To Buy or not to buy

Hi,
I might soon be joining you fine band of Discotites by purchasing a very nice looking 1998 (S) reg Discovery 300 tdi ES Auto, but before I do, I need to know what pitfalls to look for when buying one of these cars.
At the moment I don"t know a lot about the car except it has 148000 miles on the clock and the same bloke has owned it for the past 4 years.
I don"t know if it"s got an MOT or any Service History, but I"ll find all that out before going to see it tomorrow. In the meantime any advice would be appreciated. What do I look for and where do I look? Where are should I look for signs of rust etc? Any help please
cheers
David

mudinuri said:

Hi,
I might soon be joining you fine band of Discotites by purchasing a very nice looking 1998 (S) reg Discovery 300 tdi ES Auto, but before I do, I need to know what pitfalls to look for when buying one of these cars.
At the moment I don"t know a lot about the car except it has 148000 miles on the clock and the same bloke has owned it for the past 4 years.
I don"t know if it"s got an MOT or any Service History, but I"ll find all that out before going to see it tomorrow. In the meantime any advice would be appreciated. What do I look for and where do I look? Where are should I look for signs of rust etc? Any help please
cheers
David

Click to expand...

Hi David, the crucial thing about buying a Discovery I TDi 300 is the condition of the bodywork and chassis. These cars just love rust - it's there favorite thing.

You need to carefully check the following areas, starting from the front:

1. Front body supports onto the chassis;

2. Front inner wings - engine bay;

3. Bottom of A-post;

4. Inner and outer sills including body supports;

5. Rear wheel arches outer & inner;

6. Boot floor;

7. Rear cross-member and body supports.

There will be rust somewhere, it's just a matter of how much.

Good luck

Dave

PS In the short-term it doesn't matter how it drives, as the mechanicals are relatively easy and cheap to fix. Body rust is THE priority.

Underneath, rust, from front to back, headlamp boxes, battery tray, body mounts, inner wings, sills (behind the plastic trims), chassis stay pretty good normally as do the ally panels its the parts of the body made out of steel that go, pull up boot carpet and have a look it ifs nice and dry under there.

Everything is repairable and cheap enough if you can be bothered to do it yourself its the rust that kills most of them off, but not if you can weld, and if you cant and you want to have happy landrover ownership, learn.

Being as its the ES I would also check what electrical extras actually work, sunroofs, windows, seats etc

Lots more and loads on this subject, do a search (not in the google search bar but in the drop down search thingy beneath it) there will be loads on it there.

EDIT: Doh beat me to it Dave:doh: