Bought a 2004 Range Rover

So I walked into my friends shop who deals mostly with exotics to see what auction prices were and he had a black '04 full size with 80k on it. He got it as part of a lot with a couple of ferraris, rx7 turbo, hummer, etc. that was sold by the family of a doctor who went to jail for murdering his wife...

Anyway, he put new tires on it, fixed the air suspension, and now it's mine. Took it on a 600mi round trip a couple of weeks ago and man I didn't know what I was missing. I forgot how much I missed driving a v8! One of his mechanics bought my 232k 4Runner for $2000 so out the door with everything I paid $4900. I'm happy and the rims actually don't look too drug dealer.

So I've had the Range Rover for almost a month now. Thought I would give a report.

The good - its ridiculously comfortable. Its such an improvement over the 99 4Runner that I can't even compare them. On the highway, 80 feels like 40, which could also be considered a bad because the fiancee keeps asking why I'm going so slow. The air ride is nice, though an expensive point of failure. Both front shocks had been replaced before I got it.

Its got plenty of room inside, and with the rear seats folded up both German Shepards fit just fine. The girl and I are much farther apart and have great leg room.

Its got good power. The BMW 4.4 is a proven engine and all of the little issues are well known and documented by now. Feels so nice driving a v8 again. Nice not having it downshift to go up and down the little hills on I10 here in Florida.

Gas mileage isn't horrible on the highway. I'm getting almost 21mpg. Around town is about 16. And it has a 25gal tank so I can get from Tallahassee to Orlando without stopping.

I upgraded the nav system from the BMW mk3 system to the mk4 system. Got the DVD nav on ebay for $80 and the new firmware and maps on ebay as well for cheap. I know I use Waze most of the time, but it was worth the price just for the faster speed of the system overall. I didn't feel like messing with the MOST system to install an aftermarket radio.

Now some of the bad - well, leaving the driveway on my first road trip it threw an SES light. Welcome to RR ownership. It was an easy fix, the PCV hoses get old and turn to mush and become a vacuum leak. Also for some reason RR decided not to use oil resistant tubing for the OEM hose. So that's fixed.

Also on that trip I had to start adding coolant. When I got back to Tally I had to add almost a gallon. Theres a little plastic "reducer" on the back of the engine that also gets brittle and cracks. Cheap fix as well.

They also have issues with the immobilizer system and the key. Theres some sort of lock pin that when you put the key in the ignition it opens up and then allows you to start the truck. This one had the usual problem where it gets stuck. The temporary fix is to pull fuse 18 and replace and then wait 15sec and the key will turn. We did the permanent fix of wiring a button to the side of the steering column that does that for you. When you get in the truck, you press the button and by the time you get your seatbelt on, the key can turn. A new lock system is over $1000 so this is a much better fix.

So far - I love it. I know things will go wrong, but luckily theres actually a decent online forum presence and most things already have fixes online.
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