Top 10: best used Land Rovers

Our top ten for the best second hand Landies available

James Ruppert

by James Ruppert

10 April 2021

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Is there really such a thing as a good used Land Rover?

I’m just asking, because the stats seem to suggest that they are less than truly dependable. People keeping on buying them, though, because they are so damned charismatic. If you are tempted, here are some off-the-beaten track suggestions.
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Land Rover Lightweight (Series IIA)

The stone-cold coolest and also the lightest Land Rover is, of course, the army-issue one. It could be flat-packed out of a Hercules and then driven into action. It’s a soft-top, too, although some have a Series top.
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Land Rover Lightweight (Series IIA)

Once at army surplus prices, concours ones are £20,000, but a tidy 1983 petrol is around £9000. It's the nearest thing we have to a proper Willys Jeep, far cheaper and better to drive, and it doesn’t need stencilled graphics to make the point that it is special.
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Bowler Nemesis

Here’s the mad, bonkers Landie that will get you to and from hell and back at an alarmingly high speed. This is not a sensible slogger of a Land Rover. This is the motorsport one. Those people at Bowler make a proper fastback, two-seat, caged up and ready-to-tackle-the-Dakar sort of thing.
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Bowler Nemesis

These off-road supercars do not come cheap though. We spotted a lighly used, supercharged example, ready to rally for the cool sum of £100,000.
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Land Rover Freelander Softback

The controversial choice could be a pocket-sized Freelander, which at the moment is the closest you will get in spirit to a new Defender. An added element of fun would be some Softback style.
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Land Rover Freelander Softback

There is nothing that looks more 1990s, with the added benefit of feeling the sun on the back of your neck. An extra element of risk might just be a petrol that has not blown a head gasket. Watch out for rust, too. It’ll cost £1650 for a 1999 1.8i, with 80,000 miles.
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Land Rover Series 1

Buying a piece of 4x4 history is far cheaper than you could ever imagine. Jaguar Land Rover can do the whole rebuild thing, but you are only going to use this for fun and to show off. You can buy something on the back of trailer for £6000 or so.
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Land Rover Series 1

Avoid all the scraped knuckles and hassle by ramping up the budget to circa £12K and you will get a very useful example from 1953. Early stuff is much more pricey, perhaps too pricey, unless you are an anorak who is looking for headlights behind the grille.
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Range Rover Classic

Jaguar Land Rover will build you Classic three-door Range Rover Classic for £150,000 and that would, of course, be rather splendid. However, if you can tolerate a couple of extra doors, there is no reason why you need to spend so much. A 1991 3.9 Vogue EFi is just about perfect and we found a pristine original one priced at £10,500.
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Range Rover Classic

Seemed like a bargain to us, especially as you get all the mod cons from that era. Never mind the cruise control, ABS, upgraded hi-fi, it is the little things, such as the front spotlights, that make it stand out. These are becoming really subtle and special.
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Range Rover Sport

An oddity, but an oddly successful one in the shape of the Discovery-based Sport. These probably represent some of the best-value buys for a contemporary Range Rover if you can afford to fund the V8 fuel habit. However, V6 diesels are available and they deliver late-ish 20s mpg. Because it is a contemporary Land Rover, the message system will be telling you 'hill descent inactive' or 'air suspension inactive'.
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Range Rover Sport

Then again, old school poking at the front footwell for damp carpets points to a leaky windscreen and explains any wayward electrics. High-mile age ones start at around £4000 and you can get something from the 2005-2007 era.
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Land Rover Forward Control

We all need a military-grade 4x4 personnel carrier in our lives at some point and that may explain why many Forward Controls end up as campervans and the perfect mobile location for those seeking an off-grid lifestyle.
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Land Rover Forward Control

The purist inside of us wants an olive green one, which would look at home storming around Aldershot. And what a sound it makes, thanks to the V8. A budget of £16,000 is about right to buy a tidy 1976 example, which will climb every mountain and ford every stream.
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Land Rover Discovery Series 1

If you don’t want to deliberately buy trouble, then just about any Discovery should be given a wide berth. At least the 2, 3 and 4. We can make a case, though, for the original model, which was little more than Range Rover chassis with a high-rised body on top.
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Land Rover Discovery Series 1

They also seem to be properly tough and durable and still don’t cost much. A three-door would be cool, but we found a 5 door 1995 3.9i V8, with a useful LPG conversion for £5500.
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Land Rover Defender 110 Tipper

Defenders are quite rightly just about everywhere, but are they really very useful? Half the time, you might as well have a Renault Kangoo if you want to throw some gear in the back, but a tipper... Yes, what we want is possibly a crew cab, then a tipping option with the load bay and a dropside. Now that is handy. A 1997 110 300TDi with over 100,000 miles is £17,995.
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Overfinch Range Rover

In the old days, the Overfinch badge meant something, quite often that there was a Chevrolet V8 under the bonnet as well as some trick suspension to prevent it from falling over on corners.
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Overfinch Range Rover

We’d prefer to time travel to the Classic Range Rover Era and stumbled across a 1987 car with low mileage, but in need of light restoration, for £14,950. Or for another £10,000, you could pick up an immaculate 1989 Overfinch which is ready to roar down the road.

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