WANTED: Rover for $1000

[ping65810]

Hi everyone! Been looking at the boards for a while now, along with other forums, and have been looking for a Rover and decided to finally pick one up. My budget is small, but I am finding a lot locally around here, so am hopeful. I'm interested in ANY Rover, but have a soft spot for Discos and p38s. Can't be a complete rust bucket or blown motor deal, but I know for $1k its going to be a little rough around the edges. Please feel free to let me know whats out there, and what you may have. I am in Massachusetts on the New Hampshire line, but am willing to travel a little bit for the right truck.

Thanks!

 

[Tugela]

Any P38 you buy for $1,000 is going to be nothing but broken promises and shattered dreams. And faulty air suspension. And screwy computers. And empty wallet. And weekends spent in the garage. And so on.

It would help to know what your intended use is for your $1,000 Rover. If you want to cart firewood and tools around your property, you're on the right track. If you want a reliable daily driver that you can take to the Boston red carpet premiere of the Mark 4 Range Rover, your likelihood of success is low.

 

[stu454]

At the risk of appearing harsh, if your budget is small, you should probably consider another truck.

To make a cheap Rover work on a budget you'll need some serious wrenching skills as well as a good dose of luck. I say this as someone on a very tight budget who sometimes wonders if he'd be better off with a Toyota.

Hazing here at d-web can be a little tough, but if you do get a Rover the information available here is worth a lot. Just remember to search first, as almost any newbie question has been answered in detail many times over.

edit: I just saw your location. Be aware that most every truck in your price range has the potential to be a rustbucket. Don't be afraid to crawl under the truck, lift up carpet and generally give the truck a thorough going-over. I think your best bet is a Discovery 1 (D1 for short). They are the '94-'99 1/2 trucks with the flush door handles. There should be a few 'what to look for' threads floating around.

 

[Rob P.]

I echo the opinion of the P38 being scary. I've heard nothing but bad stories about what can happen with them electrically and also transfer case trouble could be bad. The early non-OBDII D-1's would be my choice as they don't require a trip to the plug in emissions station depending on what you have where you are. Here in PA I have to do that with my 96 but 95 and older just get a visual and gas cap check.

Check for rust in the rear floor area and around the wheel wells and lower rear door pillars. Patience is needed. I bought mine not knowing shit about them and got lucky with condition but also paid $4000 for a bone stocker when if I had waited for 6 months and kept my eyes open I could have gotten more for less.

 

[crown14]

What you want is called a dodge ramcharger.

 

[RVRSRVC]

Nohing at $1000, but I do have a 96 DI with penty of new parts, no sunroofs so no rusty arches and runs/looks good for $2500
And a 2000 D2 with big wheels, tires, springs, very presentable, no a/c and a failing trans for $2800.

I'm near Hershey, PA

Trevor

Used to be Roverlab, now British4x4Specialists

 

[scottsdalerrc]

keep an eye on CL too, i picked my current DI up for just under a grand-95 w/128k and some minor mods, i did drive 3 hrs from central pa. Again, it was 'rough' but hanging out on here (and having owned an older rrc previously) allowed me to be aware of what to look for.
It has taken many weekends and seriously lightened my wallet at times but if you're going to get into it-you've got to be prepared for that. Its a hobby of sorts for me and nowhere close to a daily driver though.

I'm sure you'll find the rover community here can be full of fantastic and quite knowlegeable people-best of luck in your hunt!

 

[honda50r]

I'm excited for you. Rovers are, as scottsdale said, a hobby. There is always something to repair on them. But, they're a love. Once you get a Rover and make a few repairs you'll never look back. You literally love it.

Also, if I were you I would wait a few weeks/months and lengthen your budget to $1,500. You can get a lot more truck for this price rather than $1,000.

Good luck on your hunt!

 

[Doug C]

I'm thinking a $1000 truck in Mass is going to most likely be eaten up with rust. If you are limited to $1000 look as far Southwest as possible. That's also self defeating given fuel costs etc t get it home. As said above wait until you have a higher budget, you'll be glad you did.

