I have always liked the Discovery, but I have never owned one so in my pre-purchase research I have been reading this forum which has answered many of my concerns about the Discovery.

I am looking at a 2004 Discovery trail edition, w. 77300 miles on it. The car is clean and I really like the Bonatti grey color.

Seller says they identified a problem with the cats on the car and have ordered new cats, they have not been received/installed yet!

I ran a carfax on it and identified the dealership who serviced the car for most of its life, gave them a call. They were very helpful and looked through their service records. They brought following issue to my attention: They had the car in their shop in Nov. 2010 with 77063 miles on it and diagnosed the car with a flat camshaft for cylinder no 6 + a leaking intake manifold gasket. The owner declined the work!

My guess is that this work was never done considering the car is now for sale with 77300 miles on it.

I am not a mechanic. I like the discovery and I am willing to put up with some of its typical issues but this situation has me wondering if this particular Discovery is the right one for me...

Any advise you may have is much appreciated.

 

how much are they asking?

 

Depends on the price.

 

Its listed with a dealer called Windy City Motorsports in IL. They are asking $11900.00 but I know they are very negotiable on that price.

 

I wouldn't put too much stock in the diagnosis from the LR dealer without knowing a lot more about what was supposedly wrong with the vehicle. I would recommend that you take the truck to a good, independent Rover mechanic and have them do a thorough pre-purchase inspection...

 

i wouldnt pay $12k. $6k is more like it. considering you are going to need head gaskets soon and fix the current issue on cylinder 6. if you are serious about it, i would get someone to look at it and give you their opinion. if you do buy it start using rotella in the engine.

otherwise keep looking.. the biggest PITA with these trucks IMHO is the headgaskets.

 

Sounds like a SLEAZY seller is trying to pull a fast one and dump their Disco so they don't have to pay for expensive repairs. Sounds to me like they are trying to pull the wool over your eyes by telling you about the cat issue and then not disclosing the cylinder issue. NICE WORK DOING YOUR RESEARCH!

How much did the dealer quote on the cylinder fix? That would be the kicker for me to determine a fair purchase price.

 

Thank you all for the replies.

YloDisco2, the dealer quoted $4600 for the cylinder repair.

IF, I decide to move on with this particular car I will make sure to get it to a reputable shop for a pre-purchase inspection.

 

Yeah I would say 6-7k and then maybe try to take it to an independent LR mechanic to see if he can do a better price on the repair. For 12k I would tell him to stick it up his you know what.

It's fine if he doesn't want to make the repair and just sell it. But his price is robbery.

 

HOLY SMOKES....my vote is run Forrest run!...Unless you can get it for DIRT cheap based on the amount of work it needs, not to mention the obvious neglect and abuse it has already suffered at the hands of it's previous owner(s).