New Member - Question on 03-05 diesel Range Rover and Discovery

Hello Forum Members!

This is my first post here and we have just relocated to the Birmingham area from the States. Considering the Birmingham area gets some amount of snow I am looking into LR’s and am in need of some guidance. I am looking into 03-05 diesel Range Rovers and Discoveries with less than 80K miles. I am listing my questions below and would appreciate your input that helps me finalise the purchase:

1) In the States we don’t have the diesel LR’s, and I am being told by a few pre-owned car dealers that the diesel engines are very reliable and last for a long time. Should there be any concern looking at LR’s that have between 80-100K miles?

2) What are the common problems for the RR’s and Discoveries for these years that I should have checked out prior to the purchase?

3) Do the LR dealers do pre purchase inspections here in the UK?

4) Is there an online service like car fax.com here in the UK that will help me pull the history of the car to rule out accidents etc.

5) Is there a site that helps you are arrive at the ideal market value for a car.In the States the common sites are KBB.com, Nada.com and edmunds.com. I am sure there are sites here that will help me arrive at the value for a dealer sale, private party sale or trade in which I believe is termed as parts exchange here.

Please share your input as it will truly help me pick the ideal LR for our family.

:welcome:

Introduce Yourself - Land Rover Zone

http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/search.php

I think you have to get an indipendent inspection for a car from someone like the AA
Automobile assosiation .For what they are worth , if you read the small
Print they won't take responsibility for failure .

If buying from LR then they will already have inspected their second hand car and usualy come with some form of warranty .


For history checks use this
https://www.hpicheck.com

For a price guide use this
Car Value, Car Prices, Car Price Guide, Car Valuation Guide - Glass.co.uk

As for faults I'm sure others will help you there or start searching the forum in the relevant sections
And finally a100k is nothing on a diesel

Welcome and good luck

There is no such thing as a reliable Range Rover, the Disco seems to be marginally less unreliable. The Td6 diesel engine is pretty good, the later V diesel engines less so.
You can do an HPI check on the car for some history.

That year range of Range Rovers with the Diesel engine came with the GM5 gearbox which has a major issue - it destroys itself...

The TD6 M57 engines are good and strong, they tend to pop turbo pipes but not a major thing unless your on a motorway at the time!! Just a pity about the gearboxes!

Thanks for the responses. Let me do some detailed searches on the forum to read up more on the common issues.

FLFAMILY said:

Thanks for the responses. Let me do some detailed searches on the forum to read up more on the common issues.

Click to expand...

The GM5 box is the biggest problem on the TD6 Range Rover.....search for posts about it.

Also look at www.rangerovers.net and go to the forum there and search for posts by a member called RRPhil he is a gearbox guru and there are plenty of posts on the GM5 gearbox issues!

Having lived in Birmingham I wouldn't really say that you need to buy a 4X4 to cope with the snow there - it's no better or worse than any other part of England.

However if it helps 'sell' the purchase of a RR to the family then go for it!

I live in the East Midlands now, only 40 or so miles or so away from Birmingham, and last winter we supposedly had the worst weather for decades, but we only got a few inches of snow at most. Quite disappointing really as I was looking forward to exercising my LR!

Pete The Biker

Hi Pete - I appreciate your input. I do have some colleagues from Leicestershire and they all drive rear wheel drive BMW's and Mercedes so perhaps the winter or snow situation is really not that bad. I will read through all the details, in Florida we had a 07 LR3 HSE and absolutely loved it, but we never really needed the 4X4 in the FL summer .

FLFAMILY said:

Hi Pete - I appreciate your input. I do have some colleagues from Leicestershire and they all drive rear wheel drive BMW's and Mercedes so perhaps the winter or snow situation is really not that bad. I will read through all the details, in Florida we had a 07 LR3 HSE and absolutely loved it, but we never really needed the 4X4 in the FL summer .

Click to expand...

On Britain's non-rural roads you rarely need anything beyond a set of winter tyres and some common sense

What ever you choose to buy you're gonna need deep pockets! My 07 tdv8 vogue,has cost me the best part of 5/6k in service and repair bills in the last 12 months,excluding road tax and fuel.But, I wouldnt traded it in for anything else,unless it was a newer one!
Good luck and patience!

Pete The Biker said:

I live in the East Midlands now, only 40 or so miles or so away from Birmingham, and last winter we supposedly had the worst weather for decades, but we only got a few inches of snow at most. Quite disappointing really as I was looking forward to exercising my LR!

Pete The Biker

Click to expand...

Just to make myself clear, other parts of the country did get horrendous snow last year which took weeks to clear. But the East Midlands escaped it - this time!

Pete the Biker

Thanks for the clarification. After reading multiple forums all day we have decides to get one LR (RR or Discovery) paired with a Mercedes.

Is it common to incur 5/6k in service and repair bills annually? Our 2001 Discovery (petrol) was not reliable at all, but had LR bumper to bumper warranty so we were covered, but our LR3 HSE was super reliable and the only issues we had was the compressor for the suspension in the 4 years of ownership. I am just trying to better understand if it is common to spend 3-6K each year to keep the RR going.

5k a year is high.

although a full service on these beasts can be alot from what i hear.

i do it myself so i know its been done properly

Thanks. I will start looking into a few independent LR repair shops in the Birmingham area. As we are so close to Solihull I am hopeful that there are many reputed shops that work on LR's.

FLFAMILY said:

Thanks for the clarification. After reading multiple forums all day we have decides to get one LR (RR or Discovery) paired with a Mercedes.

Is it common to incur 5/6k in service and repair bills annually? Our 2001 Discovery (petrol) was not reliable at all, but had LR bumper to bumper warranty so we were covered, but our LR3 HSE was super reliable and the only issues we had was the compressor for the suspension in the 4 years of ownership. I am just trying to better understand if it is common to spend 3-6K each year to keep the RR going.

Click to expand...

It is if you cannot DIY, oh and Mercs are not much better, look out for terminal chassis rot.

All Mercs are rust buckets !

FLFAMILY said:

Thanks. I will start looking into a few independent LR repair shops in the Birmingham area. As we are so close to Solihull I am hopeful that there are many reputed shops that work on LR's.

Click to expand...

dont forget this is a forum where peops come with problems, I am sure there is plenty who dont have all the probs,as for me apart from servicing my 04 3.0 hse has cost me about £1000/£1100 and I put mine into an indy for any repairs and I have had it going on 3 yrs so I am more than happy. good luck with your choice