Hi all I am looking to buy a used l405. Been looking at approved used 2013 or 14 autobiography spec as like the idea of massage seats in addition to the other luxuries for around £60-65k with around 30-40k miles on clock. Questions I have is how easy is it to obtain a discount on these machines from an approved dealer? And / or any experience of getting improvements to the approved used 2 year warranty as part of negotiations? I.e. Is there experience in them chucking in another year?... thanks in advance for help, any other advice greatly received! As finally getting out of company car and taking the allowance to buy myself a man dream (read about the 22's effecting ride but love the turbine wheels!)

Also thoughts on 3.0 Vs 4.4 when it come to real work mpg? Know I will not be competing with super mini but don't want to set fire to 50's when I pull away from the lights!

Hi there and welcome to the forum and good luck with your first purchase. My advice for what it's worth is that you should really consider what spec you want in the car and buy the newest car you can as LandRover offer a continual improvement usually updated every six months or so. This means that you will find many improvements in a 15.5MY car that aren't there on say a 13 or 14 plate.

I say that about the spec because I've owned Autobiographies and they are lovely but generally you find that you use some of the features rarely. For instance for me as someone who's got a back injury I find the massage seats a bit gimmicky and the surround cameras too hardly ever get switched on for me. Others may use them often.

I say all this because I really considered one tdv6 SE last week that's up with a main dealer for very near to trade price with just 13000 miles and all the usual VSE options plus blind spot monitor, lane departure warning, electrically deployable towbar, sliding pan roof, massage seats, parking heater and surround cameras. And the icing is that it's a 2015 65 plate so that means that it has the incontrol suite, which gives a tracker (lowers insurance) and other useful tools that link to smart phone like remotely switching on your climate control from the phone etc. It's even got privacy glass and whilst it only has standard 20's you can sell them and buy 21's or 22's.

I doubt they'd move far on this one as it's just under £61000, which is strong value. As I say it came down to the final three with me before opting for the one that I did.

Last edited by Basilfawlty on 9th May 2017 11:32pm. Edited 3 times in total

Both diesel engines are great, the smaller is quick and refined and the V8 a little bit more thirsty and not quite as refined but quicker still. Also remember that any V8 before stop start (15.5 or 16 plate cars are 500 ish to tax rather than just under £300 for the stop start cars). Personally speaking, for such a big car the FFRR is relatively good on fuel...honest

I can't comment on discounts as bought mine new & as regards TDV6 vs the V8 Diesel, i decided early on that the TDV6 was the engine for me as i never intend to tow so the additional economy & lighter weight were important enough to secure my decision.

Real world i'm getting mid 30's mpg & the performance is frankly quite startling for such a big car, that said it's also extremely refined & at 85mph the car's only ticking over at 1900rpm.

I spec'd the 22" turbines & have yet to see any reason why the wheels are not spot on for the car. I test drove cars on the 21" wheels & felt no compromise in handling or ride between the 22"s & 21"s. Paul

MY17 TDV6 Autobiography In Carpathian Grey With Cirrus Interior

Extending the warranty another year is something like £1000 - and you can do that yourself after the 2 years if you want to - so it will just be figured into the price.

Figure out the options you want & try to source a car that has what you need.

Do you need to tow ? Retrofitting a tow bar is very expensive.
Do you need/want the deployable side steps ? can also be pricey

Wheels etc can easily be swapped

Discounts can be had - even things like finance has a negotiable APR.

What I did was go on the LR used site - find a couple or realistic contenders - then explain that to the dealers and tell them what others have offered you.

I will second everything that has been said , great advice . Also drive a few first , you will be delighted .

Hi all thanks for your help, much appreciated. As this is a step up in the luxury car stakes for me I am looking (been dazzled by!) the autobiography spec as seems a step above and as I said earlier do like the idea of massage seats etc. In my head I have been favouring the 3.0 as no need to tow.
Any other views on the massage seats option? Thinking it may also be a way to show the Mrs that the money has been well spent
All in all really excited by the prospect, had been looking at RRS's for a while but now I have been actively looking at cars on the road I only see about 1 in 20 round Derbyshire being driven by men!

The Sport is a nice car but having just had a loaner Autobiography I couldn't wait to get back into the the full fat. So much more refined. And trust me, I've owned two VSE L405's and two Autobiography L405's, a 13, 14, 15 and 16 plate car (albeit the last one for no time at all) and I honestly believe the VSE is the sweet spot of the range. And if I were given the option of a 2014 AB with 30K and a 2015 (65) VSE with less than half the mileage and very nearly every bit of kit that the AB has for the same price it would be a no brainer.

Also if you want to sell the idea to the Mrs , get one with deployable steps . ( unless your mrs is 6 feet or more tall) 😀

Cheers both, I have not seen many with deplorable side steps and can't justify the retro tag so may go with fixed for wife and kids

Go 5.0 supercharged. get the real experience

I have just bought one and got £2.5k off the sticker price at an approved used plus a full tank of fuel.

Drive it and make sure that it doesn't have any vibration or harshness through the wheel etc.. as mine is back with them for a suspected ARC (Active Ride Control) issue that many seem to have suffered from.

Mine is Autobiography and after trying it next to a VogueSE it felt massively different...not just all the lovely gadgets (I specifically wanted the cameras (I have a tight junction outside my house) Elec deployable side steps (2X 70 yr old parents to get in and out sometimes) and Elec deployable tow bar (daughter does Triathlons and wanted to put her bike on the back to not get interior dirty)

The leather just feels much higher quality, the VSE I tried had hard plastic door trims, the AB had soft leather, plus the whole dash and roof was leather....it just felt better to me.

I am removing the 22inch alloys as this seems at odds with a car that can normally bump up kerbs and go across a field.

I was told to only buy a 4.4 by a friend who only had the smaller engine for sale at the time (by the way he now has a 15 plate AB for sale for £67k (Austin owen .com - tell him Toby said to call and he will knock a bit off)

Also go for full panoramic Roof IMO as it really brightens up the interior and makes it feel special.

I am not sure on MOG yet as haven't even had to fill up yet but judging by the computer it will be in the 25 to 30mpg easy...maybe more on long runs.

A lot of insurers want a Tracker on them so find out if they already have it and make sure the 2015 update has been done to help avoid key cloning.

Mattl29 wrote:

Cheers both, I have not seen many with deplorable side steps and can't justify the retro tag so may go with fixed for wife and kids

Plenty of used ones with them already fitted . Plus I don't find them deplorable , I love them

Teach me to have predictive text on my phone sorry for the spelin mistaks