I think you are missing the point.
The Rover was built for a purpose...to explore the farthest places on earth in style.
It has it's big slow thirsty V8 for a reason, lots of torque and lots of mass.
The engine is not that heavy, but when everything inside is spinning at 2500RPM while you are trying to get though deep mud all of that mass spinning at that speed is what will get you through, a lesser (smaller) engine may stall and you'll be stuck.
If it ain't broke, dont fix it.
The power train in a Disco is perfect just the way it is, those Rover engineers have over 60 years experience in making the finest off road vehicles in the world, you question them and you are asking for trouble.

 

I have too agree, doing a swap for some crazy drive train is not worth it. The tdi would be alright cause your keeping the original design just a better factory option. The thing with a land rover is you are not buying a good offroad "platform" like a jeep, you are paying for the already well enginerred offroad capability. This may not be an extreme offroad buggy, but if thats what you want you will need to get a good platform to start with. With a land rover you know if you add a couple inches lift and some good tires you can get far enough to have a fun day of wheelin'.

 

That says about it all I guess....kind of had my suspicionshence the post.. ...I will order a Land Rover one today and put off the clutch change until next weekend then....Thanks

 

And to followup meltdown's thought: that tradeoff is *not* really accurate for the target market who buy Rovers new at dealer price... which is why we can get them for such a nice markdown in the used market.

10% of retail after 9 years? That would be scary, if it weren't so obvious why it's true...