MK III Range Rovers.

[Matt H]

Anyone in the club have a MKIII Rangie? Looking for some insight on ownership of such.

[binch]

time for the stupid questions......What year would that be.....?

[Red90]

2002-2012

[Matt H]

Indeed. Sometimes called the L322 or FFRR (Full Fat Range Rover) or "Proper" Range Rover to differentiate it from the Range Rover Sport and Ewoke....err, I mean Evoke.

[binch]

ahh..on that note...we did have a member for short time and he bought an O6 ffrr   I'll pm you his email address.    He learned a lot about his over the few  years he kept it. :-\

[Matt H]

Noticing some really nice, low mileage late model Rangies for sale lately at some really tempting prices.

Considering some of these were once $100K units a few short years ago it's a lot of car for not a lot of money.

[Trevor]

Noticing some really nice, low mileage late model Rangies for sale lately at some really tempting prices.

Considering some of these were once $100K units a few short years ago it's a lot of car for not a lot of money.

Yes, good observation Matt. The big Rangies became quite popular from about 2009 onward. When I bought my RRS in 2008, it would be odd to see 1 other Rangie on the road a week (that was part of the appeal to me to be honest). A few years later and I was seeing them daily. I guess this isn't really that unique as low interest rates have brought a lot more higher end vehicles into the market where they otherwise would not have been. And that makes for a pretty healthy aftermarket.

I dunno how these hold up over time. Personally I had great success with both my RRS's, but I also did not have them out of warranty so I don't have any long term experience with them.

[Red90]

No experience with these in particular, but my general observation with modern cars is they start spitting out $1000 parts regularly after a certain age.

[Matt H]

I think overall modern vehicles are often capable of higher mileage if they are looked after well but they all share the same problem come repair time. That is they are packaged so tightly that even the most trivial repair can be a complete pig.

If your a DIY type that means you need $20k worth of special tools in order to fix the darn thing.
If you pay a garage to do the work it means the labour costs will soon make your vehicle beyond economic repair.

It's true of all modern vehicles regardless of brand.....although Ford takes it to the next level.

[Red90]

My experience with $1000 parts is doing the work myself and buying at near wholesale.  Every part is expensive and because there are so many, one or the other is always failing once they get over 10 years of age.  A modern Range Rover, no matter how well built must be at the highest level of complexity and I can't imagine how much horror it would be trying to keep on top of the failures.

[Alex C]

Matt you should buy 2 of them and report in once a week,

I have been looking at them on Kijiji, 10K to 20K, gets you a long list of choices, i am not to keen on the supercharged units, but i am tempted on some of the other V8 units, and their lots of plug ins now for the electronic diagnostics, i see this as the main challenge for the DIY mechanic (i could rebuild the engine on my D2, but could not program the door locks, or fix the 3 amigos)

their should be lots of these heading to the scrap yards in the next decade, our winter road conditions should take care of that, and a few dumb drivers in the summer will also participate, so a healthy supply of used parts should be available. Wear and tear items and maintenance parts are available via our usual supply chain.

[Matt H]

I'm no stranger to more modern LR units. My wife has driven an LR3 for years. Currently has about 315,000km on the clock. A few things have needed attention but overall I think it has done well.  We are thinking of renewing it with a unit that has less km.  The Rangie would be for her. Either that or an LR4. Or just keep on with ELLA the LR3, it's not worn out or anything. Still runs like a top!

I'm also a HD/Auto mechanic by trade so try as I might there is no escaping the world of modern vehicle diagnostics. Perhaps that's why I like the Series Land Rovers so much?