Been away but back & looking to buy . . .

Giantswood · Jun 10, 2018

Sold my 300Tdi a few years ago but am coming back to the fold and looking for a D2. The buying guide is great in terms of what to look for mechanically but I'm struggling with price vs mileage vs age. I have a £3k ish budget and am trying to balance my expectations so here are my thoughts/ramblings.

Automatic is a must. My annual mileage is around 5-6k.

I like the idea of a V8 but it would have to be on LPG, but feel TD5 is the sensible way to go.
Prices seem to differ widely often bearing no correlation with mileage or condition. I know where Landys are concerned ongoing repair is to be expected but how viable should say a 2003 TD5 with 150k on the clock be ? I've looked at pre facelift examples way over my budget and facelift ones around budget with starship mileages.

I'm not overly bothered about gadgets, bells and whistles as they're just more to go wrong IMHO and would prefer black/grey interior to cream/tan.

Any thoughts which help me establish a baseline will be much appreciated.

Dave

brian47 · Jun 10, 2018

As far as prices go that depends on a number of factors, not least the condition and what people think that they can get for a Disco when advertising it.
On the subject of mileage, any Discovery 2 is going to be a minimum of 14 years old, so taking the often quoted figure of 10,000 miles per year and you're approaching the 150,000 miles of use. Anything under 100,000 miles I suppose you could consider as fairly low mileage.

Good luck in your quest, I'm sure that you'll find something eventually.

Turboman · Jun 10, 2018

Giantswood said:
Sold my 300Tdi a few years ago but am coming back to the fold and looking for a D2. The buying guide is great in terms of what to look for mechanically but I'm struggling with price vs mileage vs age. I have a £3k ish budget and am trying to balance my expectations so here are my thoughts/ramblings.

Automatic is a must. My annual mileage is around 5-6k.

I like the idea of a V8 but it would have to be on LPG, but feel TD5 is the sensible way to go.
Prices seem to differ widely often bearing no correlation with mileage or condition. I know where Landys are concerned ongoing repair is to be expected but how viable should say a 2003 TD5 with 150k on the clock be ? I've looked at pre facelift examples way over my budget and facelift ones around budget with starship mileages.

I'm not overly bothered about gadgets, bells and whistles as they're just more to go wrong IMHO and would prefer black/grey interior to cream/tan.

Any thoughts which help me establish a baseline will be much appreciated.

Dave

With a D2, or any landrover, I would ignore mileage and age completely, and buy on current condition, and how well the vehicle appears to have been looked after.
The attitude of the owner is a good guide, if they have changed oil and fluids regularly, and recorded all the intervals, and are knowledgeable about the vehicle and it's history, that is probably worth paying good money for.
Anything that has had lots of owners, been neglected or misused, or cut around by the orf road brigade is probably worth a swerve.
Be aware that there is a road tax change during D2 production, so an earlier model, especially if it is a V8, will be cheaper to tax each year.

derwendolly · Jun 10, 2018

I have to agree with Turboman. I bought my D2 in May 2000 and in the 18 years I have put 251,000 miles on the clock.
It has been meticulously maintained to all LR standards and is still going well!! (Perhaps I shouldn't have said that.) I have kept receipts for all services, parts bought, even down to tyres, light bulbs and other extras - the file is huge as you can imagine with a LR! Whenever parts needed to be replaced, they have always been with genuine LR ones when they have been appropriate. The chassis has been replaced with a Richards galvanised one BUT the engine and gearbox are still original and working very well!! I love it and have cared for it, so much so that my mechanic thinks I am a nutter for still using original (and expensive) LR parts in such an old car. Only last month I had the alternator replaced (it was beginning to show an intermittent fault), the harness was replaced as I could detect a 'hesitation' on hard acceleration and I had a new radiator put on as there was a slight weep from the top 'screw', but I do not begrudge a penny spent on him as he is my trusty worker. I am aware that he is virtually valueless on the used car market but, when the time comes, he will be a good buy for someone looking for donor parts!!!

