Newbie - help me choose a Discovery ;)

Hey guys!

I'm in the market for buying a Discovery soon, as I need one for towing. I'll be towing my race (drift) car, with a twin axle trailer. I plan to use the Discovery for weekend day trips with the g/f as well, when not attending car events

Always loved Discovery's, since I was a kid, and now it appears it might be the right time for me to finally buy my own one!

Test drove a 300 TDI yesterday in immaculate condition, felt decent to drive, albeit a little sluggish? I suppose its no performance car

However, doing some reading & chatting to friends, I have read others have said the 300 TDI is very slow (almost painfully slow) especially when towing?

So I then thought about perhaps getting a Discovery 2 TD5, but after doing some more reading & research, they appear to be very prone to faults left right & centre. Google is full with people complaining about their TD5's, it seems?

Any advice or suggestions welcome!

Thanks!

Welcome, my 300tdi disco would easily sit at the speed limits for both solo and trailer with any car on.
What more do you need?

livers said:

Welcome, my 300tdi disco would easily sit at the speed limits for both solo and trailer with any car on.
What more do you need?

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Oh really? That's good to hear

I've been doing some reading about removing the EGR Valve & installing a decat, both of which seem relatively easy & cheap mods to improve performance & MPG's.

The 300 TDI that I test drove yesterday had a fresh MOT on it last week, and had its timing belt changed in 2012, but has just over 220,000 miles on the clock.

220k miles - is this on its last legs, or do they chug on forever so long as they're well maintained?

Daze said:

Oh really? That's good to hear

I've been doing some reading about removing the EGR Valve & installing a decat, both of which seem relatively easy & cheap mods to improve performance & MPG's.

The 300 TDI that I test drove yesterday had a fresh MOT on it last week, and had its timing belt changed in 2012, but has just over 220,000 miles on the clock.

220k miles - is this on its last legs, or do they chug on forever so long as they're well maintained?

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This all depends on how well the engine was serviced, how it was driven, what parts it's had changed.

I've heard of the 300tdi going up it nearly 300k mikes no issues, but quite often when the engines start to wear at high mileage they get changed for lower mileage engines, not a real horrible job if you do it your self, but could be expensive if a garage does it.

As it sounds like this is your daily drive then I'd look out for something with a lower mileage and something that's had a lot of welding already done! Check under carpets if you can around the boot, wings, near seatbelts on rear arches and most of all the sills.

I'd say regardless of if it's a disco 1 or disco 2 they still give you problems there are things you can do to gain a few extra horses on the 300tdi, I'm very impressed with how much go my 300tdi disco has!

Good advice there, thanks for all the info so far. A great help.

I'm really swayed toward the one I looked & test drove a few days ago, even with the high milage, as it had its MOT done last week & had basically zero advisories (and no advisories in previous years either)

Its good to hear about how much go the 300 TDI does have, I didn't get the chance to take this one down the motorway unfortunately.

Anyway, with money in my bank I'm officially on the hunt. Budgeting of around the £1500 mark. It doesn't need to be 100% perfect, I'm fairly mechanically minded, just need one with 6month+ MOT and tax

Daze said:

Good advice there, thanks for all the info so far. A great help.

I'm really swayed toward the one I looked & test drove a few days ago, even with the high milage, as it had its MOT done last week & had basically zero advisories (and no advisories in previous years either)

Its good to hear about how much go the 300 TDI does have, I didn't get the chance to take this one down the motorway unfortunately.

Anyway, with money in my bank I'm officially on the hunt. Budgeting of around the £1500 mark. It doesn't need to be 100% perfect, I'm fairly mechanically minded, just need one with 6month+ MOT and tax

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Good to hear your mechanicaly minded ull need to be

Give it one last test drive before you buy and check all the gears for any crunches, have a look underneath for anything scary or rusted out, and remember that a MOT doesnt mean its in very good condition, mine came with 12 months mot, has rot everywhere and even a hole near a seatbelt mount!

let us know how you get on

Thanks for the advice, really appreciated

Well - I've gone and put a deposit down on the one I saw, along with getting insurance for it, I'll be collecting it later today!

A friend of mine who's had countless Land Rover (and Discovery's) come with me yesterday to check it out - looks very clean indeed from what we can both tell. My mate said it drives very nicely indeed!

I guess a "Project thread" is in order, as I have plans to do little tweaks to it here & there! Very excited, as I said previous, I've always loved Discovery's since I was a kid, now I'm about to own one!

Daze said:

Thanks for the advice, really appreciated

Well - I've gone and put a deposit down on the one I saw, along with getting insurance for it, I'll be collecting it later today!

A friend of mine who's had countless Land Rover (and Discovery's) come with me yesterday to check it out - looks very clean indeed from what we can both tell. My mate said it drives very nicely indeed!

I guess a "Project thread" is in order, as I have plans to do little tweaks to it here & there! Very excited, as I said previous, I've always loved Discovery's since I was a kid, now I'm about to own one!

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Thats a Great feeling when you know your gonna pick it up for the first time , dont forget the pics

And not if but when you come across problems give us a call on the disco section of this site and no matter what theres sombody whos had the same problem or who can help you out, most things on the discovery are doable by your self with not a lot of mechanical knowledge.
had my discovery 1 300tdi for just over 6 months now and in that time ive replaced, clutch (engine taken out), front brakes, front wheel bearings both sides, fixed headlights, various bits of trim screwing back on, and about to do the back wheel bearings and brakes.

but as i said all doable by yourself with aid of landyzone and a haynes manual if you dont have deep pockets for the local landy garage

another thing to add there are mods you can do to make the disco a little faster and smoother ect to drive (do a search in disco section) but it aint gonna be quite as fast as your drift car

Welcome . It already sounds like you found the disco for you which is great . But as a long time owner of a D2 td5 . I would like to say there are too a great car . If you went online looking for faults 'that's all you will ever find . I tow both both a large 26ft caravan and also a horse box with 2 large horses in it , up and down the country and have found my disco to be a great towing on the motorway . And have to say yeh it comes with its faults but hay what car doesn't good luck

300Tdi..... runs well on recycled veggie oil too

Thanks all!

Vanmancan said:

Welcome . It already sounds like you found the disco for you which is great . But as a long time owner of a D2 td5 . I would like to say there are too a great car . If you went online looking for faults 'that's all you will ever find . I tow both both a large 26ft caravan and also a horse box with 2 large horses in it , up and down the country and have found my disco to be a great towing on the motorway . And have to say yeh it comes with its faults but hay what car doesn't good luck

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Very very true that! Good to hear as well.

Anyway, "project" thread up with some photos
http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/f8/my-first-land-rover-tow-car-256402.html

:welcome: