2011 LR4 Pricing

Correct, the 2nd owner is the current owner, who is a dealer. The concern is this:


I'd be nervous taking the word of the current owner that it's fixed, without documentation to support that, or an inspection from a shop to give you some peace of mind.

I'd keep looking, tons of high mileage LR4's out there to choose from.

Agree re the vehicle only getting oil changes every 15,000 which is "to spec" but we all know that's wrong and it should be at least double (7500) or triple for severe duty (5000).

I'm wary of dealers generally and this one specifically who owned it for a long time without showing that it was ever transferred. I don't even know if that's legal to do or not - I thought that it had to be transferred.

Questions that arise for me:
- how does the guy at British Car Service know what happened 2.5 years after the 135K major overhaul unless he's referring to the last time he saw it in December 2018 (which is only 15 months later). Giving him the benefit of the doubt maybe he just mis-remembered the time gap.
- since the vehicle was "offered for sale at auction in May 2019 and had smog testing in July 2018 and changed over to Norgards, I'd assume that that (4.3 out of 5 star) mechanic was chosen by owner #2 (the dealer).
- I'd be disinclined to trust owner #2 (dealer) without documentation since he was already sketchy on transferring ownership. Why transfer it to himself, just to transfer it again a month later?
- A Blackstone labs report would show if there is coolant in the engine oil but you'd need to change the oil to find that out. If I were you, I'd keep looking unless you get documentation of having that coolant leak problem resolved or else have them knock off the repair cost from the asking price and you might just land yourself a reasonably priced LR4 that just needs some work.

If you're not in a rush, this one does have a few warts on it but then again, anything with this level of mileage will... Depends on if you're a mechanic or have budget for repairs. If you're neither then you may want to spend the $11K on a Toyota with the same mileage since it will easily double it with very few issues.

Troy Angrignon said:

I'm wary of dealers generally and this one specifically who owned it for a long time without showing that it was ever transferred. I don't even know if that's legal to do or not - I thought that it had to be transferred.

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I believe this is legal, at least in most states. It's also how dealers don't count themselves as an "owner" when claiming 1-owner, 2-owner, etc. But when they drive it for a year or two and sell as 1-owner, that's not cool. (Not that this applies to this particular vehicle.)

Troy Angrignon said:

A Blackstone labs report would show if there is coolant in the engine oil but you'd need to change the oil to find that out.

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Yes, an oil analysis would show if coolant was getting into the oil. But the guy at British Car Service said coolant in the #2 combustion chamber, which if true, could possibly be a failing head gasket. Not sure how else you'd get only coolant into only 1 cylinder. But it may not get into the oil.

After looking at the Carfax, I was just about to echo @Troy Angrignon and @DaytonaRS7 thoughts that the Carfax looks promising and this could be a good buy since some major repairs had been done.

However... then I read the response @Seabassjfr posted from the shop owner that did the major 135K repair saying basically that: "we did the repairs properly, it was an extensive and expensive job, and it was working fine until more issues cropped up (likely down line issues related to the previous failure)."

The 2nd owner is the Dealer who probably knows of these secondary issues (which is why he called and spoke with the shop owner that did the 135K major repair), and the current owner (Dealer) has recently transferred it to be a personal sale vehicle probably to limit his liability.

If he sells you a car with known issues as a Dealer, and doesn't disclose them to you when he knows about them, that's a legal and liability problem for him and you could come back to him for repairs and/or possibly even a lawsuit for intentionally withholding information that he is supposed to disclose to you.

But since personal sales of vehicles are held to a different standard than Dealers, if he sells it as a "personal" vehicle (hence the transfer from his Dealership to his personal vehicle "conveniently" before listing), then lists it for sale as a private individual and claims "it runs good!" then you're in that person-to-person "as-is" sale territory and you're stuck with it with probably no recourse.

He likely bought it initially with genuine intention to own it for himself after looking at the Carfax and thinking to himself, "hey, all these major repairs have been done... that's great!" and then added the lift rods and Compomotives with intent to keep it. Then these other issues cropped up and he doesn't want to deal with them, so he's bailing on it.

After reading through everything, I would avoid this one since it really probably needs a full engine rebuild to remedy all the known and unknown side issues that will inevitably pop up from the cataostrophic 135K failure.


Side note: not saying that the Seller is for sure shady and is keeping things from you... maybe they have indeed addressed the new/known issues and/or believe genuinely that they have addressed them in a satisfactory manner and just don't want to deal with it anymore, but I'm getting red flags from their answers to you, the sudden transfer of ownership from Dealership to Personal vehicle before listing for sale, and the lack of confidence it will be reliable from the shop owner that did the major repairs.


Final Answer: Keep looking, bro! There's another LR4 in the sea that will love you as much as you love it.


SkyTree

This thread is just GREAT! it has been so helpful, im impressed with this amazing community...

SkyTree said:

Final Answer: Keep looking, bro! There's another LR4 in the sea that will love you as much as you love it.

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...I totally agree on this and everything said before, ill continue looking for a lower mileage or even consider higher mileage with extensive research such as this one...and ill be sharing my options, as they come along...

THANKS ALL OF YOU.

If you're not afraid to pay shipping costs you can open your search up nationwide. I paid an extra $1700 to have my LR4 shipped up from Florida to WA but it was totally worth it IMO, got exactly what I wanted. The mechanical history was solid and it came with a short used car warranty. Upon delivery of the car I had it inspected by an indy mechanic I trust and they said the car was all good except for a vacuum pump seal which the dealer promptly fixed for me. 2.5 years and 65k miles later no regrets.

Seabassjfr said:

This thread is just GREAT! it has been so helpful, im impressed with this amazing community...



...I totally agree on this and everything said before, ill continue looking for a lower mileage or even consider higher mileage with extensive research such as this one...and ill be sharing my options, as they come along...

THANKS ALL OF YOU.

Click to expand...

This thread is a perfect example of why I love this forum so much. It is extremely hard to find forums like this.


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One place I would seriously recommend looking for an LR4 is Carvana. Their prices are a tad higher, but they only sell sub-100K mileage Rovers with zero accidents and full Carfax maintenance records available to see for free, and they Warranty purchased vehicles for 100 Days or 4000 miles, whichever comes first.

They let you trial a vehicle for 7 Days, and if for any reason you don't like it ("the seat hurts my back", "the engine feels weak," "it's too big," "it's a rust bucket," whatever) they will take the vehicle back, no questions asked, and you can either get a full refund or you can trade it for another vehicle in their inventory. Not only will they deliver the vehicle(s) to you, but they will also pick it back up if you don't like it, and bring you another one to try out. You can trade 2x, basically, so up to 3 vehicles.

That's how we bought our LR4. The first one loooked and ran amazingly well, but we still took it to the dealership (JLR, Newport Beach) for a full complimentary multi-point/pre-purchase inspection. They determined that it had more undercarriage rust than they consider acceptable (Carvana didn't try to hide this or anything as rust is considered normal "wear and tear" in the used vehicle marketplace, especially in Northern/Snowy regions).

I'd noted the rust upon delivery, and it was of concern to me, but I wanted a second opinion from the dealership, and they confirmed we should keep looking. We told Carvana and they said, "no problem, would you like to keep looking on our site and trade it for another one?" We found another LR4 on their site, they came a couple days later and got the first LR4 and brought the 2nd one at the same time. A quick side... our Carvana delivery guy, Josh, was an amazing dude... super friendly, professional, personable, knowledgeable, didn't rush us at all, and he even pointed out the rust underneath on the first LR4 to make sure we knew about it before we took possesion of the vehicle to begin our 7 Day trial. He said that if we didn't like it for any reason when he brought it, we didn't even have to take possession of it or start our trial if we didn't want to do so, and could keep looking. He would just take it back to their warehouse, no extra cost/fees, no problem.

Super honest and upfront company with very friendly and professional staff.

Anyway, the 2nd one we got from Carvana ended up being a zero rust, amazing looking, fantastic running, full dealership maintenance history, sub-70K mileage, LR4 HSE Lux for even less money than the first LR4 cost.
We still took it to JLR, Newport Beach, of course, and they noted a couple small things (was missing hood insulator and battery cover, had some tiny oil seepage at the oil level sensor, and the driver's side headlamp washer jet was leaking/dribbling).

We told Carvana and they said that they would have no problem approving those items to be fixed or any other mechanical or electrical issues that arose during the 100 Day warranty period, if we ended up deciding to keep the vehicle.

We decided to keep it and have those repairs done. It cost us $50 for the co-pay. The cost of the 2 repairs and adding the battery cover/hood insulator was around $1400 and Carvana/SilverRock (3rd Party Warranty company) didn't make any stink about it.

They also approved a brand new Land Rover-branded Pilkington heated windshield, since the previous windshield was the wrong kind (non-heated) and Safelite had installed it incorrectly as well. That was a $1500 replacement. We had $0 co-pay on that.

We also had a fluke, uncommon issue with the Clockspring where it started making that plasticky clicking noise when turning and the steering wheel control buttons had stopped interfacing with the vehicle. (Still drivable, but a minor annoyance). Carvana/SilverRock approved that also, no questions asked... $500 job (parts were $350 of it) and we only had a $50 co-pay.

JLR, Newport Beach also gave us covered Enterprise rentals while each repair was being done. In total, we spent around $150, Carvana/SilverRock covered around $3500 in dealership repairs, no questions asked, and we had 12 Days total of covered Enterprise rentals, 4 separate times:
2020 Jaguar XE (2 days)
2020 Jaguar F-Pace (3 days)
2020 Discovery Sport (2 days)
2020 Discovery 5 (5 days - repair fell on a holiday weekend)


The Carvana/SilverRock Warranty is absolutely gold and we would have no issues buying another vehicle from Carvana again. We're honestly looking forward to doing so again with them, it was such a good experience.


Caveat: if you want to get an LR4 through Carvana though, you gotta' set up notifications and watch their inventory like a hawk because within a few minutes pretty much, even before pictures are released, it'll have a "Purchase Pending" on it because people know the good condition generally of Carvana vehicles. Also, "Purchase Pending" doesn't mean it won't become available again, it just means someone initiated the process of trying to start a 7 Day Trial, but they often fall through and become available again within a couple days. Just sign up to be notified by email when/if it becomes available again. It happens a lot.


Hope our experience helps.


SkyTree

Wow, that experience you had with Carvana is hard to believe @SkyTree but very cool to hear. I'm going to keep that in mind. I looked at CarMax but not Carvana when buying mine. I'll check them out next time...in 10 yrs when my LR4 is gone.