So I find myself in an interesting position. For the past 4 months I have been looking for a truck to use strictly as a towing and camping vehicle. I had been looking strictly at pickup trucks, mainly Ford and GMC. Every time I think I find one that fits my needs my mechanic gives it a look over and shoots me down. The other day he came to me with an idea, a friend of his buys cars at auction and came across 98 Discovery LE with the 4.0 and 169k on it. He tells me it will pull as much as any 3/4 ton truck I had been looking at and will be better suited for our thick snow and my growing family.

I have taken quite a shine to the idea of it, but, I am admittedly quite a bit intimidated by the reputation these things have for reliability problems. To aid in my intimidation I have owned two Subarus since 1995. To quote my mechanic, "the Subaru is so reliable its as boring as its interior."

So......what should I know before embarking upon the purchase of the Discovery?

Thanks in advance

 

Yes these things will pull almost anything, they are rated at 7700lbs towing.
2 child car seats are all you can fit in the back seat, I have 3 kids, 2 in seats, its tight.
These require premium gas.
They are only as reliable as the maintenance that is put into them.
If you cannot do most of the repairs yourself you will go broke.
If your mechanic is a friend and lets you supply the parts and he does the labor, thats not as bad.
Worst case scenario, you buy it at auction, it does not work out, you sell it private party and break even.
Read the tech section on the DI side.
Ask lots of questions.
These things are GREAT in the snow with good tires.

 

Spike thanks for the quick response. After reading through some of the forum I am thoroughly frightened at the prospect of owning a Land Rover.

So maybe the question I should be asking is WHY should I buy one and submit myself to the seemingly unending torture of being a Rover owner?

 

There is no logical reason to own one unless it is brand new and under warranty.

Either you are a enthusiast and crazy or you buy a Toyota or a Mitsubishi.

The 2001 or newer Mistubishi Montero (NOT the Sport) seats 7, has a V6, part time 4x4 and pulls 5500lbs, premium is still recommended but not required.
I used to have one, bought it brand new, 100k and 5yrs never once went into the shop.
The Rover is the second most reliable vehicle I have ever owned, I have put 60k on it so far.

The heritage behind the Rover cant be beat, thats one of the things I love about it, its history, what it has done and what it has contributed to this world in the 60+yrs it has been around.


Either you love it or you dont, if you dont then keep looking.

 

Well I'll throw my 2cents in here. I've worked on these vehicles since they came to the USA. If you get a clean Disco, one with a decent body and the dash isn't curled up, give it the once over. IE: Repair everything mechanical that you can find wrong(with new and used parts), You'll find that you'll get many years of faithful service from it.
With patience something nice will come your way. You'll know when it's the right one to buy

Oh and did I mention... Spike is NEVER Wrong!

 

LOL!!!
Drink more Kool-Aid man, drink more!!

 

I'm mixing it up at this moment!! gonna be a rough day tomorrow...Lol

 

Same here, I got a heads up that its going to be a ball buster, and its going to be hot, really not looking forward to it.
In fact I think dinner is going to give me food poisoning tonight.

 

I have a rover and a toyota FZJ80. Love them both. I will never sell my yota and I hope my rover gets stolen.
I'm kidding, it's not really that bad. I think the saying goes, if I knew then what I know now... It's true. I wouldn't have gone down that road. It's been a lot of work, time, money, work, time, money and work.... also time and money.
They are pretty sweet rigs though. My problem is I really like FZJ80's and I'm pretty convinced they're the greatest SUV ever produced and hopefully start a forum fight over that statement! Rovers are good too, i guess.
What I tell everyone about cars is, drive it and if you like it, buy it. You've got to pay for whatever you drive, may as well drive something you like.

Statement disclaimer: Although I have owned over 6 LRs, I now own a high mileage LRD which is a daily driver with an unknown service history and for what it's worth, probably should have been retired a while ago but I keep kicking it in the *** whenever it tries to give up.

 

So after taking a good look, driving it around, testing the center diff, having the mechanic take a thorough look, talking with the wife, and a couple hours of back and forth internal wrestling I believe I'm going to take the plunge.

Its actually in pretty decent condition. The body panels and paint are practically flawless. Did a carfax and it has pretty decent service records. The worst part about it is the interior. The leather is in decent condition, but the headliner is sagging and unglued in spots. It has the issues with the locks that I read about and the rear windows wont go down, but all things that are easy to fix I understand.

Plus I live in a small town and talked to someone else who has a 96 Discovery and he tells me my mechanic is the man to go to with Rover issues and he'll usually tell ya how to do it or show ya, so I've got some resources for any future problems. So wish me luck and I'm sure I'll be dropping by here every now and then.