Well, against my better judgment, I saw this Monte Carlo Blue Discovery being parted out in a junkyard and had to buy it. I’d never seen that color before, and once I saw it, I couldn’t let it go. It’s by far the best color I’ve seen on a Disco.

Going to be a long road with this one. I snagged it before any major parts were pulled. It's really only missing the catalytic converters. Engine has low oil pressure and may be knocking, trans in limp mode, three amigos, a little bit of rear chassis rust to deal with.

 

Brave very brave

 

What are your plans for it?

 

I love that color! Good for you for saving another one...

There was a 2004 S model in MC blue on Portland Craigslist for quite a while last year... 79k miles, $6900 was the ask from a used car lot. Lots of Armor All had been used for the adverts so I was skeptical but I still wish I'd have grabbed that one.

 

I'm not quite sure at the moment. I sold my Giverny Green Disco that was my part-time daily a while back. I have my LS Disco for off-road adventures. I am probably going to keep this stock-looking. I'm thinking it'll eventually be a part-time daily. The only comparable vehicles that I would consider are $45k+, so even if I have to spend a bit, I will still come out ahead.

The jury is out on the mechanicals, so starting with that will be the next step. It runs and drives. Low oil pressure light, but it sounds okay at idle. Maybe a bad oil pump. The trans is what concerns me a bit. I can clear it out of limp mode, but it quickly goes back to blinking M and S, and it doesn't appear to be an XYZ switch problem. Maybe it's a voltage / batt issue?

The color really is spectacular. A good clean helped a lot. My fiancé was with me when I went to look at it. Because of its issues, I was very hesitant on buying it. She convinced me to buy it – her main reasoning was that in 6 months she didn't want to hear me complaining about "the Monte Carlo Blue one that got away."

 

you have trained her well

 

Congrats, pretty rare to find one with a good front bumper.

Are you getting any trans related codes? If it's in limp mode, starting out in third, it is most likely electrical issue. While our 03 was sitting during engine replacement, a mouse chewed the trans harness, right below console, where it passes through the floor, mouse was building a nest there, right behind window switch panel.

Good luck, with your new endeavor.

 

Interesting to hear what the junk yard did to it.

Usually they cut the cats and take the tops off the brake and power steering reservoirs as well as removing the battery.

Did you get it before it hit the yard?

 

Nice save. Shame that hundreds of these trucks go to the crusher over small things. I'm surprised they let you buy it. The one's i've gone to won't let you buy the whole car once they have it on their lot.

 

A little bit of backstory on it:

I saw the Monte Carlo Blue Disco pop up on my local Facebook Marketplace, labelled “parting out”. One side of me felt disheartened, seeing such a rare color go to waste. The other side was pragmatic thinking – well, there’s a reason its there. Nevertheless, the pragmatic side lost and before I knew it I was messaging the guy and virtually pleading to buy this Land Rover in one piece instead of many and how it was a rare color, etc and if it was any good I’d make it worth his while. The guy said it was intact (minus the cats), and that they hadn’t got around to taking it apart yet. I drove there the next day when he said I could have it whole.

Come to find out that the junkyard owner was actually a BMW shop. Like many BMW shops, they had started parting out a number of vehicles to keep stock of hard-to-find parts for customer vehicles and selling the rest. The owner of the shop / yard was very nice, and knew about the rarity of the color. He said it was very close to a color on the BMW M3 of the same era and reckoned that BMW and Land Rover might have been sharing color palettes (not sure on the truth of this).

The Discovery had been bought from an IAAI auction. It had made its way to the auction because the prior owner had sold it via Peddle, one of those cash-for-your-junk-car-apps. I still couldn’t fathom how someone could junk such a pretty Disco. But you know what they say about one man’s junk, another’s treasure. The shop / yard owner offered to deliver it, and within 48 hours there was a Monte Carlo blue Discovery in the driveway.

He had two other Discos there and they were in better physical shape than many, but not as good as the blue one. He said they usually sell a handful of parts off of each and then they get crushed. I told him to call me if he came across any others in a similar situation to the blue one. Very sad, I wish I could keep them all.