I knew what the problem was without even seeing the rest of the pictures. Ugly, ugly, ugly.

 

It's so you can be like this guy and show off how well your traction control works:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ShJZnH3flQ

 

People buy vehicles for all sorts of reasons. Some use them for their intended purpose. Some want to appear like they can. Nelly the rapper had a song about his "street sweeper" rover. (That means it was lowered). Why? Who cares. I think they are all really cool. Would I do it...no. But its all fun, just may not be our type of fun. So who wants to go to Alaska?!

 

Discos ride decent but the suspension definitely wasn't designed with wheels like that in mind. The factory 18" on D2 is pushing the limit. With such a limited amount of sidewall you are eliminating a lot of your suspension and making for a really harsh ride.

 

I LOVE in the movie "Cars" at the end right before the credits roll Sarge ( a WWII Army Jeep) is teaching a off road class, there is a sparkly HI with chrome rims, he says to Sarge, "but I've never been off road, I'm going to get my rims dirty" and it takes him 8 moves to turn 180* while the other SUV's turn around in 2.
It is VERY funny, makes me laugh everytime.

 

I bought mine with 20" Antera rims and relatively low pro tires and I must say that the ride is a little stiff, but it floats compared to my 1 ton (when empty.) The rims alone were about 6 grand new and I could probably sell them now in this market for at least 2-3 grand which is half what I paid for the truck! They do look nice, but I would never have put something like that on a Disco. I'm going to buy some 16" steelies or stockers and very aggressive meats when $ allows and keep the meats in great shape for hardcore stuff. The advantage is that I get a quiet ride for the street and outstanding on road performance and tire life and then 20 minutes to swap tires and I get the off road performance. I also don't have to worry about wearing down my skins with my wifes mall crawling as it is her daily driver.
I used to have a big *** truck on 38" Swampers and the off road performance of those tires were incredible but they were next to impossible to keep balanced and I was lucky to get 18,000 miles out of them before they would be worn out and swapping 120lb tires around was a major PIA . The advantage with a Disco is that you can run two different sets of tires and not have to rent a storage container to house them.
Were these guys posers? Maybe. Were they smart and had two sets of tires for their particular flavor of wheeling? Who knows, but I have been to numerous events where people drive their wheeler pulling a trailer with spare parts and their off road meats, swap out the tires and it's game on.
Nice looking Discos though...

 

I would say they are outfitted for the urban jungle. Some people will pay 150 bucks for a pair of shoes, when they could have bought the same exact shoes down the street for 50, and somehow think the ones they have are better cause they paid more for them. Same with Rovers, they just want to be seen in the expensive Rover, with the $3000 rims, while they rent a crappy apartment, and are behind on all their bills. they've made it, big timers, mama should be proud.

 

Some of us have no desire of going off road, not even by accident. Does that mean we shouldn't buy a LR, Jeep or any other known 4-wheel drive vehicles? A nice set of rims can set your vehicle apart from most other urban jungle vehicles. I'm not into the bling-bling, 22 or 24 inch rims. I'm more of a pro-touring kinda guy. All my other vehicles have been lowered and if I could figure a way to lower the LR without messing up the suspension geometry, I would. I can hear the flaming already for lowering a LR.

 

Pretty much by definition.

But if the cost is worth the image you want to present by driving a capable off road vehicle.....well....its your money. And you're certainly not alone. Most of them end up never going off road.

But, if you must, please buy new ones and keep them in nice shape. Also, keep the stock wheels around. That way when you're done someone who is actually going to use it for what it was built for can get a deal.

This is what us (poor) Porsche guys do with our track cars - buy them from doctors who never even got their cars to WOT and put them in their proper native habitat (the track).

 

See here's my input on that... When I am looking for a vehicle, Im think, what is it made for?? When I think off road LR and jeep come to mind. When I think Big rims and such I think Caddy, Lexus, and all the luxury SUV's that cant go off road. When I think fast, (insert sportscar name here). When I think boring vehicles I think toyota, kia, ect. In my eyes a disco (even more so than most LR's) just dont look right with spinners or shinny rims. Its like telling paris hilton not to be a ****, but deep down she always will be, no matter how many purity rings you force her to wear.

But hey, it your money , your car, and i still respect anyone who loves their vehicle enough to personalize it.