Advice on buying a Discovery

Hello
I am thinking of getting a Landrover Discovery. Test drove a few and
love the way they handle. Need something to pull my boat and haul
gear. Any advice on which years are preferred. It would not be used as
a daily driver.
I have been checking out models from 95 to 99. Many have advised me
against this type of car becuase of high repair costs and
dependability. Personally I think a Discovery would be a nice
compliment to my /69mgb. Any feedback would be much appreciated.

Sincerely
David

David Johanns wrote:

> Hello
> I am thinking of getting a Landrover Discovery. Test drove a few and
> love the way they handle. Need something to pull my boat and haul
> gear. Any advice on which years are preferred. It would not be used as
> a daily driver.
> I have been checking out models from 95 to 99. Many have advised me
> against this type of car becuase of high repair costs and
> dependability. Personally I think a Discovery would be a nice
> compliment to my /69mgb. Any feedback would be much appreciated.
>

Well, you're certainly in the same reliability territory as the Mangy Bee.

I think the advice would be to go for a late 300 type Disco and avoid the
TD5/Series 2 ones at that sort of age like the plague.

The 300's quite cheap to fix compared to the Series2s and has less to break.

Other than that I don't think you'll be disappointed by it as a tow car and
to be honest the 300s aren't that unreliable all things considered. The
TD5s at that age are a bag of ****, and I say that as somebody who ran one
and caused most of the service recalls in the early days of the model life.

Diesel rather than petrol too. Less to go wrong, less that's probably
already gone wrong.

P.

On or around Fri, 28 Jan 2005 11:26:50 -0500, David Johanns
<[email protected]> enlightened us thusly:

>Hello
>I am thinking of getting a Landrover Discovery. Test drove a few and
>love the way they handle. Need something to pull my boat and haul
>gear. Any advice on which years are preferred. It would not be used as
>a daily driver.
>I have been checking out models from 95 to 99. Many have advised me
>against this type of car becuase of high repair costs and
>dependability. Personally I think a Discovery would be a nice
>compliment to my /69mgb. Any feedback would be much appreciated.

95-99 discos are not high repair cost and are, if you get a tidy one, very
dependable.

go for it. Check for corrosion on the rear floor, excessively clonky
driveline when taking up drive, or going from over-run to power on, or
changing gear.

300TDi engines should fire pretty much instantly from cold, and should pull
well from about 1500-2000 rpm up to about 4000 or so.

--
Austin Shackles. www.ddol-las.fsnet.co.uk my opinions are just that
"Quos deus vult perdere, prius dementat" Euripedes, quoted in
Boswell's "Johnson".

Hello, David!

We've had our 300tdi (1998) for a year now and would heartily recommend it.
Before buying we looked at the early Td5's as well but were told to watch
out.
The only problem was finding a tidy one at the right price.

Reliability has been very good, repairs and costs minimal.

As far as towing is concerned we use it for dragging the horsebox to shows
with two equine occupants and I feel it drives better with a load. Certainly
we've never got stuck, and I do feel smug when helping to pull someone out
of the mire.

Good Luck on your quest

With best regards, Not so Clever Trevor.

In message <[email protected]>, Paul S. Brown
<[email protected]> writes
>David Johanns wrote:
>
>> Hello
>> I am thinking of getting a Landrover Discovery. Test drove a few and
>> love the way they handle. Need something to pull my boat and haul
>> gear. Any advice on which years are preferred. It would not be used as
>> a daily driver.
>> I have been checking out models from 95 to 99. Many have advised me
>> against this type of car becuase of high repair costs and
>> dependability. Personally I think a Discovery would be a nice
>> compliment to my /69mgb. Any feedback would be much appreciated.
>>
>
>Well, you're certainly in the same reliability territory as the Mangy Bee.
>
>I think the advice would be to go for a late 300 type Disco and avoid the
>TD5/Series 2 ones at that sort of age like the plague.
>
>The 300's quite cheap to fix compared to the Series2s and has less to break.
>
>Other than that I don't think you'll be disappointed by it as a tow car and
>to be honest the 300s aren't that unreliable all things considered. The
>TD5s at that age are a bag of ****, and I say that as somebody who ran one
>and caused most of the service recalls in the early days of the model life.
>
>Diesel rather than petrol too. Less to go wrong, less that's probably
>already gone wrong.
>
>P.
>
Petrol megabucks expensive to run unless you convert to LPG.
--
hugh
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