hmm that is always a bit iffy no matter what you are buying.... As far as getting a rover as your everyday driver with over 100k on it, i would ask you how much do you mind spinning a wrench? I have owned mine for just over a year and put almost 24k on it, it currently has 111k. There are things that will break and if you do not fix them yourself it will cost you an arm and a leg, if you do it will just cost an arm. haha. Looking back at all of the wrench time and money that i have put into my disco would i do it again? Yes, i would not have a second thought about it. That being said i enjoy working on my cars, if you don't, keep the yota.

 

Spence, I once had a Ducati 450 single. (60's)

What a miserable, tempermental POS
I drove it for (2) years, working on it every weekend.

Sweet Jesus, I loved that bike, nothing rode, handled like it.

I've had (2) LR's simultaniously, a '96 RR, and my '97 DI, God I love these things.

A box stock LR, in my opinion, will outperform any other stock street suv.

I believe most offroad performance is a reflection of driver's abilities, also.

If you get one, the parts you put on it can last years.

In almost every case, those who talk about how bad LR's are, either don't/can't do maintenance or don't own one.

Just my opinion

luck,greg

 

Well said with some humor - very nice.

I wouldn't say my LR is more reliable than my BMW but certainly my buddies Volvo.

I have never seen that one - LOVE that video...

Good Luck - you sound like the kind of guy who will love it.

I totally agree with you...

Example: I saw a '96 RR on the side of the road (tonight actually) on my way home from a meeting and about 3 miles from my house on a "short-cut" gravel road I like to take, so naturally I stop to see if I can't help out or anything. I know every LR owner around my area and I have never seen this one before. The two guys in the truck see me coming and start to point at me (my truck kind of sticks out). I get up there and he says that its been acting funny and now it doesn't want to start. He said he just bought it 2 weeks ago and was actually hoping to run into me as he had seen me many times before he bought his LR. Now I cant do too much as I have some of the nicest clothes I own on (meeting I was at) and my lady would flip on me if I got them greasy.

So I tell him to try to turn it over and it sounds fine, then I go back to watch/feel his exhaust while he turns it over and there is nothing coming out/no pressure. Its not even hooked up. I can just pull it off. Then I get on the hood and there is oil stains everywhere, the belt looks really bad, original LR plug wires, extra wires all over from the last guy who had sub woofers in it, ETC.

I feel like the truck is really hot. So I look at the coolant level, there is NO coolant in this truck, none. And his oil is dangerously low as well. So of course being a LR owner who works on my own truck and like to be prepared for just about anything. I have 2 quarts of oil and a gallon of coolant in my truck at all times. This truck used all of my oil and all of my coolant. I then grab my OBD2 scanner, which I always carry, and try to find the plug-in, which I can't find and I have never owned a RR, let alone in this year range. Again I am not dressed to be rolling around looking at everything so I just look to see that the lights are on and the ABS light has been on all week he said.

I then give him my cell and he is going to call me tomorrow and after I am done with work he is going to come over to my house and we are going to go over his truck as much as possible. I am doing some research on the truck tonight as well. Hopefully I can come up with a list of "must do's" for him because the truck has a great body and the interior was great.



I am rambling I know, but the point of the story was that there is also a comradely with LR owners you are just not going to find with most other brands. Do you think if you broke down in your 4runner a guy driving by in a Corolla would stop? Do you know everyone with a Toyota who lives near you, probably not but if you drive a LR you will.

 

+12 karma points.

As for the original question, my rover makes me smile every day. Even the ones I am working on it.

 

I have driven many different 4x4s and I honestly can say I like my Discovery 1 the best. Even when in stock form with the small tires it will have great ground clearance and perform great offroad.

Reliability:
Many say that they are unreliable trucks and would never own one or never again. I bought mine a year ago with 86k on the clock. It ran like crap and needed rear diff bearings, left front CV, major tune up, headlinner was saggy, carpet looked like an STD, and the clear coat was peeling off the hood.

