I'd give him a grand at the very most for it and like others mentioned be ready to do some work on it.
Bring a diagnostic tester and check for fault codes too. You can then haggle them down even more if you find fault codes.

BTW... Welcome to the forum... Roll Tide...

 

Just a note on the one that needs head gaskets, assume that also means heads. It may not but expect that as a possibility, I got very lucky and got an excellent used set for 200 CDN could have installed them without machining.

 

May not be worth your trouble, but if its just the liner slipping and tapping, you can pin the liners, without too much cost. There are write ups on here.

 

Thanks to all who gave their opinions. I spoke to the owner and he is unwilling to come down off his asking price. He was insulted that I even suggested that neither were in pristine condition as is. So after thinking it over and reading as much as I could on this forum about land rovers, I believe my fascination with them is over. Slipped liners, blown head gaskets, driveshafts that destroy transmissions. Sounds like poor quality workmanship and terrible engineering. An engine block that costs more than the resale value of the vehicle is asinine. For the price of just a block you can buy an entire turn key complete Chevy or ford engine with more hp and torque and a warranty. Jeep, Blazer, or Bronco is where I’m heading. Parts are cheap and plentiful, fuel consumption is better, reliability/resale/towing/and off road capability are leaps and bounds over those buckets of bolts from across the pond.
Land Rover are pieces of ****, wrapped in a pretty package, but pieces of **** none the less.

 

@Alb0474 Sorry you feel that way But they are really that not that bad, I see lots of them around here running just fine, but to your points :

• The liner issue which is relatively rare by the way, it requires the owner to dramatically overheat the engine, not just a bit a lot. Those things do not just move
• Any drive shaft failure on any vehicle is going to do damage, but yes the Discovery is painful.
• Head gaskets, it is an aluminum engine they all have the same problem, no matter who makes them. BMW's micro crack heads and warp.

If you are looking at 16+ year old used trucks at 2800.00 you are buying problems no matter who made it. The Discovery in North America is more maintenance heavy only because of the V8, the TD5 diesels will go all day and then some.

As to capability I will happily take mine anywhere and do regularly, will a fully locked 4 inch lift jeep go more places sure but that guy spent a ton more money to get mostly to the same places I go.
I did 4 days off road last year following Defenders and Series Land Rovers all over BC, the Disco ran fine and went everywhere they did, in 85 to 100 Deg temps.

 

The lesson here is: No matter the make, don't buy someone elses junk.

If you shop around you can find a vehicle that has been taken care of for a fair price.

 

I’ll keep looking, but I have been looking for a long time 2 years in fact and the prices of trucks and parts just seem outrageous. Like 2 to 3 times what I’d pay on any other vehicle.

There were some good points that were made. But I’m just looking at my own experience with vehicles and seems like discos are just failure prone and need to be babied.

 

Hey, hey, hey, I have junk...and I'de sell it tonight! lol

 

The problem with only forum reading is the overwhelming amount of "issues" people post asking for help......
Who comes on these forums to talk about how well their Disco is running?

Its no different than going to ANY Big Name car/truck service center - THEY ONLY SEE PROBLEMS.......
You dont take your car to service just to visit and say hi

You have to take any forum commonalities somewhat with a grain of salt - There are far more of any vehicle out there running just fine than are on the forums talking about their problems.

My D2 was bought with 199k miles on the clock - yes it had maint done over the years but so would any similar vehicle of this age and mileage.
I've since put 20k miles on it and drive it daily 25 miles one way and routinely drive from SC to NC and put 100-200 miles on a trip with NO ISSUES.

Its clear this guy has no idea just how well built the majority of this truck is compared to a Jeep etc that he mentioned - they're not really in the same field IMO.
You're going to have to fully lock, lift and upgrade that jeep to hope to keep up with a D2 - then there's the death wobble that WILL come with those modifications.
But whatever man - you do you and be happy - thats all that really matters in the end

 

I'm not sure you are going to find a decent K5 blazer for close to what a D2 and a little maintenance will cost. Wranglers can be great rock crawlers but that's about it, no space and no fun to drive on the highway to and from trails, any other jeeps are bigger pieces of junk than the disco and way less capable (example any XJ....), Bronco same as K5 comments. I've found parts for the D2 to be reasonably priced and I've had little to no issues aside from some updates to 20 year old parts (idler pulleys, coolant hoses, serp belt, etc) and routinely drive for hours through high elevation mountain passes to go run trails or camp only to turn around to come home with no issues. Multiple trips to moab a year where the car is probably running for 8-10 hrs out of the day with zero issues, my buddys in toyotas can't even say that and everyone claims that toyotas are the greatest thing since sliced bread when it comes to reliability (plus the disco runs circles around them on the trails).