I owned 2 LR3's. The first one was totaled when a van full of illegal immigrants ran a red light and I side swiped them. Long story short, my passenger and I walked out without a scratch, while a bunch of unlicensed, uninsured, illegal immigrants ended up in the ICU with head trauma. (nothing like their medical bills getting passed on to the hard working, tax paying americans, and the driver of the unregistered vehicle being acquitted from all charges with a slap on the wrist of $40). thanks asshole, you almost murdered me... sorry, i digress.
My second LR3 was pretty much the same thing. Loaded. I did tons of beach driving, some aggressive offroading up int he hills, put a few proud battle scars on the truck, but then had to sell it when I went back to grad school because I couldn't afford the payments.
Right now, I'm driving a jetta that, even with the most aggressive snow tires, gets dug in on fire roads like it's cool, and can't plow throw an inch and a half of snow. I need a truck.
Let me be perfectly clear... I LOVE rovers and would buy another in a heartbeat if I could afford it, but working as a research scientist cut my salary in half, and I need more a reliable, lower cost-to-maintain vehicle. I'm not thrilled with the yota's, but my uncle who has hunted his whole life swears by land cruisers and 4runners, and wouldn't take anythign else out into backcountry canada. He doesn't feel very strongly for rovers given their reliability.
So my question is - the LR3 has been out for 6 (or 7) years now. I'm sure there are 150k mile LR3's driving around. If anybody has one, what was the maintenance like? Any major $3k repairs? For full disclosure, neither of my two rovers had over 40k miles when I lost/sold them. I did have to have my second LR3 towed because the transfer cage gasket blew and leaked out all its fliuid.
Should I buy a reliable but infinitely less awesome 4runner, or take my chances with an LR4, the truck I really want, and suck it up when I get hit with a major maintenance invoice?
thanks in advanced for you responses!
My second LR3 was pretty much the same thing. Loaded. I did tons of beach driving, some aggressive offroading up int he hills, put a few proud battle scars on the truck, but then had to sell it when I went back to grad school because I couldn't afford the payments.
Right now, I'm driving a jetta that, even with the most aggressive snow tires, gets dug in on fire roads like it's cool, and can't plow throw an inch and a half of snow. I need a truck.
Let me be perfectly clear... I LOVE rovers and would buy another in a heartbeat if I could afford it, but working as a research scientist cut my salary in half, and I need more a reliable, lower cost-to-maintain vehicle. I'm not thrilled with the yota's, but my uncle who has hunted his whole life swears by land cruisers and 4runners, and wouldn't take anythign else out into backcountry canada. He doesn't feel very strongly for rovers given their reliability.
So my question is - the LR3 has been out for 6 (or 7) years now. I'm sure there are 150k mile LR3's driving around. If anybody has one, what was the maintenance like? Any major $3k repairs? For full disclosure, neither of my two rovers had over 40k miles when I lost/sold them. I did have to have my second LR3 towed because the transfer cage gasket blew and leaked out all its fliuid.
Should I buy a reliable but infinitely less awesome 4runner, or take my chances with an LR4, the truck I really want, and suck it up when I get hit with a major maintenance invoice?
thanks in advanced for you responses!