Range Rover Classic daily driver....?

Anyone still using their Classic as a daily driver? I mean for shopping, commuting, seaside etc, everything except off-roading basically. I badly want another (Diesel) RR as a main car and although a P38 or L322 would be the logical choice I'd much prefer a Classic. Assuming I could find a clean rot-free example, is this a viable proposition in 2014?

300s definitely viable as a daily, loads of peeps running discos. the hard part is finding a rust free one for sensible money.

We use our restored 25th anniversary as a daily in Central London. A part from fuel, it is great...well it is as bad as our R107 300SL: 20 l/100km, or a full tank per 200miles.

It actually is not as big as one would think: the other day we had a Discovery parked behind us: it is actually much bigger. Amazing how cars have grown in 20 years.

Why wouldn't you ? My old 2 door with a 200TDI in it still works hard on a daily basis and does one or two trips to the south of France every year.Its not mine now,a good friend owns it,and finds the PAS and 5 speed box a help compared to the 1951 80" he was using for the same work before the RR.
My brother is part way round Australia in a 67 LWB 6cyl 109 with a roof tent etc.... It just depends on what you expect,and how much you prepare/maintain.

911thrasher said:

We use our restored 25th anniversary as a daily in Central London. A part from fuel, it is great...well it is as bad as our R107 300SL: 20 l/100km, or a full tank per 200miles.

It actually is not as big as one would think: the other day we had a Discovery parked behind us: it is actually much bigger. Amazing how cars have grown in 20 years.

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Yeah I get what you're saying, I've had a couple of Classics and a P38 - the P38 felt unnecessarily large compared to the Classic and the L322 seems vast by comparison - the lack of flabbiness is part of the Classic's appeal for me.

yes..i do...every day..convert to lpg though..

I've put 88,000 miles on my '93 since 2010. It's my daily everything car, including off-roading and hauling firewood.

By all means get one.
I had one with a 200 auto as a daily driver for the better part of two years until it blew a tyre at speed and rolled over. Did struggle a bit with the autobahn paces on extended trips but was perfectly happy sitting at 60 all day.
Would I have one now? Absolutely!!

ifloochies said:

By all means get one.
I had one with a 200 auto as a daily driver for the better part of two years until it blew a tyre at speed and rolled over. Did struggle a bit with the autobahn paces on extended trips but was perfectly happy sitting at 60 all day.
Would I have one now? Absolutely!!

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That's good to hear! Both mine were VM manual but I've had a 200 in a Defender and plenty of 300's in Discoverys - is there much to choose between the two engines in a Classic? Also I'd prefer an auto but would that ruin the fuel savings over a V8 or does it not add much mpg?

blackstrat said:

That's good to hear! Both mine were VM manual but I've had a 200 in a Defender and plenty of 300's in Discoverys - is there much to choose between the two engines in a Classic? Also I'd prefer an auto but would that ruin the fuel savings over a V8 or does it not add much mpg?

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The 200tdi auto was transplanted straight from a discovery into the classic in place of the old v8. I've never run a 300tdi but from what I hear they are a bit more refined than the 200tdi.
To be honest at the time, I did not have any other similarly powered vehicles to compare fuel figures with, but it was 5 times more easy on my finances than the v8 ever was, albeit a bit slower

mine has been my daily and only roadworthy car from may 2011 to now its a 3.9 v8 on gas and running on gas has been no dearer to run than a 1.0 vw polo I used to have but now its consigned to winter duties now ive finally restored my Cortina for summer use

Well sorted classics are very much sought after, look on eBay , some go for 7k, I read something somewhere that some of the oil rich Arabs that live in London snap them up, they see them as a more rarer range rover nowadays

i use my 300tdi auto as a runaround, its a bit lacking on some of the steeper hills round here. it is quite refined though and returns 30-35mpg on motorway runs at about 55-60mph. mines a vogue se so all the extras apart from cruise, nice place to be.

my 1987 range rover classic 3.5 litre efi is my daily driver and always will be
the lpg conversion makes it affordable
dont see many around but i love the v8 burble, the fact it is different and still going strong ( at the moment )

I bought mine to be used as a high day car only, however I found myself having to use it for 2 months over winter when my daily driver was off the road.

It didn't let me down once & was a pleasure to drive.

Now that it's only used rarely cos my daily drivers back, has it started having issues. They clearly don't like being left unused!!

Thanks for taking the trouble guys it's really useful to hear from real-world RRC users

I too like the burble of the V8 and of course they are more plentiful than the Diesels but no matter how much I try to convince myself that with a light throttle I could afford to run it the reality is I can't, so it's got to be an oil-burner!

Price-wise I am hoping that I could find a clean, mechanically sound, rot-free one for around £5K - it doesn't need to be concours just very straight with good paint, I can detail it myself. Is that realistic?

if you love the v8 burble I would recommend either buying one converted to gas or getting one converted kits can be picked up for around £300 and any competent mechanic can fit them a friend of mine has converted his cars himself with no trouble and it makes a v8 as cheap to run as a 1 litre on petrol ive been running mine on it all the time ive had it only problem I had was a solenoid went the cost to fix it £12 my average running about used to cost me 30-40 quid n my previous car a 1043 cc polo now its costing me 20-30 quid a week

rangydave said:

if you love the v8 burble I would recommend either buying one converted to gas or getting one converted kits can be picked up for around £300 and any competent mechanic can fit them a friend of mine has converted his cars himself with no trouble and it makes a v8 as cheap to run as a 1 litre on petrol ive been running mine on it all the time ive had it only problem I had was a solenoid went the cost to fix it £12 my average running about used to cost me 30-40 quid n my previous car a 1043 cc polo now its costing me 20-30 quid a week

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Yeah my favourite local LR specialists Wicken 4X4 do the conversions and sell the gas, have done for years but the trouble is as soon as you try to get an opinion there are as many arguing against lpg as there are for it - I can't see any way around this.

lpg at 72 pence a litre
my range rover classic is cheaper to run than my little vitara was
without lpg i wouldnt be able to run it
came with the conversion
little sceptical on day one but as i live with it its great on the wallet

mudderman said:

lpg at 72 pence a litre
my range rover classic is cheaper to run than my little vitara was
without lpg i wouldnt be able to run it
came with the conversion
little sceptical on day one but as i live with it its great on the wallet

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Do you use gas all the time? ..or start on petrol then switch? ..or does petrol have to be used periodically to keep fuel system fresh?