover said:

Why did you exile yourself?

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Well, without getting too political, too many guns, mostly. I'm not anti-gun, necessarily, but the proliferation of firearms and everyday shootings in the USA is kinda nutty. Plus, the whole style of life is different. My wife and I have two young boys, and we were working too hard and too long, not seeing them enough, and spending a fortune on healthcare and after school care. It just felt like a rat race, with me being, well... a rat.

So we chucked it and moved to Spain. Originally it was just going to be a year sabbatical, but after a few weeks we decided we couldn't envision going home, so I started a small business exporting classic vehicles to the USA and reselling them there. Mostly Series Land Rover Santanas, but other stuff too. The company is Valencia Classic Vehicle Consulting

I bought this Range Rover the other day, and on the way home thought to myself: "Wow, this is the nicest driving truck I have ever experienced." After a couple hundred kilometers I decided I had to keep it and restore it. Something about this truck just got under my skin. I absolutely love it.

I'm very glad to have found this forum. I can already tell it is going to be a fantastic resource.

Best,

My daily driver is a '93 LSE, so I know of which you speak.

I have many guns, but I've shot nobody. Yet.

Welcome.

welcome sensh.

I joined about six months ago, and already ive been constantly sucking info from better brains than mine SUCK, SUCK.

we were at a place called Campoumor near Torri from 85 till 96, built a villa, etc, was going to stay, then grandchildren started appearing, that set the wife off, so we came home.
have no regrets though, we called it our Spanish fling, and what a fling it was

its good to know someone's still enjoying the Spanish sun, WELL DONE, enjoy...

West Slope Rover said:

I have many guns, but I've shot nobody. Yet.

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Hah! Give it time. You will.

(Just kidding. Thanks for the kind words.)

leemar said:

have no regrets though, we called it our Spanish fling, and what a fling it was.

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I'll bet! Ours may turn out to be less permanent than we envision now. But at the moment we can dream, right?

Sensh said:

I'll bet! Ours may turn out to be less permanent than we envision now. But at the moment we can dream, right?

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I had a place in Spain for 8 years, I found the Spanish dishonest thieving buggers, friends of mine were robbed 3 times before they gave up and went back to the UK.

Datatek said:

I had a place in Spain for 8 years, I found the Spanish dishonest thieving buggers, friends of mine were robbed 3 times before they gave up and went back to the UK.

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Oh, that's a shame. I have only been here a year, but I haven't found that to be the case at all. Quite the opposite, actually. I travel around the country by myself a lot, and my Spanish is still very iffy, but I have had nothing but good experiences. I suppose things can happen anywhere, though.

Sensh said:

Oh, that's a shame. I have only been here a year, but I haven't found that to be the case at all. Quite the opposite, actually. I travel around the country by myself a lot, and my Spanish is still very iffy, but I have had nothing but good experiences. I suppose things can happen anywhere, though.

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Very friendly as long as you are spending

Datatek said:

I had a place in Spain for 8 years, I found the Spanish dishonest thieving buggers, friends of mine were robbed 3 times before they gave up and went back to the UK.

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Hi Datatec, Just a little story.

We were dealing with the Spanish for twelve years, at one time there was a spat of house burglaries, very worrying, our Spanish friends would say LOOK TOWARDS YOUR OWN.. weeks later a gang of ex-pats were caught red handed.

the trick was watching newly arrived owners etc, knowing full well that first night would be to the local bar, there they would get chatting to the newly arrived, whilst their pals were removing valuables and literally stripping the villa. A whole warehouse was found, that was selling second hand furniture to new owners. not all were caught, but those that were received hefty prison terms, and im told that you just don't want to spend time in a Spanish prison.

Regarding our new Spanish / Yank, . Just get on with your life, be vigilant, be fair, and the rest will follow, in good order..

Hello and welcome rangie looks lovely

leemar said:

Regarding our new Spanish / Yank, . Just get on with your life, be vigilant, be fair, and the rest will follow, in good order..

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Hahaha! Indeed. This is my philosophy, and it has always done me in good stead.

I look forward to posting more photos of the Range Rover after I get the bodywork and paint done, and I find myself already promising the boys everything under the sun.

"Can we drive up the side of that mountain, dad?"

"Uhhh... sure."

"Can we go camping and catch fish?"

"You bet."

Eventually they're going to start enforcing these.

leemar said:

Hi Datatec, Just a little story.

We were dealing with the Spanish for twelve years, at one time there was a spat of house burglaries, very worrying, our Spanish friends would say LOOK TOWARDS YOUR OWN.. weeks later a gang of ex-pats were caught red handed.

the trick was watching newly arrived owners etc, knowing full well that first night would be to the local bar, there they would get chatting to the newly arrived, whilst their pals were removing valuables and literally stripping the villa. A whole warehouse was found, that was selling second hand furniture to new owners. not all were caught, but those that were received hefty prison terms, and im told that you just don't want to spend time in a Spanish prison.

