P38 or L322?

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StuckAgainSteve said:
My classic was quite young and fresh when I bought it - but it still wandered like a Essex boy on heat. The P38 drives so much better and feels so much better put together, yes the L322 is better still in terms of driving dynamics but I think it's almost too car-like. The P38 is a happy medium.
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a happy medium, thats why i got one , had it a couple of months now and love it, no major problems and getting to know it and range rover, and sorting a few little things , this week i replaced a cracked tailgate join trim with a nice one, am external front screen pillar trim with a nice one to match the other side, a nice deeb cup holder leather top cubby box lid, and a nice vogue proper walnut rear ash tray to replace the standard one that didnt stay closed,last week a nice pioneer bluetooth hands free stereo with remote control and an ipod thats hidden in glove box,and some very nice 6x9 speakers to replace cheap 6x9 its had that sounded ok, not major things but just nice little improvements im happy with that make it all round nicer

for the money its cost me its brilliant, a hell of a lot of car and luxury, with that off road ability and not too expensive or new i wouldnt want to off road it at all, for just over 2k , i would of bought a very nice example nice diesel classic if i found one maybe, but couldnt , but didnt even find a single diesel good or bad to even go view, be interested to sit in and drive one one day and just see what i think
 
Got to agree on the looks thing. Landrover are going too bling/WAG with the latest models. I do like the looks of the L322 (well, except for those wing vents!) but after the facelift grill I think it went downhill.
 
Well, before I do anything I need a buyer for my Corsa 2008 (newer shape) 1.3cdti design 3dr black. £6500 bargain - if you know anybody looking for a nice small runabout pass it on ;) thanks
 
As has been said, if you pay £7.5K for a P38 you've been well and truly shafted and if you buy an L322 for £7.5K you are buying a dog!! A local Land Rover indy who I've used for a few spares over the years, but has a very good reputation, breaks out in a cold sweat anytime an early L322 turns up. Says a P38 is simple for a diy'er in comparison. Unless you get a Ford/Jag RR stay well clear. BMW had all but given up on Rangies which is why the early ones fair no better in the reliability stakes than a P38!!
 
I bought my P38 2 years ago and I’m totally happy with. I didn’t have big troubles yet however it’s teaching me what ”to be patient” means. Normal things like EAS fault messages when you’re proudly showing it to friends etc. But I love my Rangie. Never had a RR before and wasn’t specially interested in car or mechanic. By now I've studied every single page of the workshop manual, own an Hawkeye diagnostic and have managed to do little works on it by my own. Spares are affordable and you can easy find advice on almost every topic. In my opinion with an L322 it wouldn’t be so easy and affordable. I like the style of the L322 especially the interior but the P38 has definitely more charm. I don’t know how to explain it … Of course it’s look older then the L322, the interior in particular, but my P38 is my preciousssssss.


I would go for a P38 and save some £££ for future maintenance.
 
Get a Classic - Catches people's eyes, cheap parts, and a DIY vehicle. Otherwise get an L322. Don't bother with the p38 - I owned one for 8 year and could have purchased a house with the amount of money I spent keeping it going.
 
WSLR said:
Get a Classic - Catches people's eyes, cheap parts, and a DIY vehicle. Otherwise get an L322. Don't bother with the p38 - I owned one for 8 year and could have purchased a house with the amount of money I spent keeping it going.
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Yeah, get a classic, then buy a big bucket and a shovel to scoop up what's left of it up after a year's worth of tinworm. Enjoy random direction changes to enliven any journey, revel in the 15 motorway mpg (my 3.9 Vogue EFi, I get 20+ out of my 4.6 P38) fuel economy. laugh as you sit of the tailgate and then end up on your arse as it falls apart. The classic was great in its day but IMHO it's not sharp enough for modern road conditions.

I had a classic, which was far newer and lower mileage than my P38 when I bought it - absolutely no contest as to what is the better car.
 
other than the major problems like the gearbox failure on early l322's their still better off than the P38 - yes they have problems but there usually easily fixed with a little knowledge.

you know you can source parts for an l322 without going into debt ! lol - there not that much more expensive then the p38 as you would think - even so there still worth the hassel ! I love mine to bits

when driving past other fellow P38 drivers they all seem to have a little jealous glimpse :p haha

only kidding ! ;)
 
2.0_hippo said:
you know you can source parts for an l322 without going into debt ! lol - there not that much more expensive then the p38 as you would think

when driving past other fellow P38 drivers they all seem to have a little laugh at me
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suspension airbags??
 
I bought a L322 on a 2003 plate for £8,500 about 3 months ago, it WAS my dream car. Luckily I'm a mechanic & should have known better but got it anyway. On the face of it a nice clean one owner car with 96,000 miles & full history from the main dealers. If your thinking about running one on the cheap think again, these are the things that have gone wrong with mine since buying it three months ago, must admit though most drivers with no mechanical knowledge would probably drive round in it blissfully unaware of some of these things. . . . .


When I'd been using it a few days & started to notice a couple of faults like the mirrors didn’t fold properly. Fixed this then found out the reach adjustment had gone on the steering wheel, fixed that to. Then the CD changer stopped recognizing and ejecting the disks, fixed that. Then started to notice it taking a LONG time to lift up on the suspension & this was diagnosed as a faulty air pump a new one was fitted by me cost £350! Then the new pump blew one of the air shocks £280 trade price, fitted by me over a weekend.


On the test drive after fitting the air shock I noticed the front drop link was knocking which was probably due to the suspension being harder. Fixed that to in about an hour & cost about £20 for a new drop link arm.


