Highest mileage LR4?

LiteFlight1 said:

After I purchased my 2011 LR4 at auction(192,000 miles) I was able to find out that it was a one owner vehicle and the guy did maintenance on it! He had spend just over $21,000 at JLR dealerships for service. There were other records of things done at independent shops but I could not access those records for dollar totals. I am now another $5000 into parts and I have a beatiful LR4 HSE LUX. I knew what I was buying as far as work needed. This thing should be ready to rock another 200K miles

Click to expand...

Its pretty risky to buy at auctions but that is how the dealers do it. A lot of times dealers dump their problems at those auctions for someone else to have and that is where the risk is because they hide issues.

No name brand dealer is going to sell 192k mile used Land Rovers, just too much risk of blowback. Off to either an affiliated corner lot dealer or the auction. Glad the auction worked for you.. My assumption on anything running through an auction is that there are problems.

I think any 190k mile LR4 would likely need some work, no matter where it came from. I figure if you've accounted for it as part of your purchase process then it's not a big deal.

I was doing some research, exploring options, keeping my LR4, but looking at backup plans too. Researching the used vehicle market (mostly private party because I feel like dealers know what a car is worth). I came across a handful that I thought looked promising (at least on paper). However, most of those were between 150,000 and 200,000 miles (sometimes a bit more). Back in the day, a 150,000 mile vehicle would never sell because everyone knew it was destined for the scrap heap. Today, they talk about how vehicles are built better and can go 200,000 miles, or more. So I decided to do some background research to see what the actual numbers were. How many vehicles went 200,000 miles and what were those brands/models? The results I found were shocking!


Based upon the percentages, almost no vehicles go 200,000 miles. The best were the Toyota Land Cruisers and Sequoias in the mid-teens. After that, the percentages dropped to under 5%. In other words, unless it is a Land Cruiser or Sequoia, the chances your vehicle will die before 200,000 miles is 95%, or higher. Even if you get one of the most reliable vehicles (Land Cruiser or Sequoia) the chances are well over 80% that your vehicle will die before 200,000 miles. Given that most vehicles get driven 15,000 miles per year on average if you buy a vehicle with 150,000 miles AND it is one of the brands/models that are reliable, you'd be lucky to get a couple years out of it. For instance, let's say you buy a Toyota Tundra with 185,000 miles in good condition for $10,000, you'd be lucky to get a year out of it before it hits 200,000 miles and you're done. That's a lot of money for 12-months of transportation!

Does this sound about right, or is there something I'm missing here?

I think you're missing part of it - cars get junked when the cost to repair approaches the entry cost to a new(er) car. If you're having the work done, Land Rovers are pretty expensive to maintain. My LR4 with 115k miles has a blue book value under $10k and a $5k trade-in value. It doesn't take many $1.5k repair jobs to make you doubt your decision to keep. To me it's not so much could the vehicle go to 200k, but do people bother taking them there, and a lot of that comes down to maintenance. The list has no Lexus vehicles, does that mean they don't go 200k? Obviously, when buying an older vehicle with lots of miles, you want to be diligent in your evaluation or you stand to lose your 'investment'.

@ftillier good point. You mean you haven't done your 125,000 mile engine replacement yet? I think I see that listed on the routine scheduled maintenance chart.

I'm not sure it's fair to think of a vehicle as a commodity. After all, you are upside down the minute you sign the paperwork on a new car and drive it off the lot. And, in most cases, that never changes over the life of the vehicle.

I've also considered if the LR4 isn't any less reliable than any other vehicle, it's more the cost of parts and repairs that makes every little problem a major issue. On another vehicle, when a headlight goes out, you buy a $20 bulb, remove the old one, pop in the new one, and Bob's your uncle. On the LR4, it's a $150 igniter. That's a simple example, but it's all like that. Everything is many times more expensive than on any other vehicle with the only justification being "it's a Land Rover."

Other consideration is a $1500 repair looks a lot better these days than dropping 50-100k on a used or new Defender.

I wish JLR didn't make the Disco 5 look how it looks. I'm sure it's a very capable platform, but it just doesn't look as good as our Disco 4's.

I have 162k and im doing my best to get to 200k and beyond. I recently thought i might need a new motor as i was getting some smoke but after replacing the vacuum pump and pvc valve it seems to be better but if the motor does go I’ll probably replace it with one from roverland parts for 14k. Id rather spend another 20k for to get another 150k miles than buy a nee car for $80k.

New prices are silly. There was a new Bronco with 35's at the gym yesterday and it did not look like it would be fun doing big passes at 90 MPH on the freeway with those tires, if it even has enough balls. The LR4 strikes a good balance between offroad and onroad driving with luxury, power and style.

Agree - when honda crvs are 42K and mdx are 65k im keeping my lr4 no matter what it costs!