2006 Range Rover Sport HSE
Introduction:
In this video, we bring home the Range Rover Sport, install coil over suspension, and share a brief review of what life is like in a $1000 British SUV.
About:
Most folks reading this probably know Range Rovers are legendary in several ways. First, they have incredible off-road capabilities. Second, they have an association with class, wealth, music videos, and luxury status. And third, they are famously known for unparalleled unreliability. Expensive maintenance and repair schedules for these vehicles are well-known both inside and outside the car community. Car journalist Doug DeMuro demonstrated this with his own 2006 Range Rover, covered by a CarMax warranty, that racked up over $21,000 in repairs during his 6 years of daily driving. VinWiki star Rob “Rabbit” Pitts also famously made a name for these vehicles with his “bumper to bumper” warranty video. Needless to say, ownership of these is not for the faint of heart.
A couple weeks ago, Dale was sleuthing our local Facebook marketplace and came across a $1000, 2006 L332 Range Rover. As an enthusiast, we are always on the lookout for weird and unusual things for sale locally, especially anything that has 4wd for our Gambler 500 adventures. When this came up in our hometown, we knew it had to be ours!
The seller disclosed the vehicle was bought at Copart as a theft recovery, and by the looks of it, somebody might’ve had a personal vendetta against the previous owner. All the screens were smashed, there is graffiti all over the headliner, large knife cuts in the seats, and paint on the windows. In addition, the air suspension was broken. However, it started, ran very well, and drove around the parking lot at a solid 3 MPH. It was too bumpy with the failed suspension to go any further, and there were a ton of warning lights indicating all sorts of failures. But we saw enough to know we wanted to buy it, and the seller was a really cool guy!
We purchased some coil overs to replace the broken air suspension and went to work replacing that and finding a USB cable to communicate with the Range Rover’s computer system. The coils are installed (they were a fairly straight-forward swap) and in our videos, you can see how it rides. Since then, we have also replaced the missing door handle and the main infotainment screen.
We are well aware of how much of a bad idea is to own one of these vehicles. Our next plans are to drive it to see how reliable it is, attempt to lift it 2-3″, and find some larger off-road capable tires to see what it can do on our local trails. We already off-road an EJ-swapped Subaru and a lifted Mercedes-Benz ML, how much worse can a Range Rover be?
Doug DeMuro: Here’s the Final Update on the CarMax Range Rover Warranty: