Dear Discoweb Advice Column:
Yesterday I went to check out a 1993 Range Rover SWB County Sport edition. Aegean blue, TWR wheels. 172K on the clock but the current owner overheated the engine, warped the heads, and had a shop do an engine swap. Replacement engine has 60K and runs beautifully. Smooth, powerful, no leaks, clean, it was a pleasure to drive. Also had a local radiator specialist rebuild the stock rad with high-flow, large diameter, heavy duty components. So that's the diamond: everything under the hood, no leaks, and not a speck of rust anywhere.
Now for the turd part. The truck has a number of issues, which is no surprise for a 21-year old Rangie. Any four or five of them I would be willing to deal with, but I'm not keen on taking on the entire laundry list. Here's what I was able to determine it needs (or at least what I would replace/repair):
Other stuff I checked that seems okay
There are probably a few things I'm forgetting.
The seller is asking $3,000 and is probably looking to at least recoup the cost of the engine replacement. The tires, windscreen, and electrical issues (which I personally have little interest in tackling myself) would probably run north of $1,000. Possibly a fair bit more, I don't know what windscreens go for and I haven't diagnosed the faults. Most of the other stuff (struts, headliner, bushings, fog lamps etc.) I can do myself.
I'm guessing that the price I'm willing to pay, taking into account my costs of getting the truck into safe and satisfactory condition, is probably below what the seller is willing to accept. If I bought the Rangie I would then sell my Disco (let's not get into that, assume that part of the equation is fixed) and we all know what a 98 D1 will go for. Ideally it would be a wash at the end of the day but I would probably end up paying a couple grand net between the work needed to make my Disco sellable and bringing the Rangie up to snuff.
The solid fundamentals of that Rangie are tempting but will it be worthwhile? No matter what RRC I buy at this point it will need work and it may be a long time until I find another with these sound underpinnings. What would Discoweb do?
Yesterday I went to check out a 1993 Range Rover SWB County Sport edition. Aegean blue, TWR wheels. 172K on the clock but the current owner overheated the engine, warped the heads, and had a shop do an engine swap. Replacement engine has 60K and runs beautifully. Smooth, powerful, no leaks, clean, it was a pleasure to drive. Also had a local radiator specialist rebuild the stock rad with high-flow, large diameter, heavy duty components. So that's the diamond: everything under the hood, no leaks, and not a speck of rust anywhere.
Now for the turd part. The truck has a number of issues, which is no surprise for a 21-year old Rangie. Any four or five of them I would be willing to deal with, but I'm not keen on taking on the entire laundry list. Here's what I was able to determine it needs (or at least what I would replace/repair):
- tires (unsafe as is, including original spare)
- I couldn't get the TC to shift to low range and didn't want to break it so stopped yarding on the lever
- small dent in rear quarter panel
- driver's seat won't move
- large crack in windscreen
- dash is a Christmas tree:
- Service Engine is an easy fix, CEL is on (haven't checked codes), ABS light is on, low washer fluid light blinks even with fluid in the tank, and some orange light I didn't recognize. Maybe it was air suspension- top right on the display, had an exclamation point with a circle on each side.
- courtesy lights in the door bottoms stay on. Current owner pulls the fuse whenever he shuts down the engine to keep them from draining the battery.
- sagging headliner
- upper tailgate struts
- fog lights inop.
- has a custom fab exhaust, which seems to be okay except for the muffler
- front passenger window has trouble going up
- worn bushings
Other stuff I checked that seems okay
- sunroof
- driveshafts
- brakes work well
- air suspension replaced with coils, could use new springs & shocks but rides fine
There are probably a few things I'm forgetting.
The seller is asking $3,000 and is probably looking to at least recoup the cost of the engine replacement. The tires, windscreen, and electrical issues (which I personally have little interest in tackling myself) would probably run north of $1,000. Possibly a fair bit more, I don't know what windscreens go for and I haven't diagnosed the faults. Most of the other stuff (struts, headliner, bushings, fog lamps etc.) I can do myself.
I'm guessing that the price I'm willing to pay, taking into account my costs of getting the truck into safe and satisfactory condition, is probably below what the seller is willing to accept. If I bought the Rangie I would then sell my Disco (let's not get into that, assume that part of the equation is fixed) and we all know what a 98 D1 will go for. Ideally it would be a wash at the end of the day but I would probably end up paying a couple grand net between the work needed to make my Disco sellable and bringing the Rangie up to snuff.
The solid fundamentals of that Rangie are tempting but will it be worthwhile? No matter what RRC I buy at this point it will need work and it may be a long time until I find another with these sound underpinnings. What would Discoweb do?
