I am going to look at a 2004 Disco SE tomorrow. It has 86,200 miles, heated seats, CDL, etc. From looking at it, it doesn't have the air suspension, 3 row seats, or navigation.

Shop is asking $8900 for it. Does this seem like a decent deal? What should I look for?

Bryan

 

What has been done to it maintenance wise? HG? Re-built front drive shaft w/greaseable parts? SE didn't come standard with 3rd row (SE7) or navigation (HSE).

Price depends on location and negotiation skills. Use search button on what to look for. Good luck, you will enjoy.

 

I am not too sure what maintenance was done to it. He did say that he bought the truck from the original owner. If I called the local LR dealer with the VIN, would they tell me the maintenance that has been done?

 

Well, I know for sure they will run your VIN for any factory recalls that were done/not done. But I doubt any dealership will release records of any work done on a vehicle based on a VIN unless you were the one that authorized and paid for the repairs.

Regardless, you will need to do DiscoMike's 60K service any way to know all is done and re-build front drive-shaft with greaseable parts if not already done.

 

Yes. Call the dealer service desk with the VIN and they should tell you what was done. Be friendly and let them know what you know about the truck.

Let us know if you have any problems.

Dave

 

So I went to take the Rover for a test drive. Started it up and it has the three amigos. The place selling it says that they have an appointment with Land Rover Amherst on Monday to have that looked at.

Seems like it might have an oil leak from somewhere. The valve cover on the passenger side seems like it might have been "cleaned" up. But several of the cross bars underneath the truck looked "wiped" off. I touched them with my finger, and some oil rubbed off.

Underneath is pretty clean. Definitely no rust like on a typical Buffalo truck.

Driver's side rear trim piece is cracked, he said that he would need to replace that. In the engine bay, the cover over the windshield wiper fluid was missing. He said that it will get replaced on Monday.

There are a few minor blemishes in the paint here and there. Overall, not bad (IMHO) for a 7 year old truck.

Interior wise, the truck was in good shape. Some wear on the leather, but no rips. The climate control was in celsuis, not farenheit. So that would need to get switched.

Diff lock engaged, but when I went to disengage it, the light on the dash didn't go out. The guy said to disengage it, and then back up. This fixed it, the dash light went out. Is this normal?

The other thing I noticed was that every know and then the oil light came on and went off. Not sure what that was, but he said they did and oil change on it. Perhaps they didn't put enough in?

He said that he would give me a call next week once they got it back from Land Rover. I asked him to have LR pull a service history since he will have the truck there. So hopefully that will show how well it was serviced.

The truck rode nice, no rattles and felt very solid.

 

On a Land Rover, really?

Yes


Do a search for '03 (and sometimes '04) oil pump failures due to dowels being misaligned.


It is a Land Rover, wait until you take it off-road

 

That's a bad sign, very bad. Have them check the oil pressure and give you the actual numbers for cold idle, cold @ 2000RPM, hot idle and hot @ 2000RPM. If the numbers don't look good then walk away... no, run away.

 

Agree 1000%...if it were me I'd walk away right now...from the problems it has it doesn't sound like it's been well taken care of...oil light flickers on Discos scare the crap out of me.

 

I agree be weary. If it's got a defective motor/pump, either ask them to cut the price in half or walk. It might be ok though it's got 86k on it, may just have really low oil. Still, address the issue.