Disco 2 Yearly maintenance cost

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Salisburylander

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I’ve just been watching a YouTube video about a guy in the US who rebuilt his Land Cruiser. He had had to replace his engine and he was saying he would rather do that than buy another vehicle and what would he buy instead? He claimed that his choices were another Land Cruiser or a Disco 2; however, he reckoned the yearly maintenance cost of his Cruiser was approx. $700, whilst that of a Disco 2 would be $7000!!
My last Disco 2 was a V8, I did about 10000 miles a year for the 3 years I owned it and it probably cost about £300/year on average. This was nothing out of the ordinary either, filters, oil, brake pads. It was probably one of the most reliable cars I have ever owned.
How much do you spend on maintenance each year and is there an American bias against Land Rover?
 
Yes there is a big American bias against Land Rover... so I bought my 3rd Disco anyway!
On the average I spend about £500/year because I'm always upgrading something and adding fuel system enhancers.
 
Upgrading is hardly maintenance! Unless you mean replacing one type of brake pad for a more expensive one or something, but even then!
If all you ever do is replace like for like then all it should cost you is oil, filters, brake pads, if necessary, ditto discs, tyres every now and then, also different types of service cost more than others. So it depends on whether you are doing a 10k service or a 60k. So you need to own it for a long time before you can really work out the average. Do you add in fuel?
Honestly I have never costed it, but I do all my own work and apart from fuel I don't think it costs me more than about £200-£300 a year, but then I do only 6000 miles a year, and I am very light on brakes and hopefully tyres.
 
I would say on any old land rover used as a daily you need to budget at least 1k per annum, some years you will get off light, others you will need a clutch and 4 tyres.

I keep a book of every penny spent on every land rover I have ever owned, it makes for scary reading and you simply cannot go on memory alone, often I enter new details and notice something I had previously forgotten about.
Yes the parts are cheap but enough of them soon adds up.
The simple rule is the less miles you do the cheaper it is.

Road tax/insurance does not play a part in these calcs.

As nuts as it sounds my current D3 is probably the cheapest land rover I have ever owned maintenance wise outside of normal servicing.
All and I mean all my previous ones had a permanent snag list of things to do, that no matter what you did never got any shorter!
 
Mine has cost me the earth in fuel around £600 a month..

That is my biggest expense.

I changed the oil when i bought it in July, and haven't lifted it since, the manifold is blowing now, I think, done 10k in it!

And the gearbox is getting tired, 190k so we can excuse some niggles, it weirdly is a car i can't "gel" with so i'll prolly end up driving it into the ground..

i'd have another but it would have to be an ES V8.

The TD5 is great in regards to durability but the need to constantly thrash it everywhere and the thirst really isn't worth it.
 
My RR was maintained by the LR main dealer for every 6000 mile in the 10 and a bit years I owned it.

The small service was around £350 and and the big one with all the fluids, filters and plugs changed was around £750.00 every year, then came along brake pads, tyres, batteries and exhaust replacement a couple of time and that’s about.

With my disco the first 5 years it was maintained by the main LR dealer once a year at something £400 with a couple of years with something around £750-£800 plus one battery, set of tyres and pads, from 6th year to now Ive maintained my disco when required, so this year all I’ve done is to replaced the T box and diff oils and brake fluid over a weekend, so not expensive.

Over the years of course theres been pads, tyres, batteries, OAT antifreeze when required, and fitting a cat-back Janspeed stainless exhaust 11 years ago that was only £295 back then.
Six years ago I had the disco in to an independent LR garage for the auto box fluid change - as it a bit of a pain to do I’m told - so had all other fluids except antifreeze plus filters and plugs replaced for £550.

I’ve kept all the invoices and receipts for all the above, but never got around to totalling up.
So plus then plus all MOTs, tax and... as for fuel I fill up when the lamp shines then pay the bill.
 
To the people who spend little money... I picture them with all their house lights turned off and sitting around a candle lit table counting the few shillings they saved on their auto's upkeep.
I've dealt with and worked on many types of used cars so I've found a majority of the previous owners normally buy cheap parts, cheap oil, cheap filters, or don't buy none of the above. They neglect other important areas of preventive maintenance and even safety just to save money.

That's my 2 cents/shillings tho… :D
 
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A more realistic way of costing maintenance is £ per 10000 miles not £ per year. My old series only does about 500 miles per year so it seems to cost next to nothing, if I did serious mileage I would be in the poor house.

Col
 
Most big 4wd cars are expensive to maintain due to the extra complexity of components compared to simpler vehicles. My Rav4 however, averaged out at £200 a year maintenance, excluding services, over 5 yrs. Great you think. But it was soulless and dull as dishwater. Great car, faultless and decent in and off road, in snow etc. But land rover owners are as such, because they spend money on them as a hobby (for the most part). As an A to B buy and forget what your driving, they are unsuitable.
Your US example was just some idiot exaggerating for effect. But if you dont want to run an old LR and spend a few quid, folks can go and buy a Kia Sportage and have a small part of you die every time you get in it : ) Horses for courses! My old D1 was a proper money pit though.... sniff
 
ronsealdeath said:
Most big 4wd cars are expensive to maintain due to the extra complexity of components compared to simpler vehicles. My Rav4 however, averaged out at £200 a year maintenance, excluding services, over 5 yrs. Great you think. But it was soulless and dull as dishwater. Great car, faultless and decent in and off road, in snow etc. But land rover owners are as such, because they spend money on them as a hobby (for the most part). As an A to B buy and forget what your driving, they are unsuitable.
Your US example was just some idiot exaggerating for effect. But if you dont want to run an old LR and spend a few quid, folks can go and buy a Kia Sportage and have a small part of you die every time you get in it : ) Horses for courses! My old D1 was a proper money pit though.... sniff
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I ran a micra for a year and know exactly what you mean about the soul dying!
 
