Hello!

I've owned an 03 Disco for about a year and a half now and I have to say, I'm very impressed with the design. They're great looking, fun to drive, and a beast off road.

Unfortunately, the 4.6 Bosch in the older Discos are garbage. In the year I've owned it, I have dumped almost 3k in repairs. As a result of this, I'm getting rid of it because there is just no rational explanation as to why the engines should be manufactured that poorly and I don't want to have to continue pouring money into the endless pit.

Because I'm still a huge fan of the brand (unfortunately so), I was looking into purchasing an LR3. If I buy one with ~100k miles, am I to expect decent reliability, on par with the average (maybe slightly below average) vehicle on the road?
From what I hear, the Jag-based engines are far more reliable and are much less likely to break or at least have catastrophic failures than the older Rovers.

I'm going to likely purchase from a dealer.

 

whats your location? what kind of issues are you having with the d2 engine? i hope you dont take that to dealer lol


on the lr3 biggest most important thing nand i cannot stress this enough is maintenence records, they are heavy so gas milage is poor at least in town, ***the diffs like to go bad early***,hub bearings , a arm bushings, thermostst housing etc. you can also have electrical gremlins due to the sunroof drains clogging alowing water to run in on the main harness

as far as drivability they are still a beast off road, this is my wifes dd and she loves it plain and simple rides great on road and handles well for a heavy suv

i do not think you wil get a good price at the dealer imo though paying the dealer to do a pre purchase inspection on a private sale vehicle can be well worth it

i mean if spending 3k on the d2 scares you off then not sure how you will feel when a $1200 + labor diff goes, then the other one goes or the $800 suspension pump etc.
which realy stinks if you do not do your own labor

not trying to scare you off just being realistic, some guys claim no issues ever so...

good deals are out there on these if you look around and are patient

 

I think the LR3 is a good bet like Tom says. The biggest thing is look through the polish someone who is selling puts on. If the vehicle is well taken care of, it should be obvious. Maintenance records are a plus, I have all mine.

Staying ahead of problems and preventative maintenance are key for happy ownership. This takes commitment, like hitting the forums like you have. While diffs and a slew of other common issues plague all LR3 owners, if you take preventative actions, you should not have any surprises.

LR folks on the forums like the brand, so they tolerate the rest, but lets face it, all vehicles need to be maintained, some more than others.

I wouldn't hesitate to buy a used one. -- first orders of business with 100k is Change the diff fluids, transmission fluid, transfer case fluid, and engine oil and filter. Carefully inspect suspension, compressor (inspect the desiccant canister) change out the brake light switch. At 100k it was due for belts, so if it's not been done, do the belts, and tensioners, etc.

 

Hey man, exactly the answer I'm looking for. Hopefully I'll have enough work this summer to be able to do it. I'm in love with my current Disco but the constant noises always worry me, haha

 

all of what Tom R and unseenone have said, especially, staying ahead of problems and doing preventative stuff and all vehicles need to be maintained, some more than others.

for me, all the maintenance makes owning an LR3 worth it. i knew what i'd be spending after buying the truck to get it up to MY standards, but already having the detailed maintenance records helped more than i could have foreseen. i didn't know how much this history would be useful. it also helped that i purchased a truck that was pretty much still stock and driven likely by a soccer/mall mom. (no offense to toting around 10 year olds on school field trips).

i just had the thermostat housing replaced, and the replacement part is an improved part over the original. yes, the original should have been stellar in its engineering, but it wasn't. it's nice that rover keeps improving the quality of their replacement parts.

in the beginning, i used both the dealership and an inde shop. i liked that the dealership let me have a loaner (i got to test drive some other models), and i liked that the inde shop always had (and still has) time for my questions. sometimes, i ask them to really dumb the language down...these are complicated beasts and i want to understand what's going on. then, i found out that the dealership guys who work on my truck don't own rovers, but the inde shop guys all drive rovers...a lot! this cinched the deal for me. no wonder the inde guys had time for my questions...they'd likely experienced what i experienced.

this is not to say that the dealership guys don't know what i'm talking about, but it's been great to have nuances understood. like the cigarette ashtray losing its spring and staying open (i don't smoke). dealer quoted me to have that unit replaced for about $300.00; inde shop wedged a piece of cardboard to keep it closed for $0.00.

this forum has saved me countless hours of diagnosing when some issues have come up. keep reading up on the LR3s, all years.

 

Funny, I dumped my D2 due to way too much corrosion on the wiring. I considered getting another D2, a 2004, and trying to find a minty one, but the engine issues pushed me away. No matter what creampuff I found, it could need an engine at some point in it's possibly very near future. Even if it was top hat pin'd liners bla bla bla - it's still an additional outlay of cash.

I started considering LR3, for my use case it really isn't perfect... far from it. I use mine for pleasure, mainly offroad.

So, now that I've stepped from a D2 to LR3 - would I do it again? Oh yes.

The problems on these, while common - are a lot less sudden. I haven't seen any threads of people complaining of the crank sensor leaving them stranded, or the slipped liners.

They still suffer the sunroof drains and goofy electronics, but all in all, I think they're a more sound truck. The engine is a blast. Notably stronger and faster, the chassis definitely feels heavier down the road though and on the air suspension does ride very unique.

You sound so similar to where I was. Started looking at spending $10k for 100k miles-ish. I looked at LOTS of them and didn't find any I felt was taken very well care of and worth my money. I realized I'd have to up my budget, so I went up to $20k and really started to find some nice, lower miles vehicles. The key is to just keep looking until you find THE one.

There's an old adage that fits Rovers as well:

"There's no such thing as a cheap Mercedes."

DaveM

 

Dave, not sure why the LR3 doesn't fit your use case....sounds ideal to me.