Pre-Purchase inspection - Dealer vs Independent LR Service shop

userg3

New member
I've been looking around for an LR3 for a little while and found a 2007 HSE with 108k miles that caught my eye. I test drove it today and it seemed fine but I'm coming from a long line of Jeep products, not too familiar with LR (yet). The number one advice seems to be to get a pre-purchase inspection done, so I have one scheduled for in the morning with an Independent LR service shop.

Question - Is there any big reason I should go with the local LR dealer instead? Anything that the LR dealer can do the Independent LR shop cannot do... that is important enough to warrant switching to the dealer?

If it matters the shop I'm currently scheduled with is DuSouth Rovr in Dallas, TX. The google reviews are good but again I've never had an LR so I don't have any personal experience.
 

DiscoDavis

Explorer
Independent is good but really only if you know who they are and you know they know rovers. Catch-22 if this is your first one, you don't know either well. If they are not rover focused there is no point in going to them, they may have all the same capability as the dealer, even have testbooks for the computers etc., but they will not know what to look for or what typically is a problem area.

Between a dealer I didn't know and an indy I didn't know (and nobody from forums, community recommended either way), I would choose the dealer. Call whatever service advisor you are scheduled with, talk to technician directly, ask them about the inspection, explain what you are buying etc.

A good inspection goes like this: You go, you pay $270 (pricing I recall), you wait around in their lobby or whatever for a few hours, tech comes out says hes done. You talk with tech, go over stuff on the list, ask him what he thinks, ask him what problems may be coming down the line, any easy fixes he knows, maybe he shows you a neat trick on how this or that part goes in, etc. What you are really paying for (if luck holds) is for a good tech to give you the green light that the car is a good buy, pick his(or her) brain about it, and if you are super lucky you can sweet talk the service advisor or secretary into pulling the service history for the car (if serviced near ish by, sometimes dealers will fax eachother all the history of the car).

That said, you need to be a GOOD mechanic, have a super good Indy, or a well-paying job to cover LR dealer service if you intend on keeping the car a long time. Maybe you'll be lucky and nothing will ever break (only ever met 1 guy this happened to).

Good luck.
 

userg3

New member
I probably should have mentioned that this will be an "extra" vehicle for now. Would I like this to become my daily, yeah, it's larger than my current Jeep GC but my current thinking is the Jeep is a known quantity and I rack up the hwy miles during the week so I'd rather keep adding them to it until I'm more familiar with LR.

The place seems to specialize in Land Rovers. I don't think I would take it to just any independent shop.

I do a lot of my own wrenching on my current vehicles, I won't say that makes me a good mechanic just that I do a lot of my own work. :)
 

OH+D

New member
Finding technicians at the dealer that have experience with an LR3 may be challenging. It's a 10 year old platform - far beyond the shelf life of most dealer techs. Dealers also have the most experience with vehicles early in their life cycle - under 50k miles and still under warranty. So many times, even the most experienced dealer techs won't know what to expect from an 11 year old, 100k plus mile vehicle.

If the independent has specific experience servicing LR3s, they are by far the best bet.
 

Ray_G

Explorer
I think its honestly a toss up; if you talk to the service folks at the dealer inevitably there will be a tech-or several-there who do the work on the 'old' trucks. Given crossover between LR3, LR4, and some RRS year groups there should be resident expertise there. That said the independent likely sees more as people get them out of dealer service windows and lean toward them for service at a more competitive rate.

A comment I'd leave you with: if you have a long commute with highway miles, drive your LR3. As a rule Rovers like to be driven. The more you drive it, the more you'll learn the truck. If you let it sit, it WILL have issues. That will frustrate you, you will doubt the car, and often that leads to an impression that they are bad trucks. The fact is the LR3 is (great argument on FB about this right now) one of the best platforms Rover has ever built. That is a strenuous debate among model loyalists but the simple truth is the 4.4L in concert with the transmission makes for far less issue than many predecessor vehicles. That couples well with a smaller than it feels driving experience (turn radius, for example), a tremendous amount of utility with the load space, adequate power, a lot of comfort, etc.

Good luck, they are great trucks.
r-
Ray
 

jymmiejamz

Adventurer
It is a total crap shoot. Lots of guys that work at independent shops used to work at the dealership. You might get one of those guys looking at your truck, or you might get a guy that has been working on BMWs for the past ten years and just started at the independent shop. At the dealership you might get an apprentice looking at it who will only check brakes and tires. The best bet is to talk to service advisor while you are there and maybe talk to the tech afterwards. You can also tell them what you want to look at specifically, like the diffs.
 

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