Moving to a Disco 1 from a Nissan?

Hi all!

I'm Sam, from Auckland, New Zealand.

I thought a good place to ask this question would be to the people who know Land Rovers! I currently own a WD21 Nissan Terrano(/Pathfinder) with the TD27t engine. It's a good car, and reasonably tidy for a 30 year old 4x4 that has always been a cheaper model. I chose this because I know the platform well (from owning a 2wd Navara for 7 years), and the drivetrain has a reputation for being close to bulletproof. I've not had it all that long, and at this point I wouldn't be losing too much if I sold it.

This morning I spotted a manual 97 300TDi Disco for sale quite quite to home. I don't know about other places, but here the diesels are rare, and manuals even rarer! Of course the solid front axle is appealing, but it's also a larger car with more space for the dog, camping gear, and future kids. I think it's also got a more refined, "grown-up" image than the Terrano. I'd also predict that the Landy will be worth more long term.

My primary concern is reliability, naturally. Landys don't have the best reputation! Being on the far side of the world from part production etc is a bit concerning, and I've never owned anything other than Japanese vehicles so I'm not at all familiar with them. The car in question has 330,000 odd kms (very similar to my Nissan). It would be a daily driver and, while I catch public transport to work, I really can't afford a vehicle that spends more time off the road than on it. If anyone wanted to share their thoughts and experiences, that would be much appreciated!

Cheers

Nope. Don't.

They have many foibles, most on here like them, but if you have been used to jap reliability you might be in for a shock!

To be totally fair if you look after them, they are decent cars.
I have run land rovers as my daily for about 20 years, all makes/models and only broke down twice both my own fault and both off road, only one needed a recovery.

Hello and welcome
i hope rust is not an issue out there as over here they rust for fun.

Hi and welcome!

As mentioned, in the UK the biggest enemy of discovery 1’s is rust. But if NZ don’t salt their roads and it hasn’t spent its life near the sea, that should t be too much of an issue... Common rust areas are the sills, boot floor, inner wings and wheel arches front and rear. Make sure have a good poke around these areas and if you do go for it, get them treated to hold rust off. Bear in mind the newest 300Tdi disco is already around 24 years old so not much newer than your current car too.

As for other issues, early disco 1 300Tdi’s had a dash top which peeled in the sun, although this can be repaired. They do suffer from oil leaks and leaky steering boxes but these generally aren’t too much of an issue. Factor in the cost of a new timing belt if there’s no evidence of it being changed recently. Otherwise, they’re great vehicles.

Let us know how you get on.

Thanks for the input guys. It definitely sounds like the 300tdi is a great engine that just needs an eye kept on a few maintenance items. I'm happy to spend time and money on a hobby car, I enjoy working on them, I just don't want to have unexpected catastrophic engine failures

We don't even get snow here, let alone salting the roads, so generally our cars seem to be a lot more solid than some of the pictures I see from the UK! About the only reason that our cars get horrific rust is from launching boats. I will be going over the car with a fine toothed comb for rust though.

I took the car for a test drive yesterday and was quite surprised how little power it had down low. It almost needed to take off above 1k rpm to get moving. I know it's a big car to be pushed around by a 2.5, but it went like the clappers above 2k rpm. I don't know if that's a Landy thing or just this car.

Funnily enough, I did the same thing.... we had a Ni$$an Navara, from new, and it fell in half, quite predictably as I found out later ... We'd also had a FFRR which was a complete pile of unreliable excrement .

But, we'd also had several RRC's, and several D1's, which had never given any trouble at all. So when the Ni$$san went, I bought a D1 ( in my avatar ), and joined this motley crew - never looked back really... Yes, the tin worms are a complete PITA, and I kill a few more every year, but, it's worth it IMO. D1's are great, when properly looked after....

When one of the 'puter's in SWMBO's Peugeot let the smoke out, we replaced that with a D1 too - again, a few tin worms get killed every year.... even better is she loves the vehicle to bits, loves driving it, so a complete win win from all angles

In terms of parts supplies, I keep a few of the usual suspects in stock, and would recommend you do this too

Oh, and Welcome Aboard .

Welcome to the forum