In addition to a couple of Land Rovers, we have a 1999 Toyota Land Cruiser. Hands down the Land Cruiser wins the "what would I prefer to drive contest." Comfortable, RELIABLE, roomy, can go anywhere, and unfortunately, like the Rovers, it takes premium and gets marginal mileage, around 12-14 in town and around 16-17 on the highway. Virtually bulletproof. We just turned 205k miles on it. Down side for you, they still bring around $10k to $14k on the market in So Cal. On the positive side, they will still get that in two years and you won't have to dump $4000 into it in that time period, along with working on it every Saturday, like the Discoverys......Oh, did I mention that our 2001 is sitting in a shop in Salt Lake with a toasted motor.....went out 4 miles after getting the head gaskets done for $1700. Find a Toyota, drive it, enjoy and put the $4000 a year that you will save in maintenance over owning a Discovery in an IRA....just my two cents. I am feeing a little like "Vandez" today. As much as I have enjoyed digging through salvage yards, getting on a first name basis with the parts guy at the local Land Rover dealer, working on one or more of the three Discoverys every Saturday and spending hours a day on this forum, I feel the Discovery experience might be coming to an end. Premium gas is now $4.45 a gallon out here. A remanufactured engine for our 2001 almost costs more than the truck is worth. Our 2000 is running well, but a friend wants to buy it and I may just sell it to him before the next thing on it breaks......... 4Runners are great but they are expensive if you are looking at anything with less than 150k miles and built since 2000. An Xterra may be something to look at, seems like they are a little less expensive than the 4runners. The Jeep Cherokees are nice, pretty basic though. Good luck, when you figure it out, let me know, I too am in the market.......Phil

 

Phil, I just checked out a 2001 Honda passport, (the loaded luxery model). 94k on it and they want $5,900. Its got a v6 so it will do way better than a disco as far as mpg. I do like the land cruisers but I just can't afford one right now. This Honda seems tempting although technicaly it isn't a real Honda. Its essentially an isuzu rodeo with an izuzu engine, so I'm not sure if they are as reliable as a "real", honda. Just before I bought the disco, I almost bought a 2001 Mercedes ml320. Anybody have any thoughts on the 320's?

 

The Merc MLs are crap, they suffer from transmission problems. My buddy is a Merc mechanic and he swears they are the worst. Expensive on repairs and parts as well.
Isuzu builds bulletproof diesel engines, they go on forever. I can't imagine that their gas engines aren't good, besides Isuzu built some Acura SUVs as well.

 

Meh.....they used to have a known "100k miles? Time to change the head gasket!" problem on their I4's in the late 80s. Sound familiar?

I don't know how their gas motors have been doing lately.

 

Any thoughts on the volvo vx70 cross countries? They seem to get Toyota high milage and still keep on ticking.

 

The Volvo cross countries/AWD are not as reliable as the other Volvos. They can run into the high milage territory but require more maintenance and repairs. The most reliable Volvos are any of the 4 cyl. red blocks. They last 300,000 miles with proper maintenance. The Mercedes ML's are horrible. They are one of the most unreliable vehicles ever made. They are more problematic than a Land Rover. If you are looking for a wagon I wold go with a RWD Volvo or an AWD Subaru. One thing to keep in mind is that the Honda SUV's general lack in towing capacity compared to other SUV's.

 

i PM'ed you..... phil...

Chris

 

Last night I looked at a 2003 Audi A4 5 speed wagon. It has 113k and they want $6500 for it. Any one have experience with Audi's? Just wondering as it creeps up in milage how the reliability can be. Thanks.

 

Try an AUDI forum.

 

Are you that daft **** hole! I hate when people are so uptight, they have nothing better to do than to stroke their power and ego on an internet web board. Way to be down to earth and friendly dusch bag. "I'm a senior member".