Long story short, my discovery 2 died because of coolant leaking into the cylinder heads and by the time I turned the rover off, it was too late (or so the mechanic says).

I'm thinking of buying a RR L322 BMW model. Most likely the 2003 because I have no money for a better one (bought my disco 2 last year and in total spent 15k on repairs and only drove it for 1 year and a half). Would you suggest buying a high mileage one? 160 xxx kilometres / 100 xxx miles? What else should I look out for besides the air suspension, cruise control, tyres, steering wheel column? Are the BMW rovers mechanically dependable? Would it be okay if I drove it 3500km/2200miles across the country to bring it home in such a short amount of time?

Really appreciate anyone's opinions on this matter

 

Might want a second opinion on putting the Disco back on the road. Lots of them survive a sudden coolant leak / loss with a head gasket job. Search our forum for comments on the BMW engine, they are not all positive.

Any high miles vehicle, regardless of brand, with minimal maintenance by an owner over their head from a fiscal or mechanical skills standpoint will have issues. If planning a remote purchase and drive home, perhaps arrange for a pre-sale inspection by an indy mechanic in that area.

 

Just received a 2003 discovery a week ago that was in a small accident. All the coolant leaked out of the radiator. Fixed the radiator, filled it up and she is running good and holding her temps.

A mechanic told someone I know that their Disco I spun a bearing and needed a new engine. It was leaking coolant, but the engine sounded fine. Do not know what that mechanic was smoking. Its always good to get a second opinion before you send any rig to the chopping block.

The L322s seem to be good mechanically but tend to have more electrical problems than most. I would try to get an 04, the first model year on a vehicle is usually the buggiest. What year and miles were on your disco?

 

As long as I can get home safely at the end of the day, that's all that matters for me.
Mine's an '01 with '03-'04 headlight conversion done. Turned out quite well actually.

 

It was 145k so that would be 90625 miles.
What pissed me off was I was new to rovers and instead of going to the dealership (which would have been worse), i decided that an independent mechanic would be better. I paid $3700 for the headgasket job, and now 25k/15625miles later, apparently I need to do another headgasket job, recondition the heads/replace them depending on condition, new radiator, and valve cover gasket. On top of that, my cruise control stopped working 2 nights before and yesterday, when I went to go get my licence plate off of the vehicle, the 3 amigos came on. I've always loved my disco and I thought I was going to drive it until I die but circumstances have changed and I would rather have a bit more luxury features and go for the L322.

 

How are high mileage rovers? 200k/120miles. What kind of service should I be looking into performing?

 

transmissions blow in the RR all the time cause they dont get the fluid changed, radiator and the alternator go bad.

trust me, disco two is cheaper to run. RR isn't so cheap. LR3 is cheaper to own and operate then both vehicles.

 

Going to look at a 300TDI conversion on the rover.
Will keep everyone posted if I decide to go for it