The hose on the rear of the engine blew & put the low coolant light on (happy days!) got the car home & changed the hose £7.36. Before I refilled the car with coolant I thought I'd check how much was in, none! This car had a full service history from one of the country’s poshest main dealers & they had not checked the coolant on the last service which was only 2,000 miles ago! Cost of this last service by the last owner? £2,800. Filled the car with the correct amount of winter coolant & guess what? It's all ****ed out through a hole in the bottom edge of the radiator, cost of this another £180 + more expensive coolant.


Then the rear lights filled with water £360 for two updated Supercharged lights, these still mist up & will no doubt fill with water in the future (near future).



Next up was a 600 mile trip to Scotland, the car never missed a beat apart from some surging when in top gear, visited a friend who is an automatic gearbox man on getting back from Scotland to be told the torque converter clutch or something is gone & it's locking & unlocking. The cost of this? About £1800 including box re-con & torque converter! Don't think I'll be doing that one. . .



The previous owner forgot to tell me the rear bushes were worn out & on my return from Scotland I found both rear tyres to be worn out on the outside edge (newish tyres) just in time for the cars MOT, cost of new tyres about £600 the pair for decent ones, plus of course the cost of fitting the new bushes & labor as I can't be bothered to wast any more of my weekends on the car & have booked it in the the dealers to do it. Cost for the bushes £90 for the four rear hub bushes plus another £360 to fit them.


Can't face doing any more on this car & am looking to get a Lexus RX or Porsche Cayenne in the very near future. They don't look as good as My Range Rover but will be more reliable. My last car was a Subaru Forester & I never needed to touch it between services & nothing ever broke on it.


If you do decide to run a L322 Range Rover properly put about £6000+ aside for all the work it will need over the year, if you do all the work yourself otherwise forget it & buy something else. If you do plan to drive it to don't forget the £140 per week on petrol too.

As for a P38 I remember from my mechanic days they are REALLY UNRELIABLE


Good luck . . .you'll need it!


 
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GLIDEMAN said:
Can't face doing any more on this car & am looking to get a Lexus RX or Porsche Cayenne in the very near future. They don't look as good as My Range Rover but will be more reliable. My last car was a Subaru Forester & I never needed to touch it between services & nothing ever broke on it.


As for a P38 I remember from my mechanic days they are REALLY UNRELIABLE
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The most unreliable car I ever owned was a new Porsche 944S, my P38 is a paragon of virtue by comparison.:)
 
I Have to say I am a Mechanic so can do all the jobs by myself and have access to ramps and power tools but since I purchased my P38 at the begining of the month I have covered around 500 miles (early days and no distance I know) and have not had a single fault, its an S reg 4.0 face lift with the clear lights and pleated seats in Oxford blue with 130,000 miles and lots of history and bills, fresh from the Shetland Isle on purchase it had one or two problems, Cruise not working ,the last 1/2 " of vac pipe to the acuator had a split, 2 seconds with a pair of scissors and the cruise is working faultless, foam on scuttle panel had disintegrated, again and hour or so of work and £20 for this and two pollen filters of the bay and job done, I gave her a full service and freed of the brakes as the caliper slides were a little sticky and she is faultless everything and I mean everything works exactly as its should on this car even the climate is Ice cold it has reasonable Pirelli scorpions all round and the spare alloy hasn't hardly been on, it has recently had 4 susp air bags the heater O rings and a Battery. To say im over the moon would be an understatement. I am not stupid and know the car will have its problems but they can be fixed, OH I forgot to mention the princely sum for all this motor.............£1800 with 3 months warrenty.
 
marmitemania said:
I Have to say I am a Mechanic so can do all the jobs by myself and have access to ramps and power tools but since I purchased my P38 at the begining of the month I have covered around 500 miles (early days and no distance I know) and have not had a single fault, its an S reg 4.0 face lift with the clear lights and pleated seats in Oxford blue with 130,000 miles and lots of history and bills, fresh from the Shetland Isle on purchase it had one or two problems, Cruise not working ,the last 1/2 " of vac pipe to the acuator had a split, 2 seconds with a pair of scissors and the cruise is working faultless, foam on scuttle panel had disintegrated, again and hour or so of work and £20 for this and two pollen filters of the bay and job done, I gave her a full service and freed of the brakes as the caliper slides were a little sticky and she is faultless everything and I mean everything works exactly as its should on this car even the climate is Ice cold it has reasonable Pirelli scorpions all round and the spare alloy hasn't hardly been on, it has recently had 4 susp air bags the heater O rings and a Battery. To say im over the moon would be an understatement. I am not stupid and know the car will have its problems but they can be fixed, OH I forgot to mention the princely sum for all this motor.............£1800 with 3 months warrenty.
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Clearly p38 s are definately NOT all bad.(i have had three)
 
Whilst im on the subject of this car Im a little confused about the spec as its an SE but seems to have everything a HSE has apart from electric seats it has heated front screen, electric sunroof, full wood dash and doors, dipping rear view mirror, pleated piped seats, headlight wipers and front fogs, white indicators. Is this correct or has it been barstardised? (I hope not) and would this have the four wheel traction control? Im keen to know if this is correct.
 
marmitemania said:
Whilst im on the subject of this car Im a little confused about the spec as its an SE but seems to have everything a HSE has apart from electric seats it has heated front screen, electric sunroof, full wood dash and doors, dipping rear view mirror, pleated piped seats, headlight wipers and front fogs, white indicators. Is this correct or has it been barstardised? (I hope not) and would this have the four wheel traction control? Im keen to know if this is correct.
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Probably an ex demo in its day or something.Mine has more than standard dse spec like ice controls on steering wheel heated seats etc.
 
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