I have heard a lot of people complain about the reliability and what not of their land rovers, but instead of asking questions on how to fix something or about my i truck, i just wanted to let you know about my experiences with my discover that i have named "the mean machine".

It is a black 1995 land rover discovery automatic. 2 sun roofs and every option. I have had this truck for about...hell 11 years. I am currently at about 200,000 miles. This vehicle has been abused...driven hard beaten up and it just doesnt stop running, Of the times it has broken it Always made it home under its own power. The only problems i have had (this is my daily/only car) have been the altenator at 176,000 miles, which is a lot more that it should of gotten. The water pump finally did its death rattle for the first time just a month ago at 190 some odd thousand miles. The coil finally went bad at about 188 some odd thousand miles. The front drive shaft broke off at about 180 thousand miles (that was my fault i think)....and i have probaly got about 4 holes in the radiator that i covered with aluminum foil and then used liberal amounts of JB weld to cover (gotta love epoxy only thing better for fixin stuff is duct tape). My rover was once drained of its transmission fluid by a walmart oil changer and then thay still added 5 quarts of oil, i drove with about 3 quarts too much oil in it for about 2 months and only noticed because it got warm enough outside for me to change the oil myself, and the hole time i was quite short of transmission fluid!!!!...when my water pump went bad i just took off the belt and drove to work with no alternator power steering or water pump for 3 days while i waited on parts to arrive in the mail. That is what i mean buy it has been abused and beaten up....but guess what it still runs just fine....Maybe mine is just rare.......Sometimes it idles a little rough, and i do have a hole in the manifold that i cant afford to fix.....i do abuse this car when need be, but i cant afford to miss work..i cant afford a new car....i cant afford not have a car as reliable and dependable as this...i freaking love This Land Rover...

My dad bought this truck for me new before he died..it is all i have to remember him ad he told me to promise him never to get rid of it ever..i never will that i promise you it is the only thing he ever got me..he was a poor man but he saved everythig he had and before he died he bought it for me so that he could transfer it to me so wouldnt have anything to pay taxes on. Why did he pick a land rover? He always wanted one but could never afford it he finnaly got it but he never once droveithe told me it was mine to keep. Now here i am 23 years old in college working a full time job and driving "the mean machine" it sat dormant collecting dirt for about 3 years until i was old enough to drive it.

I have the highest respect for this truck and the company. He could of bought me a good old Chevy or Ford, but instead he bought me a landrover. He always said they were good reliable vehicles and that i could drive it forever So far he seems to be right. He always told me that when im successful in life i could always just use the land rover as a hunting truck or to tow a boat or something, and use my other car for driving. I hope he is right.

As far as a lot of people complaining about small issues on their trucks..all i have to say is "just roll with it", i see a lot of problems with "alarms" or "slight noises" or "leaking a little Oil" or leaking this or that blah blah blah the list goes on and on and on and on again....All i have to say is get over it...deal with it...its made in Britain but its not a Rolls Royce...its a rolls rough. Leaking a little oil here and there hasnt stopped my vehicle yet.,..it leaks everything every where...and i dont care because it runs just great and still goes off road as if new. Another thing i hear people complain about is price on parts.....A good example is my front drive shaft i broke. Land rover dealership said 750 for shaft 75 each for universal joints, i neede 2 and 100 an hour for labor, they said it would take 2 hours. Did i pay that...HELLLLL NOOOO. I went to Tulsa drive shafts Inc. and he built me a new drive shaft and universal joints from random crap he ttok of IRRIGATION equipment powder coated it black and installed it all for 275 dollars. Taht was not expensive at all in comparison to land rover, it is also beefier that my old original equipment. I did my water pump and viscious drive my self in my gravel drive way for the cost of parts which was 275 with shipping, my coil was 60 with shipping, and its a premium bosch, my alternator was rebuilt fot 175 dollars, and i spent a total of about 10 dollars on all my radiator repairs. So where do you guys go to get your parts and work done. I am by no means a mechanic, maybe us Good Old boys from Georgia just know how cars work.

I just dont understand what is wrong with these peolple. These cars are very reliable, Very capable and very easy to work on. Dont expect an old Truck to run like new, mine doesnt really, but most importantly of all it runs....it doesnt rust.... it isnt fast...it doesnt ride like a car...most of these complaints arent focused towards people on this forum but i was reading peoples reviews of the land rover on another website...one guy was comparing a discovery he bought to his wfes Honda pilot and saying how much better the Honda was. My question is this. Have men lost the ability to be men? Arent men supposed to be Mechanicaly savvy , and understand that the LR is made to do things no honda Pilot (a raised POS accord with AWD) could ever even attempt. People were complaing about this problem and that with there LR, i was dumbfounded that they didnt have a clue as to why a LR didnt take turns well while driving fast.


