I say keep searching. There are deals to be had out there. Also, have your BF download the Rave manual to get familiar with it. It's really not that hard to work on. Patience is the key. The more work he can do, the more money you will save. If you keep going to a mechanic, you will be in the poor house in a hurry.

Eric

 

My place to work on my Disco is the dark corner of my gravel driveway, usually at 11 pm. I love fun like that.

TOTALLY agree. If at ALL possible DO THIS. I have a Maxima that can carry the family as my backup.

Holy cow, #4 is suhwheet fo' sho'. You get too close to these things sometimes and forget how ridiculously awesome they are.

 

Don't narrow yourself to only the 2004's. There are a lot of well taken care of 1999-2002 Disco II's around. Condition and Maintenance history are more important than the year. Also the 1999-2002's have the 4.0 engines which in my opinion are better than the 2003-2004 4.6 engines. I know that the front end on the 2004's that you are looking at are nicer but reliability is more important. A lot of 2003-2004's have needed complete engine replacements.

 

walk away from both and find other options. those 2 both will be bigger money pits then they need to be

 

Try to find a trustworthy small dealer who buys there vehicles at auction and has next to no overhead. Some of these guys won't buy certain cars unless you put the bug in their ear to look for one fitting your criteria. I got mine with 59K for $10K. It needed head gaskets and 60K service but I still came in well under KBB. The truck looks brand new and purrs like a tiger. If your BF wants to do the work on it, get the RAVE, ABS Amigo and ODBII. Along with this forum, almost all jobs can be done with those tools and you'll never have to go to the dealer. It is really no harder to work on than any other vehicle.

 

I would lean toward buying one from a private party. I test drove about 3 from local small dealers, but none had maintanence history papers. If you find a sweet one from a dealer then great. You can better guage how a indivual person takes care of their property and cars by testing driving it from somones house.
I think these trucks are reasonable to work on by yourself. Even if you have to buy a tool for a repair, its still cheaper than labor at a shop. My only complaint is the dumb location of the ignition coils in front of the firewall...but that only needs to be done every 60k or less if you buy lifetime magecore wires. Every car has their goofy part location.

After working on my mom's Acura and see how my friends Nissan has small coolant hoses strung inside and thru his top manfold. The front layout of the Rover engine looks straight friendly to me. Transverse engines have everything cramed in there sideways, but most sedans and mini vans have those types of engines now.