I'm planning on looking a a '01 disco tomorrow. It has 99000 miles on it. I'm not necessarily looking for advice on what to look at. There send to be plenty of information on this website and others. What I need is for someone to convince me to go through with it. Almost every other website you look at on this subject, people are trying to talk potential owners off the proverbial cliff. I need to be convinced to take the leap. Is this thing going to be in the garage more than on the road? An I going to regret this? Am I an idiot for even considering this? I don't know what I'm going to find if I got to look at this truck tomorrow. It may be a piece of junk, but it it worth the look at all?

 

Is working on vehicles a hobby you enjoy or do you have the time and money to take the vehicle to a shop a lot?

To give you a taste of LR ownership, me and another forum member have threads about how we ordering 7k+ engines from the UK right now.

 

Bought my 01 for 500 bucks, needed trans, y-pipe and front drive shaft. Did all of that...and have been adding accessories along the way...but really, not much in maintenance (besides oil/filters and such). The only things that have broke, were the passengers side front hub and idler pulley...never left me stranded though, made it home on the bad hub and got to work before overheating her to bad.

l've driven it about 12000 miles over the last year and a half.

Got burned on our 03, bad engine a few weeks after buying...not sure what the previous owner dumped in it...but anyway...after replacing engine with an 04...my wife has put about 7000 miles over the last year or so.

Yes, with an older vehicle...there will always be repairs along the way. Being able to do the work yourself is huge and cost efficient. Good luck with your decision.

​​​​​​​ Brian.

 

It is always tough on a 17 year old truck, but for Disco's overheat is your biggest enemy and you have no way of knowing if the owner did or did not but it is worth asking. Assuming no overheat it is all about maintenance, basically replacing worn out bits, in that LR is no different than anything else of the same age. Mine is as my wife says just another expensive toy, but I would not hesitate in taking it for 4 or 5 days in the bush 100's of km from anyone. I did that late this spring, covered about 1100Km hi-way and another 600 off road, figure I shook and fixed everything that could come loose and she got home just fine, abet withe 3 amigo's on and happy.

As to garage queen like I said luck of the draw on anything that old, you just have know way to know.

 

One thing I dont see people mention is the lack of readily available parts. When something inevitably breaks, you cant just walk into your local auto parts store and get your truck back on the road same or next day like you could with say a Toyota or a Jeep. Thats not to say parts are hard to get in general, between AB and L8 there isnt much parts you wont be able to find when they break but how quickly you get those parts is the problem.

Basically this is the thing. If the Disco is going to be your only car dont buy one. If it's a second car that you can afford to have parked for a week while you do headgaskets or something go for it.

Also important. If you dont plan on fixing it yourself when it breaks dont buy it. Shops that specialize in fixing rovers are few and far between and cost a fortune.

the reason people try to talk others off the cliff when they consider buying a disco is more times than not they dont realize what they are getting themselves into.

 

This. Finding a COMPETENT and HONEST mechanic is the hardest thing ever. Even in Los Angeles the supply has dried up. People TALK but then their work talks. You also have the issue of mechanics being liars and scumbags creating problems to solve them later. I've had TWO mechanics put orange dex in the car when I explicitly told them NO Orange Dex then basically told me "this is how we do it if you don't like it get lost" - because they know after years of adding OD because the book says so - it will blow up the engines and give them future business. So even though I own a small business and make good money - I've been forced to work on the car myself due to the moral principal of being ripped off by dirty mechanics. You get nice local guys that advertise as British pop all the lugnuts off the wheels when rotating tires because they didn't know to use the hand wrench (basic stuff). Where I now live in Orlando there are only TWO competent mechanics (and I use that word loosely) that I know of who advertise as Land Rover guys. One has a British accent with a clean looking shop who talks up a good game - then refused to honor his work, did inferior botched work which created new repairs, and put used parts on my precious car then played the innocent deny deny deny card. But he had a British accent and knows how to work on Land Rovers. The other guy is a younger sounding guy who refuses to use any customer supplied parts or follow customer input. I will not use any mechanic that does that. I RUN. I learned my lesson before. RUN. You will learn these mechanics KNOW the book is wrong on for example - the cooling system yet - insist on using factory spec radiators (sorry I refuse to install a 100% aluminum 40mm with fans because it's not in the book translation: your car will never overheat and I won't get repeat business. They use Orange Dex because they KNOW they will make repeat business. You tell them NO OD in my car. They say FU. Because if you know Land Rovers - they don't want you a customer. They are looking for ignorant money. You absolutely must work on the car yourself or you will get pilfered by all the scum bags out there. Finding an honest Land Rover mechanic is harder than finding an honest Realtor. That is to say seemingly impossible. For things like head gasket jobs they will stick it to you for 3-5k and refuse to honor their work when it overheats 6 months later.

This is the nightmare of ownership.

 

Early on before learning these cars put my wallet at the mercy of these mechanics. They would charge $300 to change the MAF Sensor (a 5-10 minute job) $200 to change a rear O2 sensor (1. screw out 2. unplug 3. screw in 4. plug in = 5-10 minutes) $250 to change a thermostat (20 min job). Cheap quick fixes like draining diffs .. flat out lying about brakes needing changing.. stealing new customer provided parts and installing used parts (yes this happened), using orange dex cool (this will DESTROY your engine and gunk up your cooling system) when I specifically said NO - they do it anyways then say don't like it - fix it yourself. Charging for work never done. I caught one pouring gravel or kitty litter in a bucket mixed with coolant back into a top of the line Range Rover - the shop was in trouble and the man was flat out sabatoging the cooling system. If you buy an aftermarket warranty -that will incentivize them every time.

You have to learn about the cars. It takes time. You have to do the little work yourself. If you don't want to learn you will pay pay pay pay. It's "normal" for Americans to run out and buy luxury BMW's and Cadillac's and Lincolns and Porches and Jeeps covered by dealer warranties - posing as sucessful with 2% down car loans and 40 yr mortgages - when in reality they are bank slaves to an image. With a used Land Rover you cannot pose. The bills are always due. It's like an 1980's Jaguar - You have to pay to play. Maintainence and repairs must be done ASAP to avoid bigger repairs - they are due and you must either pay - which means finding an oxymoron mechanic (i,e an honest mechanic) or learn to do them yourself which takes time, effort etc. If you get lucky and find a good Land Rover you will be spared tons of grief but you need to make sure 9 ways to Sunday that you're getting a good Rover or a Rover that needs work you can do.

That being said they are awesome one of a kind SUV's, handle fantastic offroad (it feels smoother offroad than on pavement if you can believe that) are head turners and as hard as it is to believe - a 20+ year old D1 D2 will put the whippings on most new Jeeps offroad.

 

I wouldn't recommend any car over 5 years old to someone who does not want to fix things themselves.

It may be a fine vehicle, but parts wear out, and it will need work.

They're great cars when running properly, and you're not an idiot, but they are high maintenance. You'll need to educate yourself on maintenance/fluids.

 

Thank you for all the replies. Your honesty is greatly appreciated. It sounds like some if you are trying to talk me out of it as well, but I understand, you want me to know what I'm getting into.
I am mechanically, and it will not be my primary vehicle, so those two things are positives. I also have a personality defect that causes me to want to do something more when someone tells me it can't be fixed. I like to solve problems. ( I suspect that may be common here.) The prospect of owning (and hopefully driving) something that many people think are ridiculously flawed sounds kind of fun. The only thing I have to evaluate is time which is always a struggle.
So, I will go and look at this one today ( if he hasn't sold it), and if it checks out, I may be entering the world of LR ownership