My father gave me his high mileage Land Rover Discovery II - with 102k miles, but no defects and perfect history.
The gas is too costly, and it’s too large for me. The kelley blue book value is around 6 or 7 thousand. Is it worth it to try to trade it in, or sell it for a different car?
Or is this old luxury car worth more if I just keep it?
Unless you personally want a Land Rover, you should not own one. You pay a big premium owning one-- they are generally at the bottom of most reliability indexes, the parts are expensive and it can be hard to find someone to work on them. My vote is definitely sell it.
I’d agree with Jack. Any company that has been sold 10 times in 20 years is probably not a good way to go. You would be much better off passing it on to someone else.
thank you for your replies, guys.
any advice on how to go about selling it? private party? trade in?
I imagine you already have a vehicle so trading in makes little sense.
I would simply try selling it privately and see how that goes, you likely get the most money here but with hassles of selling like no shows and wondering about some charecters who show up. If you don’t want to deal with private with that try a consignment dealer.
It sounds like you have no need for it so why hang onto this.
I would put a sign in the window and drive it around to sell it. In addition, go to www.carfax.com and print the information on the vehicle to show perspective buyers. Also go to www.kbb.com to establish the value of the vehicle and print that information to show perspective buyers. Having this information goes a long way in negotiations. I did this with my mother’s Ford Taurus station wagon and sold it for full asking price. If that doesn’t work, you might buy a classified ad in the paper. Trading in this vehicle virtually ensures you won’t get what it is worth.
What would your father think about you selling the Rover? BTW, I don’t think that 105,000 miles is high mileage.
Consumer Reports has Land Rovers as the least reliable vehicles on the road by a significant margin. You can check this out at your local bookstore.
Since yours has hit 100,000 miles and it doesn’t suit your needs anyway, you may want to consider trading it in or selling it while it’s still trouble free.
If my father gave me a car I would keep it until it rusted away. If I were lucky enough to have a father still here with me.
Me too. I lost my dad in the '80s and I still miss him. But I got the impression that the OP and his dad are a lot younger.
I like what I think you’re implying.
I sort of think if you didn’t want it, maybe you should have declined it in the first place. But that’s just me being preachy.
My parents gave me their Vanagon. Over the 2 years that followed receipt of said vehicle, my parents had driven it from California to Pennsylvania and back. They drove it, I think, 11,000 of the 14,000 miles it accumulated over that time. We just didn’t really like it.
Then, we took it to the garage because it wasn’t running right, and it needed $1,700 in repairs. At various other times, it also had major work done to it, to the tune of over $3,000. So, we spent over $3,000 in repairs on a vehicle we didn’t like, and finally told my parents we were selling it. They offered us $3,000 for it.
I only offer this story because our circumstances seem so similar. The Vanagon and the Range Rover are both unreliable as all get-up. So, suppose you come out one day, and it needs a new water pump, brakes and ECU. And you’re sick of getting 13 mpg.
I’m not trying to put words in your mouth, just asking what you’ll do in the face of a $2,500 repair bill. This isn’t an unreasonable hypothetical.
If you have room for another vehicle, why not just keep it around for a little while and use it as a 2nd car for weekend trips to the store or something. the only things you’re paying for are tags, insurance and gas, you’re already ahead 6 or 7 grand that would have taken to buy it.