This blog started as completely focused on Audis nearly 15 years ago, and over time my tastes have evolved, and I wanted to experience some variety…and after I had so much fun with the XP8, I was specifically looking for a family vehicle (SUV or wagon) that was a fixer-upper.
One car that had always stood out to me as ridiculously cool was the P38 Range Rover (1995-2002) with its boxy shape, off-road prowess, and bargain bin pricing…while Defenders of this era are $80K+, you can buy the top-of-the-line Range Rover for 10% of that. When new, this truck was the go-to for celebrities like Michael Jordan, David Beckham and the Queen herself, so the idea of buying one for <$10K in today’s money still blows my mind.
As such, I had been watching a number of auctions of P38s and a Borrego Yellow special edition caught my eye on BaT. It was a No Reserve auction ending on a Sunday, and I figured I’d throw a couple bids and see what happens – maybe I’d get lucky. I was actually at Legoland with my family when the auction was ending, and I was bidding while playing hide and seek with my kids at one of the play areas which made for a rather intense process…I was prepared to bid up to about 14K, but to my surprise I won it for only $7,100! While this example was rough around the edges, a Borrego Edition P38 usually fetches a significant premium over a regular P38 and the most recent comp on Cars & Bids went for $19K so I figured this would give me a lot of upside if the seller went through.
What happened next was even more amazing – not only did the transaction go through, but when I told my friends (several of which work at Cars & Bids) they asked if I wanted to film the experience for their YouTube channel. I missed having the creative outlet of this blog, and had always wanted to try YouTube out, so this was the perfect opportunity for me…they handled all of the hard stuff (editing and creative direction) while I did what I enjoyed most – talking about and working on cars.
The series ended up way better than I had imagined – not only were the comments very positive, but I had SO much fun doing it…and the Cars & Bids production team worked magic to turn my clips into something that looked pretty well done. I learned a ton about filming, as well as working on cars, and when the car finally sold on Cars & Bids I actually managed to eek out a small profit as well.
The P38 experience itself was also amazing – I loved driving it with its high seating position and cushy ride, and my kids loved “the yellow car” and how special it looked. In a lot of ways, it re-ignited my passion for working on cars – while I’ve really enjoyed having sports cars like the R8 and Murcielago, you can’t really wrench or modify those cars to the degree I used to with my B7s…but with a project car, you can work on them plenty without risk of breaking something that is stupid expensive to replace, and also find ways to make improvements over the weak points from the factory.
I’m already looking for the next project, but suffice to say the P38 is sorely missed. I had a lot of fun, made some new friends along the way, and am already talking to the folks at Cars & Bids about doing a Season 2…for anyone that checked out the series, thank you so much – and if you didn’t see it, I’ve linked the entire 6 episode series below (and here it is as a playlist).
Episode 1 – Buying the P38 and Initial Walk Around:
Episode 2 – Revealing to Doug DeMuro and Friends:
Episode 3 – Mechanical Fixes
Episode 4 – Offroading / Joyride
Episode 5 – Detailing & Cosmetic Upgrades
Episode 6 – Selling it with NO RESERVE
Stay tuned for the next series, and if you’re so inclined I’d love a subscribe on my channel as well as Cars & Bids where I hope to continue to make some guest appearances.
