greetings all, let this serve as my intro, I just recently bought a '98 disco. In all reality I bought it on an impulse, driving my old chevy pickup past a dealership, and saw this beautiful white disco sitting there in pristine condition inside and out, with 92k miles on it. I asked the price; they said $6500. I thought for a moment, then said I'd test drive it. It drove like a dream. Afterwards, I said at $5500 it's a deal. I figured at $5500 I couldn't go wrong. they took it so it's mine today! I had the local european auto mechanic (who owns a '96) look at it and it tested out perfect.

Since I bought mine, I have found other discos for even a better buy. The question I have is, why are these vehicles so cheap? I am thinking that at this price, there must be some fine print, something's up, some looming high cost or something. This seems too good to be true.

 

btw, my intent is not to go hard core off roading, but I want a vehicle that can do serious highway driving and still be prepared for the unforseen.

 

disco 1 or disco 2?

 

disco 1. I thought the disco 2 started in 1999?

 

They take premium fuel, 93 octane seriously, and get like 11 mpg that is why. Plus they are expensive to fix if you are not into DIY. Charming little trucks if you got the money to keep them up. Do not skimp on the 93 octane.

 

Crawl under the truck and have a look at your front drivesaft and look to see if the u-joints have grease fittings... if not u want to have it either rebuilt with new greasable ujoints or call tom woods custom driveshafts 1-877-4xshaft and have them hook you up with a front propshaft. Use premium gas, use dexcool/OAT in the cooling system, they like Magnecor wires 8mm... im not too sure with the D1, hope this helps.

 

I am averaging 16mpg highway, (93 octane) which I don't think is too bad. I will check the u joints, thanks for the tip.

 

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Some reading for you.
The DI and the DII are two very different animals, you will love the DI.
These trucks range from cheap to expensive depending on the miles and how well they were taken care of.
As long as you are a DIY'er these are very cheap to keep on the road, you will get the best MPG on the expressway at 65, windows up and cruise set, we get 22-24 mpg expressway on long trips.
I get 14-16 as a daily driver with mixed expressway/city driving.
As for parts suppliers, you can get alot of things at your local autoparts store.
Otherwise www.atlanticbritish.com, www.roverlandparts.com, www.autosportsunlimited.com, bookmark these sites.
Also check out the tech section on www.discoweb.org and the tech tips on AtlanticBritish.

 

Like you, mine was also an impluse buy a year ago. Not knowing the resale or maintenance cost I brought mine because it was a "Land Rover" and at the time I thought I was getting a good deal even though the truck was in desperate condition, both mechanical and cosmetic. My intial intent was to clean and fix what was broken, then flip the truck for a profit. Unless you get these trucks for free, there's no such thing as flipping for a profit. I realize that half way into the year.

I haven't had my truck for as long as most of the other members, but to answer your question I think the price reduction is related to a few issues.

- Over the past several years these trucks have gotten the reputation that only "Land Rover" mechanics can work on them. That alone will discourage people from buying them if they can't bring the truck to their local garage for repairs.
- A good percentage of these trucks were lease vehicles, and you know how people treat lease vehicles. Fast forward several years after the lease is over, and we're starting to see results of lack of maintenence.
- Since you can't go to our local parts store and buy something as simple as a valve cover gasket or water pump, this leaves the dealer or internet base LR suppliers for parts. Once you can go to your local Autozone, Napa or Advance Auto and buy these commonly used items, then the maintenence cost will go down.

When it comes to the basic chassis, brakes, suspesnion and engine, by far this truck is one of the easiest vehicles I've ever worked on. I haven't worked on a vehicle where you can do a cam swap with removing the AC compressor, alternator or p/s pump. Not that there aren't any other vehicles out there that you don't have to remove these components for a cam swap, I just never worked on one. If you've ever worked on a Jeep, mechanically these truck are similar, very simple.

After driving my low rider mini truck for the past few years, driving this Disco is like night and day. That would be expected. And the more I drive it, the more I like it. Ultimately once I'm done working on my truck, I still plan on selling it to break even. I haven't added it up lately, buy so far I've put about 2,000 in mechanical and cosmetic parts alone. Remember my truck was in desperate condition to begin with. If I'm unable to break even then I'll keep and enjoy the truck.

As this point you've already signed on the dotted line, so don't worry about the resale value and just try to enjoy your truck. I once read another member describe these trucks like driving a vehicle in your La-Z-Boy.

 

Jbegin, DI's don't have the front driveshaft issue and I think you can use regular green coolant in them as well.