Decisions Decisions

[Mako]

Ok - I currently have an '88 2.5 turbo 110. I also need to replace my very thirsty Petrol 'everyday' car to get a diesel (as i am spending £700 a month in fuel through work - and not getting that much back in expenses).

Bottom line is that I have two choices - buy an estate to carry my 13 stone dog around in as well as use for work. Or, spend less on the everyday car and replace the 2.5td and the knackered gearbox in the 110 in order that the missus can drive it (hopefully a lot easier than the 2.5td) to take the dog walkies....

So -

A: Is it worth it (also any ideas as to cost - I reckon if i did it myself £2500??? - also how much would a specialist Garage likely charge?)?

B: Will there be a significant enough change in useability to make it worthwhile?

C: or would it be best to leave it as it is and resign myself to the fact I am going to have to drive an estate??

Thanks in advance

[white90]

easily change the 2.5 to a TDI and for far less than £2.5k

or consider a Discovery.

[FridgeFreezer]

Buy a £500 diesel shed for commuting / dog walking, it will get far better MPG than almost anything Land Rover and serve as handy backup if the LR breaks or you want to take it off the road for a bit to work on it. There was a discussion of this just recently here.

Spend all the money you save on the Land Rover. As Tony says, you can get a TDi lump for £500 and it will bolt in place with minimal fettling. Do a search, it's been covered many times before.

[Mako]

Thanks for your responses.

I am a rep for my sins and do 30k + a year (hence the fuel bill!) - the Landy only gets driven by me at the moment as I dont trust it to get the missus home in one peice at the weekends - as well as the fact the gearbox takes some getting used to .

Its a choice of spending £14k on an estate - or £11k on a saloon and doing up the Landy with a new engine and gearbox..... I cant really get a seriously cheap car, as it needs to last me 4 - 5 years (I also need to retain some credibility in the car park!)

I still haven't a clue what to do... I would love the Landy to be 'reliable '...... I think I am going to have to toss a coin!

[FridgeFreezer]

You can get a decent car for less than £10k, a decent used Mondeo / Vectra / 406 / Golf etc. should be easy to find under £5k and pretty reliable. OK a few more bits might need fixing compared to a brand spanker, but that's countered by the initial saving and not having to get it done at a main dealer. As for car park cred, just play the anti-fashion card - if your life is so empty you have cupholder envy then things are bad.

You could go ultra-chap and buy a £250 beater and just replace it every year or whenever it broke - then it doesn't matter if it breaks, if you spill coffee on the seats, it gets scraped in the car park - hell you can change your car every time the ash tray is full for the price of the yearly depreciation on a new car.

[Mako]

Tell me about it - I have lost £6k in the last year on my current car, but have had to bite the bullet and take the hot in order to get a diesel....

[Eightpot]

Take a day off and go down your local auctions, you should be able to pick up something very tidy for well under a grand.

The stuff that dealers find difficult to sell on forecourts - anything that isn't a small hatch basically, can go for absolute peanuts, especially if it's had a bit of damage or needs a bit of paint. I'd be dissapointed if I didn't come away with something fairly recent and very clean for about £700.

[T1G UP]

Dependant on your allowance you can get a tidy mondeo tdci for £230 a month.you'll never own it service it or tax it either!

That'll do 40+ mpg and have all the toys,windows that stay up, a gearbox that has the gears in he same place everytime,a clock!

Then you can 200 tdi the LR with ease.

[T1G UP]

Here we go Mako car lease

Oh yeh, i don't no what you sell as a rep but if you you turned up a and old 110 i'd think you weren't very good at selling cause your broke

[q-rover]

Sirley it would give the opposite impression as it costs a fortune to run an old LR.

Just think of the fuel costs alone.

[T1G UP]

Don't call me shirley

[protoprincess]

We have a 12st dog and a LPG Rangie. All the luxury and not expensive to run on LPG. Looks great in the car park too.

[Adz]

Do you get better performance from the dog now he's on lpg?