JUKE179r said:
To the people who spend little money... I picture them with all their house lights turned off and sitting around a candle lit table counting the few shillings they saved on their auto's upkeep.
I've dealt with and worked on many types of used cars so I've found a majority of the previous owners normally buy cheap parts, cheap oil, cheap filters, or don't buy none of the above. They neglect other important areas of preventive maintenance and even safety just to save money.

That's my 2 cents/shillings tho… :D
Click to expand...
In the long run, that is not a way to save money.
 
JUKE179r said:
To the people who spend little money... I picture them with all their house lights turned off and sitting around a candle lit table counting the few shillings they saved on their auto's upkeep.
I've dealt with and worked on many types of used cars so I've found a majority of the previous owners normally buy cheap parts, cheap oil, cheap filters, or don't buy none of the above. They neglect other important areas of preventive maintenance and even safety just to save money.

That's my 2 cents/shillings tho… :D
Click to expand...

I think as a general rule people dont/wont/cant spend money on anything, never rmind just cars.

Next time you are out and about take a good hard look at peoples houses, they are literally all frilly dresses no knickers! a lot of the time they are not even frilly dresses, worst of all you know theses people own them and not rent, same as my mum trying to convince her she really should have house insurance!

I was reading a mechs facebook page the other day and one guy made the comment that people who say ok just fix it when you tell them whats wrong with their cars are getting very thin on the ground and are worth looking after as the rest are just scrimping tossers, who expect diagnostics and the mechs time for nowt.
 
JUKE179r said:
To the people who spend little money... I picture them with all their house lights turned off and sitting around a candle lit table counting the few shillings they saved on their auto's upkeep.
I've dealt with and worked on many types of used cars so I've found a majority of the previous owners normally buy cheap parts, cheap oil, cheap filters, or don't buy none of the above. They neglect other important areas of preventive maintenance and even safety just to save money.

That's my 2 cents/shillings tho… :D
Click to expand...

Man, you seen my build thread, I don't skimp on nothing, if I add up my costs in this last 12 months I'm probably around the £1500 mark and not even bought the filter kit for the service yet, still got oil but just need the oil and fuel filter, oh and did I mention that I haven't actually driven a single mile in it yet!!!

2018 saw me fit £700 worth of twin alternator kit and probably another £450 in winch line, fairlead and assorted goodies here and there.

All good fun though, might actually get it back on the road in the next few weeks :rolleyes:
 
lynall said:
I think as a general rule people dont/wont/cant spend money on anything, never rmind just cars.

Next time you are out and about take a good hard look at peoples houses, they are literally all frilly dresses no knickers! a lot of the time they are not even frilly dresses, worst of all you know theses people own them and not rent, same as my mum trying to convince her she really should have house insurance!

I was reading a mechs facebook page the other day and one guy made the comment that people who say ok just fix it when you tell them whats wrong with their cars are getting very thin on the ground and are worth looking after as the rest are just scrimping tossers, who expect diagnostics and the mechs time for nowt.
Click to expand...

If my Pug needs work it goes to my local garage and the brief is "fix what is wrong and give me the bill when I come to collect it" and we get on like a house on fire.
 
@lynall You are not wrong there, I am quite amazed at how rough the houses look these days, I like living in the posh bit of the Island as the houses are quite well cared for but when I venture into the less affluent areas they are certainly lacking in any care, fascias and gutters, gardens and drives are all ropey as fook and as for some of the rental properties they are just cess pits of garbage strewn gardens and junk (admittedly my parking looks more like a breakers yard but I am busy working on my truck, but the rest of my property is spick and span!).
 
dieseldog69 said:
@lynall You are not wrong there, I am quite amazed at how rough the houses look these days, I like living in the posh bit of the Island as the houses are quite well cared for but when I venture into the less affluent areas they are certainly lacking in any care, fascias and gutters, gardens and drives are all ropey as fook and as for some of the rental properties they are just cess pits of garbage strewn gardens and junk (admittedly my parking looks more like a breakers yard but I am busy working on my truck, but the rest of my property is spick and span!).
Click to expand...


I think a lot of it is, we have never fully recovered from the 2008 crash so people sitll dont have any moiney or simply dont wnat tos pend what they have and I wonder if we are slowly heading back towards another one.

Lots of rentals are dumps and I dont get why? theres a few up my road and they never seem to cut the grass, clean their windows, pick any rubbish up of their plot of land.
Then there are the younguns who stand around talking and smoking, no probs i do that as well, in fact its one of my favourite hobbies! but they leave all their fag butts and rubbish on the floor and they live here so its their own street they are messing up!
 
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