Looked at a P38 today...

This site contains affiliate links for which LandyZone may be compensated if you make a purchase.
Badie

Badie

New Member
Posts
25
Location
South Lanarkshire
I thought I would let people know of my disappointment at the car I went to view today.

I spoke to an independant dealer the other day who is advertising a 96 P reg 4.6 HSE in the Manchester area. He said in the advert the car is a credit to it's previous owner. I discussed the vehicle and he assured me it was mint, everything worked and I would not find a better one. It is advertised at £5000, which is not that cheap in my view.

However, drove the 200 miles today with a view to driving it back to sunny Scotland, based on his description of the car.

When I arrived to view the car it was nice enough on the outside, few scratches to be expected. I looked under the engine, to my surprise a lot of oil was evident. I set about trying to find where the oil was leaking from and discovered that the idle air control valve was broken and the multiplug and wiring was pushed out of the way to try and hide it. Drivers interior door panel had two holes in it and the interior light didn't work. This is just the things that stuck out to me, I never got into checking out the air suspension or any of the electrics.

Advert said full service history, a service was last carried out in November 2006.

I would have expected better from a used car dealer.:(

All in all a bit of a waste of a day and 400 miles.:mad:

If anyone can tell me of a really nice 4.6 HSE going with a mileage hopefully under 80000 I would appreciate it.

Rant over!!!
 
Nothing worse than dishonest car salesmen ! - reckon it was for the best anyway as that was too dear
I went to Bristol to look at one before I got mine - flew down from Glsgow and when I got there it was a heap of ****e
Had to have a "discussion" with the salesman which ended with me leaving his office with the cost of my flights there and back - tosser ! :mad:
I got mine (Jap import) from this bloke :-
96 N LANDROVER DISCOVERY V8 AUTO 7 SEATER RUST FREE on eBay, also, Land Rover Range Rover, Cars, Cars, Parts Vehicles (end time 02-Mar-08 12:28:46 GMT)

Steve is a really helpful guy and will even deliver to you
He doesn't appear to have any rangies in at the mo but maybe worth a ring to see when he expects his next batch in
Have a look at the condition of the discoveries in his listings - the range rovers he ships over are every bit as good if not better
Tell him Kenny frae Dunoon said Hi
PS - don't ever offer asking price - He is happy to negotiate for cash (but I didn't tell you that, right ;) )
 
Badie said:
I thought I would let people know of my disappointment at the car I went to view today.

I spoke to an independant dealer the other day who is advertising a 96 P reg 4.6 HSE in the Manchester area. He said in the advert the car is a credit to it's previous owner. I discussed the vehicle and he assured me it was mint, everything worked and I would not find a better one. It is advertised at £5000, which is not that cheap in my view.

However, drove the 200 miles today with a view to driving it back to sunny Scotland, based on his description of the car.

When I arrived to view the car it was nice enough on the outside, few scratches to be expected. I looked under the engine, to my surprise a lot of oil was evident. I set about trying to find where the oil was leaking from and discovered that the idle air control valve was broken and the multiplug and wiring was pushed out of the way to try and hide it. Drivers interior door panel had two holes in it and the interior light didn't work. This is just the things that stuck out to me, I never got into checking out the air suspension or any of the electrics.

Advert said full service history, a service was last carried out in November 2006.

I would have expected better from a used car dealer.:(

All in all a bit of a waste of a day and 400 miles.:mad:

If anyone can tell me of a really nice 4.6 HSE going with a mileage hopefully under 80000 I would appreciate it.

Rant over!!!
Click to expand...

hmmm, in my view I would of used these things as bargaining chips to beat him down on price. If theres one thing you want to be careful of its older P38's that appear 'mint'. If they are that its usually because someone is trying to hide something, wolf in sheeps clothing and all that. I guess from what you saw you didnt even start it up and test out anything else??

In answer to some of the points you raised, interior lights, probably just turned off, you can re-activate them by holding on the light button until it says INT. LIGHTS ON, if not then checked the bulbs?? For some reason someone had removed all the bulbs from mine when I got it, dont know why, everything worked but thats what they had done. I had even used this issue to get money off the vehicle.

Drivers door card, again, these pop up on eBay all the time, I even sold a set recently. They seem to go for around £100.

As far as the IAC valve, you can say it will cost XXX to replace this, I want this off.

Buying a P38 and expecting every tiny thing to work is a big ask unless you go for a very late model in my opinion.

-Wills :)
 
Fair point Wills - but by the sound of things five grand was too much to begin with
This is how clean Jap motors are :-
 

Attachments

  • DSC_0010-1.JPG
    DSC_0010-1.JPG
    57 KB · Views: 196
I've just sold my superb 83000 miler for £2600.....cheep but I need the cash for work.....For 5K everything should work and be without fault....No question.
Keep looking. You should be able to get 80000 milers for £3-3500 and have change for the fuel to drive home.:)
 
wills said:
hmmm, in my view I would of used these things as bargaining chips to beat him down on price. If theres one thing you want to be careful of its older P38's that appear 'mint'. If they are that its usually because someone is trying to hide something, wolf in sheeps clothing and all that. I guess from what you saw you didnt even start it up and test out anything else??

In answer to some of the points you raised, interior lights, probably just turned off, you can re-activate them by holding on the light button until it says INT. LIGHTS ON, if not then checked the bulbs?? For some reason someone had removed all the bulbs from mine when I got it, dont know why, everything worked but thats what they had done. I had even used this issue to get money off the vehicle.

Drivers door card, again, these pop up on eBay all the time, I even sold a set recently. They seem to go for around £100.