Regarding our new Spanish / Yank, . Just get on with your life, be vigilant, be fair, and the rest will follow, in good order..

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I would not dispute any of that, but when it comes to selling land/property with hidden debts or properties built without planning permission or the local government taking property without compensation for some proposed development, the Spanish are in a league of their own.
I had a major battle to get the deeds to my property. many of my neighbours never got theirs and so were trapped unable to sell on.

Datatek said:

I would not dispute any of that, but when it comes to selling land/property with hidden debts or properties built without planning permission or the local government taking property without compensation for some proposed development, the Spanish are in a league of their own.
I had a major battle to get the deeds to my property. many of my neighbours never got theirs and so were trapped unable to sell on.

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Im so sorry to hear that Datatek,

We well remember the above going on in the few years we were there, ie the 80s and 90s, lovely developments, exotic sounding names, lovely villas, perfect homes, sad to say,, no good without water, electrics, local council services,, ie roads, rubbish removal, street lighting, etc. mostly down to unscrupulous developers in the first place.

Luckily, we left spain with non of those horror stories, we do trust that in the end, you did as well. Regards to you.

leemar said:

Im so sorry to hear that Datatek,

We well remember the above going on in the few years we were there, ie the 80s and 90s, lovely developments, exotic sounding names, lovely villas, perfect homes, sad to say,, no good without water, electrics, local council services,, ie roads, rubbish removal, street lighting, etc. mostly down to unscrupulous developers in the first place.

Luckily, we left spain with non of those horror stories, we do trust that in the end, you did as well. Regards to you.

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I had to get very heavy with the developer, but I got my deeds and was able to sell on and even make a small profit

I bought a little villa here near the beach last year. I certainly can't speak to what it was like in the 1980's or 1990's, but the process now is quite easy. Granted, you get a lawyer to look into everything, but you do that in the USA too, and for exactly the same reasons. I had no trouble at all.

I have also purchased more than a dozen used cars in the last 12 months. From Santiago to Sevilla and from Caceres to Cordoba. I have bought Series Land Rovers from old men in small towns and Lancia Fulvias from young professionals at exotic dealerships in big cities. I have never had even the slightest hint of unprofessionalism. Quite the contrary. I have found the Spanish willing to bend over backwards to help me out, even though my Spanish is iffy and I am often handling the transaction alone, very far from home. I have consistently been treated FAR better than I would have been, under similar circumstances, in the States.

"Dishonest, thieving buggers?" Not in my experience.

Since I'm from the USA, I am highly sensitive to the image of the "ugly American" tourist abroad. Loud. Drunk. Covered in cheap tattoos and speaking only English (increasingly loudly and slowly, if the listener doesn't share the language.) Ceaselessly bitching about how things "are better at home" and making little or no effort to appreciate another culture or, dare I even suggest, assimilate. There are very few Americans here in Javea, but plenty of English speaking tourists, and they look very familiar to me.

So I suppose where you choose to live is just different strokes for different folks, and probably for the best because of it. There are unscrupulous, unappealing people everywhere, but by and large they're the minority, and I would never hold an entire nation accountable for the behavior of those few.

Well said Sensh, and good for you Datatek.

In all my long dealings in Spain, there was only one slight upset.
When we sold our villa, it was agreed that £3,000.00 should be kept back by the Spanish buyer for three months, as a surety. ( probably due to us being foreigners ), we got a very good price, so we dismissed it as probably a lost cause. Five months later we had a call from Emileo, our Spanish lawyer, saying that he himself had taken our Spanish buyers to court, chasing up our surety, the outcome was that the judge had told our buyer that HE, WAS A VERY NOUGHTY MAN, WHAT MUST FOREGNERS THING OF US, and ordered him to give Emileo the £3,000.00. hence Emilio's call to us, saying that he had now reclaimed us our money. and when would we next be back in Spain.

About two months later, We went to Spain on holiday, met up with Emileo, and got our money, he would not dream of a thank you for what he had done, so after a meal, we departed. But apon our return home, we sent Emileo a 15% cheque for his kind endeavour's.

SPANISH FLING OVER PS Enjoy your time in Spain Sensh.

Sensh said:

Since I'm from the USA, I am highly sensitive to the image of the "ugly American" tourist abroad. Loud. Drunk. Covered in cheap tattoos and speaking only English (increasingly loudly and slowly, if the listener doesn't share the language.) Ceaselessly bitching about how things "are better at home" and making little or no effort to appreciate another culture or, dare I even suggest, assimilate.

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Have we met before?? It's possible that we have, but I'm often quite drunk after getting a bargain priced tat, so I may not remember. I'm very good at haggling over the price. I think that my loud voice and even pace of speaking helps. The only problem is that the tattoos I get don't measure up to the ones I get here in the good ol' USA.

I'll look for you next time. I'll be easy to find.