Turboman · Jun 10, 2018

derwendolly said:
I have to agree with Turboman. I bought my D2 in May 2000 and in the 18 years I have put 251,000 miles on the clock.
It has been meticulously maintained to all LR standards and is still going well!! (Perhaps I shouldn't have said that.) I have kept receipts for all services, parts bought, even down to tyres, light bulbs and other extras - the file is huge as you can imagine with a LR! Whenever parts needed to be replaced, they have always been with genuine LR ones when they have been appropriate. The chassis has been replaced with a Richards galvanised one BUT the engine and gearbox are still original and working very well!! I love it and have cared for it, so much so that my mechanic thinks I am a nutter for still using original (and expensive) LR parts in such an old car. Only last month I had the alternator replaced (it was beginning to show an intermittent fault), the harness was replaced as I could detect a 'hesitation' on hard acceleration and I had a new radiator put on as there was a slight weep from the top 'screw', but I do not begrudge a penny spent on him as he is my trusty worker. I am aware that he is virtually valueless on the used car market but, when the time comes, he will be a good buy for someone looking for donor parts!!!

Should be a good buy for someone as a runner too. But it doesn't sound like you wil be wanting to sell just yet.
I should think there is lots of life in that one still!

derwendolly · Jun 10, 2018

Turboman said:
Should be a good buy for someone as a runner too. But it doesn't sound like you wil be wanting to sell just yet.
I should think there is lots of life in that one still!

I do hope so but this year's MOT flagged up that there was sign of the inner wing rusting and that is not good for me - or him! Its sad that I just cannot buy the part for that! My mechanic said that it has not rusted through but is certainly showing that it will do so.

Turboman · Jun 10, 2018

derwendolly said:
I do hope so but this year's MOT flagged up that there was sign of the inner wing rusting and that is not good for me - or him! Its sad that I just cannot buy the part for that! My mechanic said that it has not rusted through but is certainly showing that it will do so.

Good welder should be able to plate that up, keep it going for donkey's years.

brian47 · Jun 10, 2018

derwendolly said:
I have to agree with Turboman. I bought my D2 in May 2000 and in the 18 years I have put 251,000 miles on the clock.
It has been meticulously maintained to all LR standards and is still going well!! (Perhaps I shouldn't have said that.) I have kept receipts for all services, parts bought, even down to tyres, light bulbs and other extras - the file is huge as you can imagine with a LR! Whenever parts needed to be replaced, they have always been with genuine LR ones when they have been appropriate. The chassis has been replaced with a Richards galvanised one BUT the engine and gearbox are still original and working very well!! I love it and have cared for it, so much so that my mechanic thinks I am a nutter for still using original (and expensive) LR parts in such an old car. Only last month I had the alternator replaced (it was beginning to show an intermittent fault), the harness was replaced as I could detect a 'hesitation' on hard acceleration and I had a new radiator put on as there was a slight weep from the top 'screw', but I do not begrudge a penny spent on him as he is my trusty worker. I am aware that he is virtually valueless on the used car market but, when the time comes, he will be a good buy for someone looking for donor parts!!!

Mine is a face-lift Td5. So far everything is going well, serviced regularly and anything that needs to be done standing up I can do myself. If it needs somebody to lie down underneath it that's when I enlist the assistance of my local indie garage. It's worth building a good relationship with your local indie, as long as they're any good in the first place.

As I said anything less than 100,000 miles is a low mileage car these days, so mine isn't bad at 80,000 odd miles. I like to get anything that starts showing up done before it becomes a problem. That way the job can get done at a time of my choosing so there's less stress and panic.

Running costs aren't that bad considering they weigh about tow and a quarter tons and have all the aerodynamics of a house brick, generally 20-25 mpg on general mixed conditions and about 28-30 or so on a long motorway run.

I keep all the service and repair information on a set of Excel files on my PC.

Been away but back & looking to buy . . .

Giantswood

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brian47

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Turboman

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derwendolly

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Turboman

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derwendolly

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Turboman

Mab An Gov

brian47

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