As far as the IAC valve, you can say it will cost XXX to replace this, I want this off.

Buying a P38 and expecting every tiny thing to work is a big ask unless you go for a very late model in my opinion.

-Wills :)
Click to expand...

Cheers Wills,

I did in fact start it up, I felt there was a misfire when throttling from idle.

I am a mechanic to trade, so not too worried about having to do a bit of work to the car. What got me was that the guy told me it was mint and for 5k that is what I was expecting.

I thought about haggling down the price, but I felt that the guy was shady. He said the car had passed an mot in November and hadn't really been driven since then, that being the case how did it pass with the IACV broken, pretty sure that would have affected the emmisons.

Anyway done now.

Cheers Wills
 
v8kenny said:
Nothing worse than dishonest car salesmen ! - reckon it was for the best anyway as that was too dear
I went to Bristol to look at one before I got mine - flew down from Glsgow and when I got there it was a heap of ****e
Had to have a "discussion" with the salesman which ended with me leaving his office with the cost of my flights there and back - tosser ! :mad:
I got mine (Jap import) from this bloke :-
96 N LANDROVER DISCOVERY V8 AUTO 7 SEATER RUST FREE on eBay, also, Land Rover Range Rover, Cars, Cars, Parts Vehicles (end time 02-Mar-08 12:28:46 GMT)

Steve is a really helpful guy and will even deliver to you
He doesn't appear to have any rangies in at the mo but maybe worth a ring to see when he expects his next batch in
Have a look at the condition of the discoveries in his listings - the range rovers he ships over are every bit as good if not better
Tell him Kenny frae Dunoon said Hi
PS - don't ever offer asking price - He is happy to negotiate for cash (but I didn't tell you that, right ;) )
Click to expand...

Nice one, cheers Kenny...:D

B
 
you should always try and catch the dealer out, they are ready for it and most expect potential buyers to know nothing.And you can always ask the question "Will I be disappointed when i see it?"Its usually not the answer that gives em away its the way they answer
 
v8kenny said:
Fair point Wills - but by the sound of things five grand was too much to begin with
This is how clean Jap motors are :-
Click to expand...

Kenny,

I appreciate the info on the Japanese imports. I was wondering are they exactly the same as the UK model? I know the US model is slightly different.

Have you had any problems? I've looked at Steves site on Ebay his cars do look good.

Cheers

B
 
Steve does all the paperwork so the car would be ready to drive
He changes the speedo sticker to read in MPH instead of KPH but the odometer and onboard computer are still metric
Mine reads 110,000 but that is km so has really only done about 70k miles and fuel consumption reads in litres/100 km
Apart from that then they are identical and come with all the toys
No insurance issues either as technically you are just bringing the car home - they have UK chassis nos. because they were built here and are therefore not grey imports
There is a thread on here about changing computer from metric to imperial if that is an issue with you
There is a garage Stirling way that imports RR along with other models but I can't remember their name and they were awfully dear as well although they did offer a years warranty - they sometimes have cars on ebay too
I'll tell you something - after seeing how clean and rust free they are I don't think I would buy a UK car again !
 
Heres the thread on the conversion for imperial/metric

http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/f10/imported-p38-53150.html

Only other thing I've noticed is that the factory stereo head unit on a Jap import has restricted FM Bandwidth (something like 79.0 - 89.9), spoke to Sextons last week - they can fit bandwidth extenders to the headunit or simply just replace it - theres another thread around somewhere about the conversion cable you need on replacing the head unit.
 
Troggy said:
Heres the thread on the conversion for imperial/metric

http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/f10/imported-p38-53150.html

Only other thing I've noticed is that the factory stereo head unit on a Jap import has restricted FM Bandwidth (something like 79.0 - 89.9), spoke to Sextons last week - they can fit bandwidth extenders to the headunit or simply just replace it - theres another thread around somewhere about the conversion cable you need on replacing the head unit.
Click to expand...

Oh Yeah, forgot about the radio
Steve actually fits bandwidth extenders to his cars before he sells them - guess that's why I forgot !
 
hi badi
i have jap import p38 4.0se for sale it has 66,000 miles speedo is in miles mint condition only thing that does not work are the heated seats everything els spot on and no rust any were i have had it lpg multipoint put on, certificated i have had the car three years do you think you could be interested its in northwest auto trader now ps £5000
 
Who's system is on it and can you give me any idea how big the tank is and what sort of mileage you get to a tankful ?
 
Yipee,

Bought a P38 4.6 HSE on Friday....Got it cheaper than the wreck in Manchester, V reg and in much better shape...

The V8 pulls like a train, what a noise it makes.....MINT!!!

The RR really is a great piece of kit, looking forward to owning a RR for the rest of my days now..
 
v8kenny said:
Pictures ! :)
Click to expand...
I'll get pictures sorted as soon as poss, I've currently got the instrument cluster and heater control panel out to replace the bulbs.

I also plan to go wild with the back to black and polish and make it all nice and shiny.

I spoke to Steve about an import but he only had one coming over at the moment and he was looking for about 7k, bit much for me to justify to the missus for a big toy:rolleyes: ...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

M
Code P6050
6 7 8
Replies
150
Views
4K
pwood999
pwood999
E
P38A What can kill a battery?
2
Replies
33
Views
1K
Datatek
Datatek
D
L320 TDV6 multiple issues at once with power drop
2 3
Replies
43
Views
2K
Graculus
Graculus
DollyBird
P38A Searching for die hard P38 guru - EAS
Replies
9
Views
419
brianp38dse
brianp38dse
M
RR p38 HSE 4.6 1996
Replies
9
Views
934
Datatek
Datatek
Back
Top