Sorry for taking up so much space and thank you for reading. this is just and incoherent rant, poorly written with no clear point..i just had to do it, words alone cant express myself....to SUM EVERYTHING UP.. I love my land rover....it is reliable... i ignore the small problems and only fix what keeps it currently from running... i am poor and cant afford to fix the small things... people complain about these in car magazines and whatever because they are incapable of seeing them for waht they are (not a car based SUV)....Genuine parts and dealerships are a rip off....I will drive mine until the frame splits in half beacause the isotopes have reached there radioactive half life....It is more like a ROLLS ROUGH that a ROLLS ROYCE....it is worth every penny...

 

oh yeah forgot to mention that i personally do all maintenace.ie oil changes spark plugs and wires draing differntials.....exept when it is too cold for me to change the oil myslef

 

[sm=smiley20.gif] I had a good laugh, its so true!
I have worked on cars , trucks and more for 25 years and Land Rovers
setup the trucks to be worked on in the most inhospitable places with
the most basic tools.
I'm still laughing.
Have a good day !!!!
Mike

 

Before I bought our 97 rover, I did a ton of research and found the same thing on reviews that you mentioned. People compared them to suv cars that will never go off pavement and wonder why they do not corner the same. At no point do they take that honda, Mitsi, or other car that looks like a 4X4 off road and see what happens. People are just plain idiots regarding this. Then I looked at all the so called problems and realized that most of them are due to the fact that people have no common sense or ability to work on or do maint themselves . Things like leaks which could easily be stopped early on by simple maint. I then drove a couple and some were pieces of crap, but it was clear that those are vehicles owned by metro yuppies who did not have the sense to take the veh in for proper maint since they had no idea what a wrench was I am used to working on my powerstroke and compaired to them, this vehicle is cake to work on. I just love it and feel that it drives great in the city too - it may not corner like a car, but show me a car that gives you the visiblity that this veh has ( we sit high and get great angles to look down around the car to avoid obsticles). I also love all the little gadgets inside her - it feels like you are in a ww2 spitfire the way the cockpit is I also hear how poor the gas mileage is, but a v8 that averages 17.8 mpg like mine does ( and I do not drive like grandma and do not stay on pavement) is more that acceptable - that is like what I got on my 6 cyl chevy vortec! I will always take a small displacement 8 cyl over a large displacement 6 cyl in terms of durability. To sum it up, these vehicles require owners with " uncommon sense" (used to be known as common sense, but here it the states, it seems to be better termed uncommon).

 

true on the uncommon sense thing...couldnt be put better...thats why all these company have to put dumb warning labels on their products. Perfect exampl is q-tips "do not place in ear", i kinda tought q-tips were made for cleaning your ears, i guess i was wrong. But i think a good point i made was this. Technology (car alarms, engine computers, elctric windows, o2 sensors) is what breaks, not the engine itself, if i had it my way everything would be carberated with no electronics on an engine to break. Have yall heard of the cross lander or something like that from Romania that is about to be sold in america, it is like a land rover but they havnt yet went the route of the new LR3, it is still primitive and made for off road, i cant wait till they start selling them here. I bet you people here would like them, simple cheap rugged and military tested in the former soviet block...

 

The Cross Lander is on sell, go to the web sight.
From what I can see it has a Ford 4.0L - 6 cly.
I was hoping for the diesel 2.8L that they talked about
over a year ago. Not for the U.S. yet?

 

Availible in Atlanta, all cities in florida, houston, dallas, new orleans?, and select large markets. There is a dealership here in tulsa being built with a phone number and all but no vehicles until late Nov. I kinda would like to see these do well and not go into all the computer and electroninc route, lieke lr is doing, i would also hate to see them turn into plasctic and light gauge wimpy metal like the Jeeps are going for nowdays. Keep these cars basic like a defender or disco 1 and someday when im not dead broke i might buy one. I need another "mean machine version 2.0" to keep me rolling through thick and thin. As i previously stated i will NEVER get rid of MY landrover it means too much to me.

 

here here.

i think the problem with people and their cars these days is that a lot of schools dont teach auto shop anymore. that was one of the few classes where i learned something useful.

 

Hell yea, If you can't work on your own rig, then don't complain when you take it in the butt at a repair shop. Working on cars is not even close to rocket science, yes there are some tuff things to deal with but it all works out simply, just put some thought into anything and you shoud figure it out. Glad yo ulove your rover, I love mine, do all my own work on every car, truck, & racecar I own, it is really simple stuff, graunted I went thru school for it, but only learned stuff i pretty much knew, just learned a differnt way to do some things. Every car will have it's problems, just use your head before you haul *** to the dealer for the repair, the options are out there. Trust me.