Found an '04 Discovery with 110k miles for about $11k. Seller seems polite and is the 2nd owner who has had it for about 7 years. No known issues. I'm unable to see it in person cause it's out of state, so am relying on pics.

Seller sent me these underside pics. Does this rust look bad? should I buy it?

 

Uh, Heck No.
For 11k that is insane.

 

that's a big fat hell no from me. that would be an absolute pain to work on with all those rusted bolts, plus that frame is probably nearing the end. I'd suggest buying a truck in the south or southwest with no rust for similar price or cheaper.

 

can you elaborate on why?
What if it was $8k?

 

what if I got it for less? Or would you avoid it at any price?

 

That's some serious rust. Those rear rails are done and you're looking at a rear section frame swap at least. Most likely, there's a lot of other rust related issues going on as well. You're looking at thousands to just deal with rust, then there's normal Disco problems on top of that. It might be a good parts truck for like $2,500 or so, but if you plan to drive this, you're going to shell out thousands.

 

I wouldn't pay more than 4k for a truck like that if everything else was sorted. 11k is close to what I paid for my rust-free socal truck. Plus it had a ton of recent maintenance done including a head gasket job just prior to sale. Mine was also a 2 owner truck with a binder full of maintenance records all the way back to sale.

 

that is a parts truck - a grand at best

 

Thank you everybody for the excellent advice and words of wisdom! I'm going to pass on this truck.

There's another one I'm looking at for about $13k. For those of you that bought yours 2+ years ago, $13k prob seems very high, but unfortunately it's a "bargain" these days. I'm honestly uncomfortable at anything over $10k, but its the price to play these days. Anybody need a kidney? I have one for sale.

 

Project trucks are available for less, but you will quickly wind up at the same cost if you are paying someone to do the work. The good part of that is you know exactly what is done and when, and you invest in the fixes over time instead of all at once.. However if you need a fully sorted truck that is a reliable daily start with one that has had the work done. Fully sorted these are easily as reliable if not more than many modern rides because of the lower complexity level.