I'd say that's for sure not a fair price. That's a whole lot of mileage on the body. I understand engine swaps aren't cheap, but you don't anything about that engine swap lol only what they tell you.

I honestly would be more into the 3-4K range unless it already had a decent amount of off road ready items on it.

You give up some power with the 4.0L but gain a little bit more reliability. It's a fair trade off. Regardless of either motor, you'd need to gear it to get maximum performance anyway

 

Pro tip on negotiating this D2. Make sure they see you going over it with a fine tooth comb. Underneath, in the engine bay, flipping every switch, touch every piece of plastic, looking under floor mats, ect. Make mental notes of everything you find that is out of place. Yes, they dropped a bunch of miles into it 30,000 miles ago, but that's not your problem.

For the money they are asking that truck better be immaculate. Also do a nationwide search for other D2s of the same year and similar total mileage and use those prices to help in your negotiations.

If (and it's a big if) it is as advertised, then I still think you should be able to get it for $5,000

 

The people I talked to were charging $9k for a 4.6 translplant and $7500 for a 4.0 transplant (full retail parts and labor) both using low mile tested blocks and adding electric cooling fans etc.

They claim they are finding buyers willing to pay 10 - 12k for a finished truck with a 4.6!

I could see a guy wanting some of his money back if he paid that kind of money recently, however the way I see it is a person should not spend that kind of cash unless they intend to keep it themselves forever.

 

Most of the looking I've been doing has been showing 2004 Discoveries with 100k miles give or take for $6-7k. Granted I'm in Oregon where AWD/4x4 vehicles are in high demand. I guess I figured higher miles body with low miles engine was a decent trade off and would command a similar price, but you can let me know if I'm flawed in my thinking. The big things that attracted me to this one was the facelift (yeah I'm a sucker for the looks), the options I wanted, and the fact that it's one owner that appears to be well maintained. I won't know that for sure until I can take a good look myself though. Should I just steer clear given what you guys think is an already much too high asking price?

 

If it is everything you want and all of the issues are sorted, you are still paying 6k for a vehicle that was 40k new, and you would be buying less future problems than if you bought an 04 with an original 100k engine.

With any DII you could drop a few thousand in repairs at the drop of a hat if you don't do all of your own work. So in my view paying a bit more for some assurance that you will have to drop that few thousand later rather than sooner is fine.

Others will disagree and that's fine, they can pay the rock bottom price and fix it themselves as needed.

Personally I think for what you get, assuming you can afford the maintenance, these trucks are a bargain. In recent shopping I've noticed now most all used X3 and X5's are dirt cheap, as well as the entire 3 series BMW's. C Class MB are dirt cheap, and every jeep except a Rubicon is dirt cheap. I'd rather have a Disco than any of those.

Oh, and yes, traditionally, Disco's sell for more in the Pacific Northwest than anywhere else in the country. But there are a lot of them sill on the road due to some good indy shops in the area and no salt on the roads, mostly.

 

If it's good for the pricing in your local area, then go for it. In SLC (where I am) they don't go for nearly that much.

 

I'd pay up to 8K for a perfect 94-04 D1/D2. Like Dave said you're buying a 40K SUV for 6-8K and you do sometimes get what you pay for.

My 02 Kalahari was 4500.00 2 years ago with 219K on it. Everyone thought I was totally INSANE to buy an old LR let alone one with over 200K on it. I went and looked at it after finally tracking down the owners phone #. I went with an open mind and told myself yes it's 1 of 150 ever made, but if it's a dog walk away.

As soon as I turned onto the street the guy lived on and saw it sitting in the driveway I knew it was going to be a nice D2. It had sat for 3 months as he was now driving his new Nissan Armada. I popped the hood and she was stone cold. I was ready to fire it up and hear it come to life ticking away, but nope it fired up without a single sound.

I went into inspection mode, and tested every single thing and it had two flaws. Cruise Control was INOP and the 4Hi/N/4Lo Interlock Solenoid was INOP (knew it hadn't seen any hard abuse off road with that fault). It was a two owner D2 and he had bought it with 120K on it, and strictly did all the maintenance at the local LR Dealership and it showed.

It's now been two years and it has 228K on it. Only major repair to date was replacing the coil packs, wires, and spark plugs. It's darn near showroom inside, and the exterior is great minus a few door dings, and some slightly faded roof paint under the roof rack.

Then on the other side of the scale I bought my 99 D2 for 1500.00 sight unseen with a dead alternator & battery and it was 4.5hr away. I didn't even get to test drive it! I slapped in a new battery ASAP fired it up and let it idle while I checked stuff. I was happy so I paid the owner, got the title, turned it off before it was to hot, swapped out the alternator, and then I hopped onto the interstate and drove it 4.5hr home. It's only flaw was a leaking master cylinder that required me to top off the fluid along the way, but I made it home, installed a spare brand new master cylinder, and I was good to go. I did nothing mechanical to it besides installing a spare battery, spare alternator, and a spare master cylinder. The rest of the stuff I did was strictly cosmetic and off road related.

So yes paying a little more usually gets you a better shape D2, but sometimes thru the proper channels you can find gems that are just needing a new owner.

Good luck and in my experience with LR's since 1989 = I've never had a single one leave me stranded or with a $$$$ repair. They've saved my life on two occasions, I find them a breeze to work on vs the modern day SUV, and once you know them in/out diagnostics are not hard at all.

 

Update, I was able to call the owner yesterday evening and had a good long conversation about the truck. He's pretty much exclusively had his disco serviced at Green Oval in Portland, and he gave me the name of the mechanic that has done the majority of the work for him including the engine swap. I'm planning on giving the place a call today to hear about what kind of maintenance has been done and the specifics on the motor install. The only thing we talked about on the phone that was an issue was water leaking into the back from the trunk when it is left out in the rain (he has it in his garage now), probably from the trunk barn door sagging and not providing a proper seal. Any of you guys deal with this, and have a suggestion on how to address it?


Unfortunately he's going to be gone this weekend so I won't be able to check it out until later next week/weekend, but I am anxious to see it!

 

"The only thing we talked about on the phone that was an issue was water leaking into the back from the trunk when it is left out in the rain (he has it in his garage now), probably from the trunk barn door sagging and not providing a proper seal. Any you guys deal with this, and have a suggestion on how to address it?"
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The water leaking is probably from a plugged up, or damaged, sun roof drain. If it is like my 2004 Discovery, which has two sun roofs, one in front, and one in rear. Either one can get its drain plugged up, and water comes down from either, or both, sides, and/or from the front of roof covering. LOOK AT PRIVATE MESSAGE I JUST SENT YOU, REGARDING WHAT YOU WROTE ABOUT PORTLAND ROVER.

 

This truck > https://portland.craigslist.org/clc/cto/6111192379.html for anywhere near what you are thinking of offering is nuts! Take your time, there has to be more out there. This one is starting off expensive and will only cost you more money in the end.

And forget getting an objective opinion re: the engine replacement from the shop who installed it. What are they going to tell you....."we did something wrong"....NEVER. If you must have this, or any Rover spend some $ get it looked at by YOUR INDY MECHANIC!!! Best money ever spent.

IMHO there will only be 2 people happy when/if you buy this '04....the sellers wife for getting this POS out of their life and your Insurance Co. Why, if you total this truck they will only have to pay the $1000 book value. Good Luck!