Hi all --

I might be in the market for a new vehicle, and am considering an '03 Disco. I've owned a number of Jeeps, and at one point in time had a 95 Range Rover County Classic that was absolutely awful. So I have a few questions for you all:

1) In overall quality, are the Series 2 Discoveries THAT bad? They probably have more of a bad reputation then they deserve, but is it a wise decision to DD drive one? I have a round trip commute of ~175 miles that I do 2-3 times a week. Is there a strong likelyhood that I should expect to get stranded on the side of the road? Most of the issues from my Rangie were electrical - is the 03 a Ford-Rover? Did they get rid of the Lucas bits?

2) Is this era Disco a coil suspension or air suspension?

3) I see 12 city, 16 highway on the EPA site. Sound right? Premium only, or will it run okay on regular? Obviously I'd like to stretch out the dollars as far as I can given the amount of miles I'll be putting on.

4) I plan on taking it off-road. I'm not really into rocks or mud -- mostly narrow, sandy trails. Some off-camber stuff. I think the '03's didn't have the CDL but I'm wondering if I'll need/want it or not.

5) I'm okay with wrenching, although I don't have much more than a regular Craftsman "mechanics" tool kit. Are most repairs DIY, or should I expect to see the dealer weekly like I was before? Will I need air tools?

Truth be told, I'll be stretching myself somewhat financially over the next year or two. I need something somewhat reliable (but not Honda boring) and with a decent amount of off-road prowess. I'm also considering a WJ series Grand Cherokee and an XJ series Cherokee, but the thing that attracts me to the LR is that they seem to have depreciated like a falling anvil and I'm looking at '03's for less than $10k.

Thanks!

 

Dont know where you live but an 03' for less than $10K, there is def something wrong. Dealers in my area are selling them for high teens- low twentys. Take a look around. $10K isnt even close to what they are going for out here. Make sure they are not salvages!

 

Disco 2 are strong vehicles no mater how much people complain, very few would ever get rid of theirs.
That price of under $10,000 is way below the market price, most are around $13,000 to $15,000.
With a decent set of tire you will probably be OK without the CDL.
You only want to run premium, no cheap stuff or you loose about 2 MPG and carbon up your engine.
Also SLS came as an option, you will find more without the rear air suspension then with.
Hope this helps.

 

I'm no expert on these matters, but I can give you some opinions to chew on if you like!

The pricesare indeed falling like an anvil brotha. I picked up a 2003 disco II with 60,000 miles for 12,000 bucks. The credit union let me finance it for 15,000 because that is the blue book value. Worked well, it gave me 1,000 dollars for all of the fluids and parts I needed to service my new "rescue rover" (it had not been taken care of to my maintenance expectations). I'm leaving the other 2,000 set aside for later upgrades. Expect to sink about 1000 dollars in toa used purchaseunless you buy it from someone that gives it love, which is not likely because owners likethat tend to keep them for a long time. Unless the ownercan tell you when it was last done, you'll want to change out all of the fluids and put new plugs, wires, filters, etc. DiscoMike and alot of others on this board recommend 30,000 mile regular plug and wire changes. Do a search on this forum 60k services for more info on this.

You're looking in the right place for a nice off road vehicle. It'll go there, look good doing it, and the ride is amazing. Howevah (comma) itis indeed a maintenance heavy vehicle. You're not going to have to wrench it every weekend, but you gotta give it some love and stay on top of what's going on with your fluids, etc etc. It can't overheat for more than a few seconds or it warps your aluminum block, and it is touchy in some other areas. The gaskets are going to leak a little oil somewhere all of the time. The radiator is prone to leaking too.The brakerotors are thin one disc jobs. When the pads wear out there is hardly anything left on the disc to turn, so a brake job is usually rotors plus pads. Do a search on u-joints, important info there also. It is not a terrible vehicle, it just requires a lot of attention.

On that note, I haven't commuted with this truck, I drive back and forth with it right now but that is a 3 minute trip. 175 miles a trip? If you go ahead and buy a high-mileage beater, the money you save in gas will make up for it in the long haul. That way, all of the attention your rover requires goes in to what you really want it for - off-roadin'!

