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For $18,500, Could This 1986 Land Rover Santana 109 Turbo Diesel Be Muy Bueno?
For $18,500, Could This 1986 Land Rover Santana 109 Turbo Diesel Be Muy Bueno?-June 2024
2024-02-19 EST 22:09:59

Today’s Land Rover was built in Spain, where the rain falls mainly on the plain. It’s here in the U.S. now, and we’ll have to decide if its price and kit might have you making it rain.

The Rocky Mountain community of Aspen Colorado is a playground for the wealthy and a source of jobs for the poorer folks that serve their every beck and call. Contrastingly, yesterday’s was priced for the well to do, while in the comments it was noted that it would be a pretty poor choice as it was, well, a freaking Dodge Aspen.

One of only 145 or not, that’s a stigma that’s hard to overcome, and with a massive 89% Crack Pipe loss that car proved to be about as wanted as an unsolicited post-first date .

On Jay Ward’s animated classic Rocky and Bullwinkle our friendly flying squirrel would regularly and earnestly intone the edict “and now here’s something we hope you’ll really like.” Well, with today’s stepping up to the plate, I feel safe in channelling Rocky by saying here’s something I pretty much know you’re going to really like.

Let’s just lay it down, m’kay? This is a brown (tan is a kind of brown), nine-passenger, 4x4 wagon with a diesel 2.25-litre turbo diesel four, a five speed stick, and a Latin pedigree that will have you craving paella and Garnacha with every drive.

That’s because this 109 was built under license by Santana Motors S.A. in Linares Spain. The gauges and switchgear inside are all in Spanish, and it’s LHD rather than the right hook that all the British-located trucks seem to throw. There’s 79K—that’s kilometers—on the clock and the whole thing might be in excellent shape with no rust, body damage, or major interior foibles.

I say might be, because while the truck is presently advertised in Oregon on el listo-de-Craig, the pictures in that ad all come from a when the truck lived in Atlanta Georgia.

Now, I don’t know how you feel about someone using three-year old pics to sell something but I think it’s sort of like posting your high school yearbook picture on Tinder when you’re on divorce number two and kid number three. At least the seller here is upfront about it, including the link to the original ad in his own.

Okay, so we’ll give the seller the benefit of the doubt, because he also does note that the truck has made it from Portland to the Coast and back with ease and that’s likely with him behind the wheel, right? The current ad is light on details but the BaT listing notes that the original seller in 2013 brought the truck over from Spain where it had been minding its own business, and that it’s a solid citizen with no frame damage below and cool “turbo” stripes on the side.

Back then the odo read 77,040—you can see it in one of the —and now it’s at 79,103 and change. That’s a little over 2,000 miles in three years and evidence that the truck didn’t make the trip from Georgia to Oregon via its own power.

Speaking of power, don’t expect much out of that 2.25 turbo diesel as it produces something around a kitten’s fart in horsepower and the pull of John Kasich’s charisma in torque.

The price here is $18,500 which is a good bit less than what was asked for it back in 2013 in Georgia. What has happened to it since then to cause the drop? Has the bottom dropped out of the rare Land Rover market in the past three years? Has the truck not acclimated well to the wet northwest after years in relatively dry Spain?

Whatever the reasons, your tricky task is to determine if it’s seemingly worth that $18,500 when all you know about it is what it looked like three years ago. Think you can do it?

You decide!

Oregon Coast , or go if the ad disappears.

Help me out with NPOCP. Click to send a me a fixed-price tip, and remember to include your Kinja handle.

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