I went into Hunters in Guildford on Saturday to look at an MY13 SD4 XS in Mauritius blue. I noticed that there were many 62 plate HSE FL2's with very low mileage up for sale for less than £30k. Seems like quite a good deal to me, as I payed £30k for my 61 plate HSE when it was 8 months old.

If your not fussy about the upgrades on the MY13 , buying a nearly new MY11-12 for the same price as a new GS sounds good to me.

Taking another view on private sale ,The question I would ask is why is he trying to sell a car less than 1 year old with low milage:and should I steer clear,has there been issue so he wants rid..

When I was looking I got the cars down to 3 dealers ,phoned them I told them what i was looking for mine ,and what I wanted in the deal .2 dealers offered me what i wanted but 1 had the colour so went with him..

it not so much a buyer market with these type of cars ,there is people out there with money so LR can do what is best for them that is the market that they target,not the people who could hardle afford it.... Iain

Yanwoo - that looks like exactly what I'm after thanks! I'll get in touch and see what they'd offer for my GS.
Boycey - I don't really want to be putting too much extra into this swap. The intention is that I buy a slightly older HSE which has already taken most of its depreciation hit as I plan to keep it for a while.

I got a reasonable discount on my new GS so won't have lost too much when I come to sell it but in my simple man-maths reckon that it'll only carry on depreciating if I keep it for year 2-3 - whereas a 3yo HSE will lose a bit less??