Advice needed

Having looked at, and opted against a Freelander, I am now looking at a 1995 Disco 300 tdi es with 102,000 miles on the clock.

Firstly, is it a good purchase at £4995, and what am I looking for both good and bad when I take it for a test drive?

I'm hoping the wealth of knowledge on this forum will assist me!!

Thanks for your time.

S

i take it you are buying it trade by the price the milelige is not a worry c
heck for service history the main thing with wot to look for i think is giving it a good test drive to check the gearbox, also test the the tranfer box try and find out about last cambelt change .but you have come to the right place as other members will give you some good advice.

goodluck jj

5K soundslike a lot of money for a '95, have you had a good look around??
in fact the more i think about it...........5K is TOO MUCH

That's a lot of money for the car, even for an ES! Is it from a dealer?

My '94 300tdi (with the comfort pack and air con) was immaculate when I bought it 5 months ago, and it cost me £2750. It had 101,000 miles, with 80,00 main dealer serviced.

If I were considering that Disco, it would have to have full dealer service history, and everything would have to be working on it! Even then I would haggle down, if possible.

Makes me feel better though, that my Disco seems to be worth a lot more than I paid for it!

If you're set for it, listen out for for a whistling turbo (it's NOT supposed to do that!), leaking windscreen/leaks around the rear pillar speakers (try and take it out in the rain; some unscrupulous sellers might clean off the wet marks, giving the appearance that all is well), rotten boot floor(lift the carpet up), switch back lights inoperative (bargaining point, but cheap and easy to fix), dodgy alarm/immobiliser (don't touch the car with a barge pole if this doesn't work!) and of course, the usual engine checks. Oil around the head isn't a problem, unless it appears to be too excessive.

Remember that smoking on start up is not a problem, but if it persists, its not good.

Sounds a bit pricey to me for a '95, maybe you could knock them down a bit or at least get some kind of warranty if you're buying from a dealer.

Listen out for clunking noises when taking up drive (moving off & changing gear) - I don't know if they'd fixed the design of the transfer box gear by this point but it wears out on earlier models you start to get clunking as the gear teeth grandually wear out. My 94 200tdi needed a new gear at 160k.

The only other thing is early 300tdi had some kind of premature wear problem on the cambelt, which I think is fixable with some modification. Don't know too much about this, it's just something I remember reading somewhere...
So, it's even more important to ensure the cambelt has been changed recently.

For that money consider looking on AutoTrader, I just found 8 vehicles 1997 -1998 with less than 60k miles for under £5k

thats bloody expensive mate.
bout 3 grand max. make him an offer, and nowhere near his asking price ffs.

if that is the going rate, then mine has just doubled in value!
whooppeeee.

I've been looking at Td5's in that price range! Maybe a bit higher mileage, but you get the point by now I'm sure! Check eBay for the going rates - it's usually a good indication of how much things sell for. If they don't have a bid by the end of the auction then they are over priced!

Matt