So now that I had decided to give into my passions, lunacy, or semi-logic filled reasoning, it is time to actually purchase a Land Rover. This proved to be a lot more complicated than I expected. Here in my non-mountainous region Land Rovers have a strange existence: Land Rover dealers don’t want to deal with older cars that are worth under 25-30K as they are a luxury dealer, and since Land Rover cars are complicated most regular dealers do not want to deal with them either. So that leaves me with three LR3s for sale in my area, and they are all high mileage and way over priced or just in bad condition. Looks like it’s an out of town purchase for me.
I pretty much searched every city within a 8-10 hour drive from me, and unfortunately for me, the closest big cities did not have much either. Wow, I could not believe how hard my search was, it took me months. In the end, I would say I hate the idea of buying a car out of town. Certainly not going to buy a car sight unseen (I just can’t do it, I am not that trusting), and flying to another city for the weekend is not a great option. The problem is that you really only have Saturday. If you need a bank, closed on Sunday. If you need a Dealer, closed on Sunday. If you need a mechanic to inspect the car they are closed on Sunday and you can’t just schedule 5 appointments for five different cars to get inspected. I guess you could, but that gets expensive and time consuming fast and you have limited time. So in the end I felt rushed and unsure if the car I bought was really the one I wanted for the best price.
That said, I love the car. It’s an amazing piece of machinery. It drives so smoothly, and the cabin is super quiet. In fact it makes me not want to roll down the windows, because it so peaceful. Sure it’s got a few typical Rover issues (control arm bushings for one), and a couple other minor used car issues, but this car is amazing. It has the high intensity light option (or whatever it’s called) and when you hit your brights, it is like turning on the sun! I don’t know why you would ever put more lights on these things. Did you know you can snorkel to 75 feet with the keys in your pockets? Why your key needs to do that, I have no idea. Anytime I look through the owner’s manual I find some other new crazy thing about it. I think the worst thing about the Land Rover is it’s my secondary vehicle and it’s making me not want to drive my primary car.
So a month after purchase, I have replaced the control arm bushing, the inner tie rod, scheduled an alignment, and this weekend I am heading out to the great beyond. Who knows, I may even write up a trip report. But without further ado, I present to you MY Land Rover (that I am tentatively calling Ansel).
I pretty much searched every city within a 8-10 hour drive from me, and unfortunately for me, the closest big cities did not have much either. Wow, I could not believe how hard my search was, it took me months. In the end, I would say I hate the idea of buying a car out of town. Certainly not going to buy a car sight unseen (I just can’t do it, I am not that trusting), and flying to another city for the weekend is not a great option. The problem is that you really only have Saturday. If you need a bank, closed on Sunday. If you need a Dealer, closed on Sunday. If you need a mechanic to inspect the car they are closed on Sunday and you can’t just schedule 5 appointments for five different cars to get inspected. I guess you could, but that gets expensive and time consuming fast and you have limited time. So in the end I felt rushed and unsure if the car I bought was really the one I wanted for the best price.
That said, I love the car. It’s an amazing piece of machinery. It drives so smoothly, and the cabin is super quiet. In fact it makes me not want to roll down the windows, because it so peaceful. Sure it’s got a few typical Rover issues (control arm bushings for one), and a couple other minor used car issues, but this car is amazing. It has the high intensity light option (or whatever it’s called) and when you hit your brights, it is like turning on the sun! I don’t know why you would ever put more lights on these things. Did you know you can snorkel to 75 feet with the keys in your pockets? Why your key needs to do that, I have no idea. Anytime I look through the owner’s manual I find some other new crazy thing about it. I think the worst thing about the Land Rover is it’s my secondary vehicle and it’s making me not want to drive my primary car.
So a month after purchase, I have replaced the control arm bushing, the inner tie rod, scheduled an alignment, and this weekend I am heading out to the great beyond. Who knows, I may even write up a trip report. But without further ado, I present to you MY Land Rover (that I am tentatively calling Ansel).