Besides the saggy headlinner and clear coat, All these problems were not because it was a rover, It was the previous owners neglect. Turns out the rear diff was nearly dry that caused the bearings to go out. The left front swivel housing was also dry and ate up the CV axle inside it. The engine also had all the factory plug wires on it and the engine sparkled like a christmas tree if you opened the hood at night.

What all this boils down to is this: All the horror storys you here about these rovers are usually created by the people that owned them and didn't maintain them as they are supposed to be.

This truck has seen absolutley no hours in someone elses shop other than when I took it to Land Rover to have the gas tank replaced under the Recall. I also have drivin it every day and it has seen no down time while I fixed all these problems with it. They are extremely easy to work on and the parts can be found for very good prices.

Now at 100K I have not had to do any anything to it in the last 10,000 miles. I also do not believe in the "must run on premium fuel only". I see no reason to belive this old V8 needs it as We ran my dads rover on low octane for 160K and it is still going strong.

 

With more ground clearance than anything else NAS without 35" tires, it is hard to beat right from the start. DI's are less computer reliant, and DII's are way competent because of the computers. 40k miles and the only real repair I've done is the front shaft. Routine maintenance will keep you in a happy and healthy LR for years to come - just MHO. I have had mine out in the mud (deep sticky clay) with highway tires and it was absolutely amazing. I can't wait to take her back home for a trip over Rollins Pass. I'm just hoping that it is still open when I get there. Don't even get me started on land closures.

 

Very much so on what everyone has said! I have an '03 Disco II and I love it. I bought it with 102k on the odo. and the only real thing I have done to it is the front drive shaft (which I did myself). I use this as my daily driver now (it gets the same gas mileage as my Porsche, go figure). It's reliable, comfortable and I know it will take me where I need to go and look fantastic getting there. I heard A LOT of horror stories before I bought the Disco, but I was willing to take that gamble. One might ask why?? Heres my reason.. I LOVE driving down the street and not seeing someone else with the SAME EXACT CAR/TRUCK that i have!! Its that simple. I like things that are different! My wife, kids and I went to the beach again this weekend. Driving up and down the beach, we saw tons of dodge rams, toyota tundras and ford f-150's!! Guess what... WE were the only ones who had a DISCOVERY... What an awesome feeling.. To be different because you want to be, because you choose to be.. That is what it is all about for me.. My Porsche is a special edition also, there were less than 400 made in the paint and interior scheme for that year! I like different stuff...

If you want the same thing same stuff as everyone else, go buy a ford or dodge! If you want to own something you can look at every single day and know that not everyone has something like it, get a discovery!!

That is just my 2 cents! Thanks for listening to me ramble on and I hope you enjoyed it!

Regards,

 

The block is an old design but rover didn't put an EGR valve on them so running premium helps keep combustion temps down.

 

It's in the owners manual and they state that you MUST use 91 octane or greater.
You are costing yourself money buy running regular, you are loosing at least 10% in MPG.

 

For what it's worth...I'd say that most people who own/drive/love their L/Rs didn't come to the marque/brand by accident. Either you were intrigued by the hulking, not-so-pretty faced Series L/Rs, or saw your first Defender and said, "what th'hell was that?!". SOMETHING brought you to the brand. What ever that something was, it probably wasn't rational.

I'm "40 years young" and I've owned probably half as many vehicles, and I haven't truly "loved" one of them until my L/R!

Like many of the posts above have said...take your time to find the right one for you. You'll find there's often a trade-off; in "most" cases, you'll get what you pay for.

Something happened just today that sums it up perfectly (for me):

I was outside, "bonnet up/head under" when a neighbor drove by and coyly asked "are you having fun yet?" to which I replied "actually...I am!", to which she replied "you know what...I thought so, you can tell you're having good time under there!".

It doesn't get any better than that...it really doesn't!

BowRat