Breakdown Blues!

The internet is a wonderful thing........BUT.........The more I look into buying a discovery (registered 1999 probably) the more unsavoury stories of costly fixes I discover.

landrover apparently come close last in which? car reliablity surveys.

how much does yours cost per year to maintain?

should I buy an xtrail instead?

If you estimate £1000 a year for road tax, MOT, servicing and repairs I've found you won't be far away and any left over always pays for the odd Mars bar.

You ask re an X Trail but think it really depends on what you want any vehicle to do for you.

Have you narrowed it down to a Discovery or an X trail?. They are 2 entirely different vehicles.

I'm on my 3rd Discovery, yes they cost but find with routine maintenance and also preventative maintenance they turn out to be quite reliable.

Sometimes buying cheap doesn't necessarily mean you're getting a bargain, just somebody else's rubbish that they couldn't be bothered fixing.

i only mentioned an xtrail light heartedly. It's the discovery I'm looking for. Actually I would prefer a 110 staion wagon but they hold their value to well for my budget.

For me the best thing to do is stop searching the net for the -s and focus on the +s.

Yep horses for courses, Parts are buttons in the main, maintenance is a doddle, loads of advice is easily available, and depending on what you want it for modding seems pretty straight forward, some mechanical ability or loads of enthusiasm will get you by, I use mine for work and every thing else, I dont do off roading but being a self employed Electrician and given my location and customer base I do have some rough old tracks I use
Dev

Devlin said:

Yep horses for courses, Parts are buttons in the main, maintenance is a doddle, loads of advice is easily available, and depending on what you want it for modding seems pretty straight forward, some mechanical ability or loads of enthusiasm will get you by, I use mine for work and every thing else, I dont do off roading but being a self employed Electrician and given my location and customer base I do have some rough old tracks I use
Dev

Click to expand...

cheers

We have a 99 plate for sale at work.

They are good cars, in fact they're wonderful in the scheme of things.

The reason land rovers are **** is because they're old fashioned, old or just because they were built by rover.

You won't find a better car all round than a d2, and that's coming from a used car dealer, hands down mate they're excellent. Unfortunately they need plenty of maintenance, but you simply won't find a more useable/capable car in the same category.

If you were to get an xtrail and submit it to the kind of work some discos get treated to I GUARANTEE you would completely **** it up in around 6 months.

Land rovers are ****, but we still take them for granted.

I got the disco to tow the crap out of a trailer at about two tons, since then it seems to have become the main car for everything! I love landys anyway and so far she has been very reliable, no electrics, simple mechanics, heavily built.

Regular servicing seems to be the key.

Like an old cow, regularly serviced will chew the cud (miles) for a long long time
Pict

like 'the' old cow

Im on my second the first a 51 plate adventurer which was great, no major problems , we are on our 2nd now a 54 plate Landmark , thats great too only minor probs with oil in ECU red plug , yep still a problem on the last TD5s other than that they are great , Oh yeh Landrovers are not **** at all , you do have to look after and service to schedule though as with any vehicle
Phil

They do have their fair share of problems mate. Td5s have door locks that go, watts link bushes, airbags, injector loom, fuel pump, fuel pressure regulator, sunroofs, ace sensors, gearbox/torque converter or clutch, wheel bearing, headgaskets or worse, steering box leak, etc etc.

They are **** of you consider other cars that simply do not go wrong. If you buy a td5 you are guaranteed to have a selection of the above problems.

However there is nothing else quite like a land rover: pure heavy duty mechanicals that can take some serious work, and with a minimum on electronic tomfoolery on the work spec models, with class leading off road capability and no problems cruising on the motorway.

Cheers

Totally agree. Get a Disco and you will find it does genuinely go where no other car can go (except other Land Rovers), has more room than a big estate car or car derived vans, is comfortable for 5 (and not bad for 7), doesn't get stuck when the weather turns freezing and white and has an excellent driving viewpoint. The kids in the back are higher up so they can see out and don't get car sick or bored. Has some road presence to intimidate the oiks in their Corsa's and pulls like George Best in his heyday.

They are a tad more complicated than your average family car and do get asked to do more than the average family car will, so you have to budget for a bit more in terms of maintenance, but resolve yourself to this and you will fall in love.