Buy a Used Range Rover, Just Be Smart About It
Used luxury vehicles, regardless of marque, can cost you a fortune, if you’re not careful.
There’s no such thing as a free lunch. Hoovies Garage, AKA Tyler Hoover, on YouTube is here to reinforce that very important lesson. If you’re buying a used luxury car, there’s a lot of things to take into account beyond the pretty face. Luxury vehicles use high-end materials and have high-end features. That means that while they are usually built for the long haul, things are expensive when they break.
With more features and more tech comes more failures, and expensive ones, too. Just because you were able to buy, say, a used 2004 Range Rover for used Toyota money doesn’t mean the parts depreciate, too. You’re still going to be paying for maintenance on a vehicle that originally cost as much as a house in many parts of the country. That brings us to a very used Range Rover parked behind Hoover.
Before the Range Rover even starts, the steering wheel adjuster fails to work and the fuel pump makes some frightening noises. Even more frightening is the ticking noise the engine makes on startup. This is, naturally, accompanied by a check engine light on the dash, which is joined by several dead pixels on the display. That check engine light points to failure of the variable valve timing system, which results in sluggish performance made worse by the soft suspension. Apparently, the trick air-ride system was replaced with a less-expensive coil spring setup after one failure too many.
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Our advice? If you’re buying an older luxury car, be smart about it. There is absolutely nothing wrong with buying a used Range Rover, or any Land Rover product. Check the forums if you don’t believe us, many folks there keep their rides going, no problem. However, obviously, buy one that’s been well-maintained, and have it looked over by an expert before you part with your hard-earned cash. Then, set aside some more money to cover the inevitable repairs an older vehicle will need. Older Range Rovers can be great to own and drive, but it’s important to get ahead of maintenance issues before they stack up.
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