LAND ROVER RANGE ROVER

Description

Land Rover truely cemmented their future when they create the Range Rover in 1970 in response to customers of the Land Rover asking for a more luxurious version. The age of the 4x4 was born!

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Our Verdict

The P38 is the official name for the second generation Range rover which was introduced in 1994. The original Range Rover, which is known as the “classic”, first made an appearance in 1970 and proved to be a huge success for Land Rover, introducing an entirely new genre of car. Given that it is nowadays called the classic rightly suggests that these cars are now highly coveted and good ones sell for £20k plus, meaning that it does not qualify for the future classics scrutiny. The P38 on the other hand would look like it perfectly set for future classic status.
The “Classic” was a great off roader but did come in for some criticism for its handling on road, so in an effort to address this Land Rover designed an air suspension system for the second gen. Called EAS, it allowed automatic, speed determined height adjustment, the five suspension heights offered by EAS are "Access", "Highway", "Standard", "Off-Road", and "Off-Road Extended". Height was also adjustable manually between the first four settings. This system was intended to give drivers the best of both worlds and it did indeed prove successful at doing this, with reviews at the time praising its refinement and stability on motorways and in corners (compared to the Classic that is) while retaining great off road capabilities. The problem with this suspension system though was its complexity which has led to reliability issues as it has grown old, which I will address later.

The engine range continued to use the 4.0L Rover V8 from the classic with a stroked version providing a 4.6L example, both with upgraded engine management. There was also a BMW sourced 2.5L diesel engine which has left us here at Future Classics in a bit of a quandary, basically we are unsure of whether to include the diesel in our review, on the one hand its an excellent, torguey and economical engine from BMW, but on the other hand, its a diesel, and we are not convinced it really fits the refined air of the Range Rover as a classic car. (We would be happy for any thoughts on this one, just go to our Facebook page)

The level of interior luxury was another area where the P38 was much improved, and came with a lot of goodies that would make you feel spoilt even by today standards. Of course this does mean there is more things to go wrong so a good check of all the electronics when buying a Range Rover is essential.

And talking of buying one its time to address the rather prickly issue of reliability, and because the P38 is quite a complex car, there is a fairly long list of things to look out for. Basically any car that has evidence of having done what it was designed to do, i.e. go off road, should raise alarm bells and will need a thorough checking over, one's that have been used as Chelsea tractors are your best bet.

So what to look out for, well the engine and the air suspension are the main areas to focus on.
The V8's don't last much longer than 100k miles and they have habit of dropping their cylinder liners (identified by a hard ticking sound on idle) which will cause the engine to over heat, which will cause the head to warp, which will render the engine scrap!
And now to the air suspension... Where do we start? Firstly the rubber air bladders fail meaning the car will drop to its bottom setting and stay there, raise the car to its full height and check the bags for signs of perishing. The compressor pumps are also prone to to giving up too. Don't be surprised or put off to see many examples advertised with new engines and recon'd suspension, and for originality reasons, avoid cars that have had a coil suspension conversion done, though the jury is still out regarding the many LPG conversions.
I have provided a couple of links to the forums which give an excellent guide to all the things you will need to look for when buying.

Well I hope I haven't completely put you off the idea of buying a Range Rover as I feel that they have much to offer as a future classic and we hope to bring a full test drive of one very soon.
Prices:

4.0L 98 plate 98k miles Good condition, new engine £2250

4.6L 99 plate 99k miles good condition, new engine, recon suspension £2650

4.0L 97 plate 63k miles V good condition £2500

4.0L 96 plate 78k miles V good condition, recon suspension £2400


http://forum.landrovernet.com/showthread.php/58551-Buying-a-used-P38-Range-Rover-beginners-check-list

http://www.lro.com/features-reviews/reviews-buyers-guides/1304/land-rover-range-rover-p38-4x4-review/

Future Classics Rating