 

[JustAddMtns]

...As said above wait until you have a higher budget, you'll be glad you did.

I agree 100%.

 

[ping65810]

I appreciate the advice, but at the risk of sounding like an ass LOL, a little background on myself...I'm a former BMW tech and well familiar with wrenching, and also familiar with the Jeep world, and how finicky those are... I am well equipped to wrench on anything, and have found a few decent trucks out here thus far...One sold 5 mins before I arrived, which sucked, but its a matter of sorting through the junk thats out there.

I'm hesitant to blow a lot on this truck because having worked in the car biz I know how soft they are, and go through the auctions for next to nothing...As for use, my daily driver is a Volvo S60 w 30mpg...My use for a Disco is some light wheeling, and towing a 23' sailboat.

Blown out air suspensions, bald tires, and some rough paint doesn't bother me much...Its going to get modded anyways, and is a second car for me. So far I've looked at both Disco 1s and 2s, both with some issues, but nothing all that crazy. One advantage to living in Massachusetts is that Rovers are VERY popular, and are a dime a dozen..The market is flooded with them here and its a blessing when buying but a curse when selling them...

 

[crown14]

cool story bro

 

[JohnC]

I was going to sell my 96 DI but decided to part it out. Here's what you can get with $1K

Here's the deal on the DI, we recently purchased a 94 LWB and my wife loves it so she doesn't need the DI anymore.

We purchased it from a lady just north of Rockland County, it was very well taken care of. Since then we've used it for camping trips and as a daily driver. My wife works 3 miles from home.

Pros:

7 seater with cloth seats all in excellent condition
Manual seats so no electricals to worry about
4 BFG AT 285/75s with more than half tread left
Rotors, calipers and pads done two summers ago. Purchased all parts from Nathan @ Discount Rovers
3" lift to clear the 285s
Dog Barrier
Front Brush Bar
No sunroofs
Parts I replaced about 5 years ago are: water pump, belt tensioner, radiator, alternator, TPS and a few smaller parts.
Rear cargo shade and mat
LR seat covers
Exhaust (cat back) replaced 2 summers ago

Cons:

Since we don't have a garage the paint has faded on the roof and hood
I repaired some of the rust on the B pillars with POR 15 mesh and paint
Headliner is sagging
PS rear window needs new regulator (I think)
Brakes need to be bled, I recently replaced a rotted hard brake line and didn't bleed it properly. Brakes work fine just a bit spongy
Has leaks. I've replaced the oil pan gasket but it still leaks somewhere. Front and rear main seal leak. Power steering box leaks. Valley pan gasket was replaced about 3 or 4 years ago. No head gasket leaks but I'm sure they need to be done eventually.

Everything else works fine, it's a great truck and has taken us on many adventures (no hardcore offroading).

$1,000

 

[ping65810]

Any pics you could send me? Def sounds like something I'd be interested in!

 

[ping65810]

I want to thank everyone for their input, I picked up a 97 Range Rover 4.6 today for $750...Needing a fuel pump installed (New pump comes with it) Had to use some ingenuity to get it running with a bad pump, but runs great, no rust, and not a whole lot it needs other than a lot of minor BS like window switches and some cleaning. Oh, and already converted over to coil springs .. The deals are out there, you just have to find them

 

[crown14]

Please PLEASE keep us posted on your project! Sure sounds like a winner.

 

[Rob P.]

just some window switches and a becm etc

 

[ping65810]

I know you guys are expecting this to be an electrical nightmare, but the truck isn't all that bad really. I plan on keeping updates on it, and trying to help out on the forums whenever I can, even though this is more of a Disco forum... I found the window switch pack used for $175, which still sucks but a lot better than $350, but am still going to try to rebuild the original one.

I'm actually thinking of starting a blog "Adventures with a $750 Land Rover " LOL... Its almost a crime these trucks sell for so cheap sometimes, and theres a lot more out there like it, more discos it seems than anything else