Range Rover lovers won’t be shelling out for a new model unless they have a lot of cash and a fair bit of patience for the latest edition to be delivered. As Auto Express recently noted, the Range Rover Octa is a prime example of this, with 3,000 orders placed for the £150,000 model.

That may not be much use to most Range Rover fans, however, who won’t have £150,000 at all, let alone in loose change in their back pockets. Besides, to many, it is a lot more fun to take an older model and rebuild it.

However, you may need some specialist help and advice to deal with some notorious shortcomings in some models.

A good example of this may be the case of a 4.2 litre 2009 L332, which a Daily Telegraph reader asked the paper’s motoring expert Alex Robbins about. The concern was about stories of gearbox problems to which the model is said to be prone after modifications, having been upgraded from a 3.6-litre engine.

Mr Robbins agreed that this can be an issue in some circumstances, but not because of the upgrade. Instead, he noted, the 4.2 engine itself is often prone to faults, the most common of which is the “failure of one or more of the solenoids in the mechatronics unit”, while wear and tear in the rear stator bush can also be a problem.

This highlights a problem that could be faced by many Range Rover enthusiasts trying to remodel an older car will face; sometimes there are inbuilt problems that you will need to address. The question is whether you can fix this yourself or whether more expert help is needed. Get it wrong and you might make matters worse.

For this reason, it is always wise to get good advice before carrying out a modification. You might not be trying to sell the vehicle on to someone like the Daily Telegraph reader in this case, but whether it is a vehicle for your own use or someone else’s, the best remodelling will be one that is achieved without compromising important aspects of performance.