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The 2 discos I bought were both in the $600 range and both have been projects. neither one ran when I got them but both were a lot of fun once I figured out what the problem was. first one was 1 1987, eventually found a bad connector o the rollover valve, .45 cent connector fixed it and abour 2 months to track it down. 2nd one was a 199 (early) and it had computer issues with the main ecu and the alarm ecu. Still messing with a temp gauge problem, but it does run great!! Lots of details on the '99 as it was neglected, but I still have it after 3 years and only stopped driving due to gas prices and driving too far to work and back. now I am don working so I will probably get t back out and put it on the road. Love it for winter driving!!
actual picture of when I picked it up (beleve it or not)
If it hasn’t already been said, don’t do it!! The best thing so ever did was to stop daily driving by D1’s. The newest D1 is almost an antique vehicle. I’ve owned about 4 or 5 D1’s and they’re great vehicles, but they’re best as a fun car at this point IMO. I still have a ‘94 manual D1 and it’s my project car. I daily drive a 2006 Sequoia. Not having to worry about fixing my old D1 to get to work grants a lot of peace of mind.
fishEH’s advice isn’t bad, but my wife and I daily drive the D2 and P38 for 5 or so months of the year (ski season). I try to do all the maintenance on them during spring and fall.
Thanks, guys. Not sure if I mentioned this but I work from home and live within a couple of miles of my gym, grocery store, etc., so being without a car for a short period of time when maintenance is needed isn't really a big hardship - I could always ride my bike in a pinch or take public transit. That also means I'm not having to put many city miles on my car per week, and the vast majority of my miles will be used for driving into the mountains, which is really what I want the Disco for in the first place.
Good news is I'm selling my old T1 sprinter conversion first and using the cash from that to buy a Disco, so if I get buyer's remorse I can always resell it and keep my Forester. So, feels pretty low risk, but I'm still open to other perspectives on why this might be stupid.
I don't drive mine to work. Drive my kid to school , to football and short trips. Absolutely love it. I get comments every time I drive it.
I did some work when I first got it, never had a rover before and had to learn a few things such as; the abs light stays on until you drive it, and the signal light indicator blinks left and right on the dash, no matter which way you are turning . Once I figured out that these weren't problems and the rover is made like that it helped a lot.
The driving position in the disco 1 is fantastic sit nice and high like my superduty, but can see a lot better
They are just plain fun to drive. Best of luck in your search.
I'd replied to this thread but for some weird reason it didn't post.
there's a really broad range of Disco 1's and like everyone else has posted, a 4 cylinder boxer Subaru has better power to weight than an old v8 Rover. Additionally, a Forester equipped with a rallitek lift would be even more capable. That said, the forester can never be a body on frame truck which is what the Disco is.
I'm about to list my Unicorn 1997 SD manual transmission D1. It's been a super stout vehicle and being manual, gets 19mpg most of the time.
Additionally, a Forester equipped with a rallitek lift would be even more capable.
How do you figure? I'm probably the least knowledgeable person on this thread regarding Discos but having owned my Forester for 7 years I'm skeptical of this stance. Even the most fanatical Forester owners are usually in agreement that the lack of a 4WD Lo option is a huge handicap. Momentum can get you up a lot of hills, but if you don't have space to build momentum you're kind of hosed.
Ah - the wording confused me there. Yea, I had originally planned to add a lift this spring, but I was looking at almost a grand for 2" or two grand and a tedious installation process for 4"... Plus the wheel wells in my generation of Forester can only accommodate ~28.5" tires regardless of your lift situation and mine are already at 28", so that's a lot of money and effort for a kind of marginal increase in capabilities. Hence me looking into just swapping it altogether for a Disco.