I ran the figures on an excel sheet, I can't post it properly, but your average savings on a 25 mpg vehicle running regular was about 175 dollars a month

Almost a car payment on perhaps some toyota or honda car that will average 25 MPG. That gives you two vehicles to maintain, but you will save alot of maintenance on your rover if you are not putting an average of 500 or so miles a week on her. I want to say if you really run the figures even with insurance included you are going to save money, since that land rover is going to get worn out making that commute plus taking it on the trails.

In answer to your other questions...

The 2003 has 3 different versions, the S, SE, and HSE. Sunroofs are listed as standard on SE and HSE. So, if it has sunroofs, but no air suspension, it is an SE. The HSE has the air suspension. They are not that common. The majority of folks rip the air suspension out anyway because it is very maintenance intensive (air bladders burst, the sensors on the suspension also break if the tire bottoms out) The 2003 is also the only version without any sort of lockers on it I believe. The prior years and the 2004 Disco have some sort of lockers on it. The 2003 is all the time 4WD. A lot of folks on here advocatehaving some sort of lockers. I don't mind not having lockers. My wife uses the rover to go to the grocery store and we take it when we do outdoors stuff, so it is no big deal with me.

I thought the city MPGwas 16 and highway was 17. MSN review says 12/16. You can getdecentcity mileageif you don't floor it everytime you take off. When my BMW is working [:@]I use that for daily driving. It is a '93 318i that gets 28 MPG and is an awesome, awesome drive. I love it.

Your craftsmen set should be fine, I have a pretty diverse kit after purchasing for a BMW and a rover. you'll need two torque wrenches,I recommend onethat is a manual gauge for the 0.1 - 60 F/Lb torque range, and another dial type clicker for the 70 - 120 stuff. That may be common sense but I didn't know much about torque wrenches until a short time ago. I recommend a craftsman manual and a husky clicker from home depot. The husky tools are nice and solid. I recommend them over craftsmen these days, because since craftsman changed their tool manufactuers to some overseas joint a few years back they have worsened in quality. The Husky racheting wrenches are not too great tho, I want to toss them. I have a craftsmen set and ditched it for the Kobalt my wife hadbecause they have a good solid feel to them. Husky and Kobalt are Home Depot/Lowes jobs that have lifetime warranties as well. They don't have as large a selection as craftsman. You'll need metric tools of course. There are also some specialty tools, as usual. I'm having to spend a hundred bucks on two specialty wrenches to take the fan off without making a curse fest out of it. Do a search on this board for the rave cd download. It is a digital PDF manual that has great schematics and repair details. It also has a maintenance guide.

That's my experience on it, but that is only about 4 months worth. Sorry for the length, but I have some free time this morning. This board has alot of great information on it and alot of experienced ppl that can probably add more to it. Or they may say I'm full of ****e! No gospel here, just my ideas, any comment to the otherwise is great because I don't want to be wrong in my accepted knowledge. Good luck!

 

Thanks for the replies. Oddly enough I went back to the dealer's website and saw the price jumped to $16k, so presumably they just posted the wrong price. In any event, I found that the garage that I park my car in while I'm at work charges a $20/day premium for "oversized" vehicles, and the Disco counts as an oversized vehicle. So that pretty much nixes the Disco idea for me. I had myself convinced to buy it this weekend.

 

Ouch man...

Well, itis a great world over here if you ever get the chance. Good luck to ya!

 

If a Disco counts as "oversized", then I'd hate to see what your garage would charge extrafor something like a Suburban or H2.

Sorry it's not going to work out for you. If your situation changes I think you'd like the truck. I drive a lot of miles in mine for workand do some light off-roading once in a while. I take care of it and it has proven to be quite dependable and a blast to driveso far. I've had it for 1 1/2 years and driven it almost 30,000 miles

 

They lump all of the larger SUV's into the same category. I could come in with a Disco or a H1 and they'd charge the same.

Maybe I'll investigate the Freelander.

 

My dang CTS is longer than my Rover. It is just higher. Oversized my fanny.

I would stay away from Freelanders. Just my opinion, but get a Cherokee, I hear the motors are junk

 

I had a long talk with the guys at the lot. They charge o-sized rates for Rangies, Discos, Suburbans (and their ilk), Hummers, etc. They claim that the Disco is too wide. *shrug*

I was wrong about the rates - they're $10/day extra for oversized, which isn't as bad as what I was thinking. Still, given that 99's and older are what are going to be in my price range, I'm still shy about pulling the trigger on one.