Living With the World's Cheapest Range Rover

"dannyzabolotny" (dannyzabolotny)
08/16/2017 at 18:00 • Filed to: Range Rover, L322, cheap, no warranty

In !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , I discussed what it took to buy a very cheap 2004 Range Rover— $3000 + $150 for a new fuel pump. Now let’s talk about the rest of my ownership experience, shall we?

( Full Disclosure: Land Rover wanted me to drive a 2004 Range Rover so badly that they gave it an amazing depreciation curve that allowed a broke person like me to afford it 13 years later. Thanks! )

General Driving Thoughts

After I did the initial repair to the Range Rover, it was everything that a Range Rover should be. It started, drove, and stopped just like any other vehicle, wow! The ride was pretty comfortable and it handled about as well as a 5500lb brick can handle, which is not very well. It wasn’t very fast and it had plenty of body roll on sharp turns, but I quickly found out that those didn’t really matter.

There’s something about driving a Range Rover that’s hard to explain... it just feels really “right.” The seating position is quite high, there’s excellent visibility all around, and due to the relatively high ride height you feel like the king of the jungle in traffic. It just has so much presence, but I might be a little biased here. I will say, I got cut off in traffic way less when driving the Range Rover, whereas I’m just about invisible when driving my lowered 540it.

Design/Features

The design of the L322 Range Rover is excellent— it’s aging incredibly well as the years go by. The boxy shape pays homage to the Range Rover’s utilitarian roots, while details like the vertical fender vents, LED tail lights, and Xenon headlights give it a contemporary look. There’s nothing that looks quite like it out there, and in this age of generic-looking cars, that’s high praise.

The interior has a really distinctive look that’s still echoed in current Land Rover products. The way the wood trim runs vertically is a brilliant deviation from the norm, and the controls are all very easy to use— clearly the work of the Germans. While the interior in my particular Range Rover was a bit tired after 13 years, it was very much intact, with no creaking or rattling anywhere. The seats are quite comfortable and it’s a wonderful place to spend some time. I will say though, I greatly prefer the light interior option in these Range Rovers; it’s more visually appealing whereas the black/gray interior looks a little drab.

I can’t help but mention the HVAC system, which is one of the best systems I’ve experienced in any vehicle. A lot of AC systems have trouble keeping up with Phoenix’s legendary summer heat, but the Range Rover handled it effortlessly, actually managing to make me uncomfortably cold in 110ºF temperatures. I know it’s lame to get excited about good AC, but it was just that good.

The amenities were excellent, considering the age of the vehicle and how little I paid for it. Heated seats front all around, heated steering wheel, fantastic sound system, automatic headlights, parking sensors, power folding mirrors, million-way power adjustable seats, and a surprising amount of cupholders for a European vehicle. And while most cars have heated rear windows, the Range Rover one ups them by having a heated windshield, with extremely fine elements running through the whole windshield. I thought that was a cool touch, a nod to the Range Rover’s go-anywhere nature.

The cargo area had acres of storage space, especially with the back seats tumbled forward. Under the cargo floor was a full size spare, along with a clever strap system to make it easy to retrieve the presumably heavy spare. The split-opening tail gate is a cool throwback to older Range Rovers, as well as being an excellent place to sit and have a picnic. My Range Rover also had a pretty sturdy-looking class III tow hitch that was rated at 7700lbs, which combined with the self-leveling air suspension makes for an excellent tow rig.

A much-maligned feature of the Range Rover is the air suspension system. It’s brilliant when it works, being able to adjust the ride height several inches to accommodate for higher speeds or off-roading. For example, when you go faster than 65mph for more than a few minutes, the Range Rover automatically lowers itself a little to decrease aerodynamic drag and improve stability. My particular Range Rover had no issues with air suspension, but I will mention that it is quite cheap to service if you know what you’re doing. There are plenty of reputable places to get remanufactured air struts like Arnott and Rebuild Master Tech— at a fraction of the cost. The only reason to pay $1200 for a strut replacement is if you have a bumper-to-bumper warranty, like a certain writer we all know.

Off-roading

The real beauty of the Range Rover though, is in its amazing ability to combine good on-road manners with excellent off-roading abilities. I took it on some mild off-roading on a lake just outside of town, and while I didn’t even come close to utilizing the Range Rover’s full abilities, I felt extremely confident taking it over some pretty rough surfaces. Also worth noting is that the Range Rover has a proper transfer case with a low range, for more serious expeditions.

Looking under the Range Rover, I saw beefy subframes all around and everything was covered or protected in some way. Even the shifter linkage had a hefty metal cover over it. For all the flak that Range Rovers get for their build quality, the core of the vehicle is quite robust.

