Most people shopping for a used luxury SUV probably wouldn’t put “over 300,000 miles” anywhere on their wish list.
I apparently have different standards.
When I found this 2007 Land Rover Range Rover L322 for sale in Atlanta, Georgia, it already had more than 300,000 miles on the odometer. Instead of doing the sensible thing and finding something closer to home, I booked a one-way flight to Atlanta, bought the Range Rover, and immediately attempted to drive it more than 700 miles back home to Maryland in a single day.
Because what could possibly go wrong with a nearly 20-year-old, 300,000-mile British luxury SUV?
This Range Rover has become one of the more interesting vehicles in the jamzDOTnet collection, not because it’s perfect, but because it has survived an incredible amount of use and still has plenty of life left in it.
The Story
I’ve always had a soft spot for old Land Rovers, and the L322 Range Rover is one of my favorites.
When this 2007 appeared for sale in Atlanta, the mileage would have scared away most buyers.
More than 300,000 miles.
But that’s also exactly what made it interesting.
Any vehicle that has traveled that far has a story. More importantly, a complicated luxury SUV like a Range Rover doesn’t reach 300,000 miles by accident.
Someone had to keep it running.
So I decided to find out just how much life this Range Rover had left.
I booked a one-way flight from Maryland to Atlanta, completed the purchase, climbed behind the wheel of a Range Rover I barely knew, and pointed it north.
The plan was simple: drive more than 700 miles home in one day.
No trailer.
No tow vehicle following behind.
Just me and a 300,000-mile Range Rover.
It was either going to be an incredible demonstration of what these vehicles are capable of, or one of the most expensive one-way flights I’d ever booked.
Why the L322 Is Special
The L322 generation Range Rover represented a huge technological leap for Land Rover.
Introduced for the 2003 model year in North America, the L322 moved the Range Rover further into the luxury market without abandoning the off-road capability that made the Range Rover famous.
By 2007, the platform had evolved considerably.
This wasn’t simply a truck with leather seats. The L322 combined sophisticated four-wheel-drive technology, electronic air suspension, luxury-car comfort and legitimate off-road capability in one vehicle.
That’s what makes these Range Rovers so fascinating today.
You can drive one hundreds of miles down the interstate in comfort, pull off the pavement, select a Terrain Response setting, raise the suspension and tackle terrain that would stop many conventional luxury SUVs.
Even nearly two decades later, an L322 still feels special.
The 4.4-Liter Jaguar V8
One of the most important details about the 2007 Range Rover is what’s under the hood.
Earlier L322s sold in North America used a BMW-sourced 4.4-liter V8, but by 2006 Land Rover had switched to Jaguar-derived V8 engines.
Our 2007 uses the naturally aspirated 4.4-liter AJ-V8, producing approximately 305 horsepower and 325 lb-ft of torque.
It’s paired with a ZF six-speed automatic transmission and a permanent four-wheel-drive system.
The Jaguar-powered L322s have developed a strong following among Range Rover enthusiasts. While no old Range Rover is exactly a Toyota Corolla when it comes to complexity, the naturally aspirated 4.4L is generally regarded as one of the better powertrain combinations offered in the L322.
And this particular engine has a pretty convincing résumé.
It made it past 300,000 miles.
Full-Time Four-Wheel Drive
A Range Rover needs to be more than luxurious.
The L322 uses a sophisticated full-time four-wheel-drive system designed to provide traction whether you’re driving through rain and snow, cruising down the highway or venturing off pavement.
The 2007 also benefits from Land Rover’s Terrain Response system.
Terrain Response allows the driver to select different modes based on the surface underneath the vehicle. The system then coordinates multiple vehicle systems to optimize performance for those conditions.
It was seriously advanced technology when introduced, and versions of the same basic concept continue to be used throughout the Land Rover lineup today.
Electronic Air Suspension
Then there’s one of my favorite Range Rover features: electronic air suspension.
