Should I or shouldn't I? Please help! We sold our 94 Camry last weekend in order to get a larger second car. I would be the primary driver of the second car since my wife has a Volvo XC. I would be using the second car to take the three kids to various destinations, fishing, and family camping. The car would have to have towing capabilities, seat 7, around $10,000, and be reliable. We live in a smaller town and the nearest L.R.dealer is over 2hrs. away. I am an elementary teacher, coach two sports for the district, have three kids under 9yrs., and I am not mechanical at all! So, having a reliable rig is very important since I have priorities other than spending my time working on a car, or paying to have someone work on my car. Ihave alwaysloved the look ofthe Discovery, so offI went to Craigslist.There were a lot of choices and at really good prices. So, I askedmy brother who is in the insurance business what he knew about the Discovery. His replywas, owners seem to like them, but they are expensive if something goes wrong. So I asked the custodian at our school who is also a mechanic what he thought. He said, "You really want to go there? Thoseare pretty unreliable, and when they break it will cost you an arm and a leg!". Hmmm, am I headed down the wrong road? Then I had a friend that is a car fanatic and physician in Portland check a Discovery I found Craigslist. He said, "It was beatiful, but all Land Rovers are if you don't own them!" Wow, maybe I need to look elsewhere! And I start looking at Land Cruisers, but I can't get the Land Rovers off of my mind. So I seea Discovery in Seattle that is a 2000 with everything I want. Get a hold of the dealer and he says it is a great rig, "Runs awesome, always worked on by local dealer, etc." After a few e-mails he says, the ABS modulator needs to be replaced, so the pricewill not move if he has to fix it.My wife shows up yesterday witha Consumer Reports book andon the page of least reliable cars is the 99-04 Land Rover Discovery (thats not good).A few pages laterDiscovery finds itself on the list of Worst Bets. And finally to the review, oh man!!!!, the Discovery gets ripped up one side and down the other. All little black circles, which is not good! Then I start reading this forum, and people are pouring thousands into these things ($4,000 in two months of ownership? Are you kiddin' me? Isn't that considered a lemon in your state?). That is money I do not have, and if I did I can't see spending it on car repairs.Fly rods, family trips, food for the family, now I'll spend for that. Should I give up on the Discovery and look atLand Cruisers only? It is kind of leaning that way I'm affraid, unless someone here can sway me. Should I or shouldn't I?

 

I have a 97 Disco and I gother for nothing. I am very mechanical and I love her. But,she really gives me something to do.She has never left me stranded, but when something breaks, I have to fix it, or I will be walking. If your local mechanic doesn't want to touch it, I wouldn't get it because he will eventually have to. The guys on here, especially Mike, are more than willing to help walk you through fixing things, but you have to be willing to work on it, and have the tools and a place to. I have found most Land Rover owners wouldn't trade their rigs for anything, but complain about high maintenance. I even heard someone refer to them as supermodels: high maintenance, but damn.......

If you are willing to work on it, get it. But if you just want to drive it and take it to Wal-Mart for oil changes, get a Tahoe. This is just my opinion, and I hate to scare you off. Search around in here and see what other people have said. There are a lot of questions like this in here..

Hope this helped!

Jason

 

I bought a 2000 Disco for $8,800 and so far everything has been fine. BUT this is the best way to find one:
1. Do ALOT of research
2. Find what you want and test drive more than one.
3. Look at the Carfax VERY carefully
4. When/if you by it bring it to a Land Rover or a Specialist in your area (hard to find) and get a full inspection, it s a little expensive but well worth it!!

I did all this and I have had no problems with it. I'm sure the will be the occasional problem but if you take care of it you will be fine. I love mine, it's an SE7 and fits my life great! When you buy a British car you are taking a little risk but owning a Rover is great and you should love it!

PS- Minivan<Land Rover

 

I have owned Vw's and Volvo's always wanted a Disco, said wtf and went looking. Didn't buy the first one I saw and the ones the dealer had were kind of high in mileage. Ended up purchasing from a used car dealer. I love my Disco, Land Rovers are no more expensive to own than any other Premium Luxury brand.

1. Brake switch left me stranded, covered by used car dealer.

2. 45K service + abs/tc/hdc light issues.

 

Coppi, your dillemma sounds very similar to mine. I have been looking at Discovery IIs for a long time, because my Father has a really nice '99 in San Diego, and I've driven it on occasion. The prices for them are reasonable and they just look soooo nice.

When my dad told me he was considering selling his, and offered me a price I really couldn't refuse, I jumped right on it. My wife and I have 3 cars, one being my '92 Camry with 193k miles on it, my wife drives a new Outback and I have a '65 Mini Cooper from Australia that is a summer car only, and gives me something to tinker with. The Camry was going to be replaced with the Disco. My reasoning was that even though the Camry has hardly needed any mechanical attention in 15 years, it is getting up there in miles and might start costing more money to keep it running. Well, the main reason is that it is a boring car and I hate boring cars, but the other reason was what I told my wife to sell her on the idea.

Well, after doing LOTs of research, including talking to Disco II owners via e-mail and phone, talking to independent Land Rover repair shops in person and reading up on these forums, I decided to call my Dad back and apologize for the inconvenience, but to tell him I was going to back out of the deal.

