What else can I buy for £1000?

ALTHOUGH all the vehicles featured here are special, they are by no means unique. There really are a lot of Land Rovers out there for £1000 or less.

Top of that list are Freelander 1s. The original small Land Rover, first introduced in 1997, was Europe's bestselling 4x4 in its day. And as body rut is virtually nonexistent, there are a lot still around – with plenty of good examples at sub-£1000 prices.

Among the happy owners of cheap-as-chips Freelanders is LRM contributor Mark Dixon, who picked up a 1997 Freelander 2.0Di for £700 on ebay. It's not just any old Freelander, the R-BAC reg number tells us that it is definitely a pre-production model. This is confirmed but its 377 chassis number, the first production model is chassis 677. The first thing Mark did with his new investment was to take it for a £400 service to sort out a few niggles. Sadly its previous owner turned it into a 2WD but Mark plans on buying a donor car for spare parts. Watch this space for updates on Mark's special Freelander.

Then there is the second-generation Range Rover, the much-maligned P38. Little more than a dozen years ago, this was teh flagship of the Land Rover family, commanding prices of £50,000 or more. But it was a car way ahead of its time – so far ahead in fact that some of the advanced electronics had a reputation for going wrong (and being expensive to fix).

As a result, prices for secondhand P38s plummeted faster than any other Land Rover, ever. And that means there are some real bargains to be had, as long as you are – as always – careful what you buy. And if you have an understanding of modern auto electronics, that will help, too.

Despite the rise in prices of Series Is in recent years, it s still possible to find some sub-£1000 leaf-sprung bargains – especially if you are prepared to take on a barn-find and put in the work to bring it back up to scratch.