Instead of conventional steel coil springs, the Range Rover rides on air springs that allow the vehicle to adjust its ride height.
That provides several advantages.
The Range Rover can sit at a normal height for everyday driving, lower itself to make getting in and out easier, and raise the suspension when additional ground clearance is needed off road.
It also contributes to the incredibly comfortable ride that made the Range Rover famous.
Of course, air suspension is also one of the systems that gives old Range Rovers their reputation for being complicated.
To me, that’s part of the fun.
Luxury Meets Utility
Open the door and it’s easy to remember that the Range Rover was positioned as a flagship luxury vehicle.
There’s leather, wood trim, comfortable seating and an upright driving position with a commanding view of the road.
But unlike many modern luxury crossovers, the Range Rover’s luxury doesn’t eliminate its utility.
This is still a genuine four-wheel-drive vehicle designed to get dirty.
That’s one of the things I’ve always loved about Range Rovers. They’re equally at home pulling up to a nice hotel or wandering down a muddy trail.
Few vehicles combine those two personalities quite as well.
2007 Land Rover Range Rover Specifications
Generation: L322
Model Year: 2007
Body Style: 5-door luxury SUV
Engine: 4.4L naturally aspirated AJ-V8
Horsepower: Approximately 305 hp
Torque: Approximately 325 lb-ft
Transmission: ZF 6-speed automatic
Drivetrain: Full-time four-wheel drive
Transfer Case: Two-speed electronic transfer case
Suspension: Four-wheel independent electronic air suspension
Off-Road System: Land Rover Terrain Response
Seating Capacity: 5
Wheelbase: Approximately 113.4 inches
Overall Length: Approximately 195 inches
Width: Approximately 77 inches
Height: Approximately 73 inches
Fuel: Premium unleaded recommended
Fuel Tank: Approximately 27.6 gallons
Towing Capacity: Up to approximately 7,700 lbs., when properly equipped
And the most important specification for this particular Range Rover:
Mileage when purchased: More than 300,000 miles.
A 700+ Mile Test Drive
Normally, when you buy a used vehicle, you take it for a short test drive.
Maybe you drive around town. Get it up to highway speed. Listen for strange noises. Make sure nothing starts flashing on the dashboard.
My test drive was a little more ambitious.
Atlanta, Georgia to Maryland.
More than 700 miles.
In one day.
There wasn’t much room for the Range Rover to hide any problems. If the cooling system, transmission, air suspension, charging system or 300,000-mile V8 had major issues, there was a pretty good chance I was going to discover them somewhere along the interstate.
That’s part of what made buying this vehicle such an adventure.
I wasn’t just bringing home another Range Rover.
I was immediately asking it to prove itself.
Why Buy a Range Rover With 300,000 Miles?
Because it’s interesting.
There are plenty of low-mileage collector vehicles that spend most of their lives sitting in garages. This isn’t one of them.
This Range Rover has been used.
Three hundred thousand miles represents an enormous number of road trips, commutes, fuel stops, oil changes, repairs and memories.
For some perspective, the circumference of the Earth is roughly 25,000 miles. At 300,000 miles, this Range Rover has traveled the equivalent of approximately 12 trips around the planet.
And it’s still here.
There’s something I really like about that.
Saving Another Old Land Rover
Part of the fun of the jamzDOTnet collection isn’t simply owning vehicles. It’s finding interesting machines, figuring out their stories, repairing them and putting them back to work.
This L322 fits that philosophy perfectly.
It’s not a museum piece.
It’s not a pristine collector Range Rover.
It’s a 300,000-mile survivor.
That means there will be things to fix. There will be maintenance to perform. There will probably be moments when I question why I thought buying another old Range Rover was a good idea.
But that’s exactly why it belongs here.
The L322 is one of the most capable, comfortable and technologically interesting SUVs Land Rover ever produced. This particular example has already traveled farther than most vehicles ever will.
Now we’ll see just how much farther it can go.