I sat down with the owner of Expedition Autoworks, a local Land Rover specialist and owner of a few Disco IIs a few weeks ago. He told me that he would suggest either buying a good extended warranty, or putting $200 or so per month in a Land Rover savings account for repairs. He estimated that on average he and his customers spend around $2500.00 per year on maintenance and repairs for their Disco IIs. I've probably spent less than that over the last 7 years for maintenance, repairs, tires, everything on the Toyota.

I have a 2 year old son and another baby on the way, and although we are comfortable and doing well, I would rather spend my weekends and my dollars on my family than on an expensive and problematic British bohemith. I do love the way they look, but I am realistically not going to take it off road very often, and that is where it shines, and pays its owner back for a lot of the expensive little quirks it develops.

Truthfully, I was a little sad for a few days after making my decision, and I still find myself drawn to them when I see one on the road. However, I now feel like I made the right decision 100%. I am a bit ticked off that Land Rover didn't get this one right, and build a vehicle with a Toyota-like quality reputation, because then I wouldn't have had to face this disappointment. On the other hand, if Discos were as reliable as a Toyota, we would be looking at $15000.00 for a decent used one with 90k miles on it, instead of $8 to 9k. Their horrible resale value is directly linked to high cost of ownership and low reliability. The other thing worth considering is this: If you decide to sell it after 6 months, will you be able to turn it for close to what you paid? Discos on Craigs list around here that were for sale back in January are still for sale today. They just don't move very fast. Everyone knows their reputation.

From what you describe, it sounds like you are after something you don't have to worry about. I think you may have answered your own quesiton.

 

Sounds like you have 2 reasons not to buy one: Your budget and you mechanical inclination.

1. By choice or force (doesn't really matter) your budget will not allow for the maintenance this vehicle requires.
2. Not having the ability/inclination to work on your car is the wrong way to enter a Land Rover relationship.

I bought an '03 knowing that I will be maintaining it. I've actually found that doing my own maintenance saves time: I don't have to make appointments and get rides. I'm at a point in my life where I could pay someone else to do it, but it takes too much time....it's a good thing I had to build a car when I was 16 if I wanted something to drive.

Sounds like you need to look into a Tahoe or a mini van, not a lot of 7 passenger options out there at $10k. in the SUV world.

 

Yes, I've spent approx. $4000.00 in the 2 first months, but $1700.00 of that were for a Old Man Emu suspension and bigger tires. It's a fact that I would not have changed the suspension right away if it wasn't for the fact that my air suspension(SLS) compressor failed. But I was planning in doing the mods in a few years. This was just an excuse to do it now.

You will also find that people that sell their Discos, are often facing repairs that they do not want to fix. Therefore when you buy a Discovery, you have to expect spending the couple of thousand dollars that the ex-owner wouldn't.

I ended up spending for brake oil, power steering oil and ACE system oil flushes. Then I had to get the intake manifold gasket( with other related gaskets),valve covers gasketand just now... main front gaskets changed. I still have a tie rod end and rear left door actuator to change. And soon, I'll have to do brakes. Add this all up, and you're darn close to 4 thousand dollars.

Keep in mind that once you've past that line, you pretty much set for a long while.

As someone here said, Take a Disco 2 for $10.000 and add that let's say$3000.00 on initial repairs. And you're set with the vehicle you wanted for $13.000. If you get a 2000 Toyota Land Cruiser, you'll have to spit close to $18.000 and you'll be driving your second choice?!?!

And I really like the idea of putting aside $200.00 a month for the unforseen. Could end up with alot of money in a few years if nothing goes wrong.

So yes I spent that money, but the whole time, I was justfying it by telling myself that I had paid next to nothing for a vehicle that was initially worth a fortune and that the things that were wrong were now fixed.


Good luck in your choice, but I'd do it again tomorrow.

 

Thanks for all of the replies. DiscoII it does sound like we are in the same boat, and I agree 100% with you. Especially the part about, why can't they (L.R.) get it right.I just love the way the Discovery looks, but...
After delving into a lot of the L.R. sites, and chatting with a few more people familiar with the Discovery I'm going with a late a 90's Land Cruiser. A few less headaches for the young family!
A minivan or a Tahoe now that's funny After doing a bit of math on a Discovery or two on Craigslist and Auto Trader,they were averaging $2K to almost $3K in somecases lower than Edmunds, NADA, or KBB prices. I found that very interesting.
Good Luck To All!

 

My experience have been pretty good.Its a 98 Disco D-1 had its issues but very happy with the choice. Couple of friends have jeeps, tahoes, and fords. They all have problems. Its a truck. Be happy and get what you want. Me, I seened that the D-1 (94-99) are easier to work on but the mid-99 are more comfy. Save a couple of dollars when you can or get that rave cd (for computer) do it your self. This is a excellent site that helped me figure out simple things that a stealer(dealer) would have gotten me for. Good luck at what ever you decide to get. Lastthing when you see me drive by in a niceEmerald Green Disco and you still have that tahoe its not to late to trade it in. Good Luck

 

I think you made a good choice with the LandCruiser,they are a good solid unit and hold their value well. Almost all of us who own Land Rovers realise that they require more care than a regular garden variety SUV,and they can become a money pit if you end up buying one that has not been maintained,BUT owning a Land Rover is like dating a Supermodel,yes they are high maintainence but when its time to perform...LOOK OUT!