After spending some time off-roading, I got back on the road and comfortably cruised back to town at 80mph with excellent AC and music blasting. Very few SUV’s manage this duality so well, with most forgoing any real off-roading capabilities in exchange for puttering around town.

Fuel Economy

Who cares?! I don’t.

But if you do care for some reason , I averaged 13mpg no matter how I drove. The 4.4L V8 has to work pretty hard to haul the big heavy lump around, so you can pretty much forget about ever getting decent fuel economy. Of course it also requires premium, since it has a BMW engine.

Conclusion

I loved my Range Rover, it was an excellent all-around vehicle. But it was not without its flaws— stay tuned for the next article where I’ll detail exactly what I had to do to keep my Range Rover in good running condition, and how much it cost. For now, I’ll leave you with my favorite picture of the Range Rover.

Danny is a guy in Arizona that’s obsessed with old, unreliable European cars (mostly BMWs). He works as a web developer to pay for his fleet of questionable vehicles. You can follow more of his adventures on his YouTube channel: !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

DISCUSSION (16)

AestheticsInMotion > dannyzabolotny
09/29/2017 at 17:45

Good read. Any write ups on the other cars in the fleet?

dannyzabolotny > AestheticsInMotion
09/29/2017 at 17:58

Thanks for reading! I have the last part of the Range Rover trilogy on my list of things to write, and then I’ll write about my other cars. I have the 2000 540it, the 2003 X5 4.6is, the 1987 Porsche 944S, and a 1996 Mustang GT, along with half a dozen other cars I’ve owned (1995 750il, 2000 M5, Mercedes S500). There’s plenty of material there, so as long as people keep reading, I’ll keep writing!

AestheticsInMotion > dannyzabolotny
09/29/2017 at 18:07

Looking forward to it! How’s the 944 been to own?

PS9 > dannyzabolotny
09/29/2017 at 18:14

The invisible quote marks around the word ‘cheap’ here are earth sized.

dannyzabolotny > PS9
09/29/2017 at 18:16

I promise you, it was actually rather cheap, and I actually managed to make some money when I sold the Range Rover (spoiler alert?). In my next post I will detail the exact dollar amounts that I needed to own this Range Rover, including registration costs, parts costs, and any other expenses.

dannyzabolotny > AestheticsInMotion
09/29/2017 at 18:22

It’s cost me virtually nothing, because it still doesn’t run! I bought it for $1000 non-running in Tucson over a year ago, and it’s just been tanning in the Phoenix sun since then. I recently started working on it again, so I’ll get it running pretty soon. I’ve made some YouTube videos about it on my channel: youtube.com/dannysgarage

46and2aheadofme > dannyzabolotny
12/20/2017 at 11:04

Great read! I’ve been meaning to write a similar post on my E60 M5 and E93 M3 ownership experience, but writeups like this set the bar really high.

dannyzabolotny > 46and2aheadofme
12/20/2017 at 12:21

Thanks! I wouldn’t say this is that well-written though, Peter Monshizadeh’s posts put mine to shame! And you should totally write about your E60 M5 and E93 M3 ownership, I’d love to read about those.

Classy Jalopy > dannyzabolotny
02/09/2018 at 20:59

All of those are very interesting cars. Do write about them!

dannyzabolotny > Classy Jalopy
02/10/2018 at 00:04

I definitely will!

Classy Jalopy > dannyzabolotny
02/10/2018 at 01:18

Especially curious about cost of ownership of e38 750iL. I secretly lust after them, but admittedly am a little apprehensive about cost of owning one

dannyzabolotny > Classy Jalopy
02/10/2018 at 01:30

That one was actually pretty affordable to own, and I certainly didn’t have a pristine example. I paid like $1500 for it and it had 180k miles when I bought it. I sold it after a while because I wanted something else but I know the current owner of it and it’s at like 210k miles now.

Classy Jalopy > dannyzabolotny
02/12/2018 at 15:09

Good to hear that. I bet you E65 760Li doesn’t inspire the same degree of confidence :D

dannyzabolotny > Classy Jalopy
02/12/2018 at 15:42

I mean if I had one I’d probably figure it out, but I have no desire to own one since the interior and exterior of the E65 is absolutely ghastly. If I wanted a Bangle-mobile I’d rather have an E60 M5, that V10 is a masochist’s wet dream.

Classy Jalopy > dannyzabolotny
02/12/2018 at 16:21

E60 M5 you say? Did Tavarish’s latest acquisition whet your appetite some?

dannyzabolotny > Classy Jalopy
02/12/2018 at 16:35

Haha well their looks have grown on me (I used to hate them) and their prices have been coming down in a very satisfying way. Once they dip below $10k I might pick one up.