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Hi Every-body,Newbie here! GREAT FORUM!



Basically I have been wanting to buy a Diesel Discovery for the last 10 years but dare'nt!,Love the vehicle and have always been a Land Rover fan,have 3 kids,have a 1 ton trailer to pull,live in rural France so why not, then there's the other half of me saying (after having owned VW's & Audis for the last 20 years,better the DEVIL you know than the DEVIL you dont!!!!!) get a life, big noisy,unreliable,expensive,tyres,servicing cost's,fuel consumption etc............

We have a vehicle change coming up as our current A6 is getting too small for us, not bothered about massive drop in performance as now here in France Automatic speed cameras are popping up every where and think that if you are going to abide by the speed limits you might as well do it in style with a better view/ride

My major concerns/questions are:

Engine/gearbox life: How many miles is a Td5 engine good for?, what problem signs to look out for?
Is the Tdi 300 the same engine as a Td5 if so what engine is it? A perkins 5 cylinder in line?????

Cost of tyres?How many miles do they do? Reliability?Maintenance cost's (I do all my own servicing/repairs myself to a limit wouldn't want to rip an engine in bits for example)

Sorry to sound a fanny but I really would appreciate and help,Model advice,what to avoid or encouragement. As much as I would like a Discovery but I haven't the time,bank account or enthusiasm to spend all week ends repairing it!

Many thanks in advance

Jason

 

Any Disco tdi info would be really appreciated-Please-Pretty Please,Pretty Please with a cherry on the top!
Cheers Jason

 

Hi Jason,

I don't consider myself an expert in any way on Discovery's, but I can give you my two-penneth from my experiences.

My two previous vehicles were a BMW 328 and an Audi A6, I was also very used to the reliabilty, build quality and everything else that goes with that type of motoring. I decided to change for a Discovery for many reasons, size and therefore practical ability was the biggest. Others included - I just wanted a Land Rover and my wife thought a Defender was too agricultural (I disagree there - I still plan to get one), the driving position is just fantastic, I wanted to slow down / drive differently with less stress and I wanted a vehicle which could take us anywhere. I believe the Discovery answered all of my "wants".

I think this type of forum made me worried for quite a while, I made me think that Disco's are quite unreliable, but I realised that for every one person with a problem there were hundreds without.

I've had an '01 TD5 for over a year now with not one major problem, there are things that need to be done (mostly minor and cosmetic), it's due for a service now, but I think by using a good independant even that with be cheaper than an Audi service. I certainly haven't needed to spend weekends under the bonnet.

Fuel costs have been very similar to the Audi and BMW's I have had (about 30MPG +/- 5 depending on use) although the bigger tank still makes me wince at the price to fill up.

I would recommend the Series II with the TD5 (but I'm biased).

 

Thanks a lot for that cobblers!

I have managed to get some other really good info/encouragement of another Landy forum and have practically decided to go for it!!

Only problem now is finding one!

 

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How ironic is this then!!!

We let half of our French watermill out as a Holiday let and clients have just turned up tonight for a 4 month long winter let-Guess what they drive? A 1994 300tdi disco!Owners for the last 6 years and they are well happy with it!

Still haven't found one but dead envious having one parked outside-Fingers crossed!

 

The good news is that you now have the perfect person to go on a test drive with, available for 4 months.

Good luck with it

 

I can't give alot of info other than we have two small children, two large dogs, and a boat we drag all over the states. I loooove my 2000 Disco II!! It rides fabulous, looks great, and goes anywhere!!!

 

I have a 99 Disco 2 with 109k miles on it. It has certainly had a few issues, but nothing weird or hard to figure out. That's not saying that a couple of them were not expensive, but it seems to be getting more reliable with time.

I just got back from spending a week in the California White Mountains. Nothing but dirt roads, nothing under 10,000 feet of elevation. My Rover ran great and it was so nice not to have to worry about getting stuck, or having something rattle apart.

Concerning tires, I find that I get 40k-50k miles from a set of tires. Seems pretty good to me given the weight of these trucks.

A general comment on reading forums to determine reliabilty. I saw a comment similar to this on my Porsche Boxster board one time that I thought was very apropriate here also. Generally, only the people who are having troubles post on these boards, so its easy to get the wrong impression. People whose vehicles are running fine, have no reason to post. In addition, with all the weird, challenging and sometimes expensive problems discussed here, I don't think I've ever seen anyone say they were going to sell their Rover!