Some of you will have seen from the dealership feedback section that I recently had a deal on a RRS fall through due to a bad experience with a dealer.

As luck would have it a Mercedes dealer, who I have bought 3 vehicles from in the past and keep in regular contact with, has just had a Black with Black leather RRS TDV8 HSE in on a trade in. The car is a 57 plate, registered in December 2007, and has just over 25,000 miles on the clock.

Gary is offering to retail the car for me with a 3rd party warranty at a price of £32,000 and has said that he will be able to offer me a competitive finance deal on the car.

Before I go ahead and buy the car I want to make sure that I have covered all the bases and made sure that I am getting the right deal, and most importantly car, for me.

Is there anything I should be specifically looking out for on an RRS of this age and mileage? I've heard about knocking front suspension, issues with door seals and various other mechanicals - what advice can you give me and what should I be asking the garage to check before I buy the car?

The car has a full Land Rover service history so I am assuming that I will be able to get a full history on the car from a Land Rover dealer?

I also know that front brake wear can be a fairly expensive replacement job so should I be asking for these to be checked and replaced if necessary?

What about tyres?

If the car is due a service in the near future I am going to ask for this to be taken care of too.

Any advice from you guys would really be appreciated. I'm 31 and this is the first time I am going to be able to afford to buy myself a really nice car and I want to make sure it's a really great experience and not something I regret. I absolutely love the car (having driven a 10 plate for a few days a few weeks back) but am scared by the reliability horror stories you hear.

Kind regards and thank you in advance for your help. I look forward to joining the community and being able to help people like myself in the future through the forum.

Daniel Webb Daniel

Ive run a TDV8 for 18 months and cant begin to imagine what else I would drive

Its a great family snotter
It chews up 800 mile motorway trips
It tows 3 tonnes
It laughs at farm tracks
And it also does the school run in weather like this

The last 2 weeks have just been a joy
Ive been one of the few people running, admittedly Im on winter tyres but last winter on regular Pirellis was good too

Im not self employed however it is vital for me to be mobile in any weather
A quattro goes some of the way but doesnt have the clearance for our recent snow
A pal has a Q7 and has crashed it twice this winter !!

Mine has been faultless
It gets 24-30mpg depending on how many town miles I do
I usually use a bike in town which flatters my figures
Oh it also drops pretty spectacularly when Im on my own on a fast road which is rare

Theres plenty here about knocking - have a sniff around

Tyres are 200 quid a corner for 20" so Id take a long hard look at tread
Similarly the TDV8s Brembo pads are not cheap to change so look carefully there too

The car you describe will be running out of LR warranty
Id definitely want something which from a MB dealer will not be a LR one so bid accordingly

Finally Id recommend a call to Lookers the site sponsor and see what they can do for you
I am one of many very happy customers here and live miles away

Autotrader suggests 32k should get you into a LR approved car on a 57 plate with LR warranty

Google will tell you the exact spec but I dont think its changed much
Mine was fully loaded as standard - the only options I wanted were gansta glass and a tow bar which is a simple self fit

Best of luck

Got a Stornoway Grey one on here for sale with lots of extras.

Here is the link

http://www.rrsport.co.uk/forum/topic20065.html "UNDERSTEER" ----is when you hit the fence with the front of the car.
"OVERSTEER" ------is when you hit the fence with the rear of the car.
"HORSEPOWER" ----is how fast you hit the fence.
"TORQUE" -----------is how far you take the fence with you.

Now with pics

http://www.rrsport.co.uk/forum/topic20065.html "UNDERSTEER" ----is when you hit the fence with the front of the car.
"OVERSTEER" ------is when you hit the fence with the rear of the car.
"HORSEPOWER" ----is how fast you hit the fence.
"TORQUE" -----------is how far you take the fence with you.

I've just got my 2007 (sept) TDV8 with 41k on the clock for £34k (Did get 22" alloys & rear DVD system thrown in on the deal)

£32k sounds great for a 25k mile vehicle

Check the service history for work done... mine had just had new front and rear pads as well as front bushes..

Fantastic motor... streets nicer than the TDV6 motor. RRS gone
Audi SQ5...Gone Audi Q7 S-Line 240 3.0TDI Gone
Audi A6 Allroad Sport 270 3.0TDI