Landrover Discovery

Depp_by_Chocolate

Depp_by_Chocolate

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I have decided instead of hiring horse transporters and self drive boxes to get to shows I would buy a car and trailer. I have heard Discovery's are the best pulling vehicles.

What are they like to drive? (I am only used to small 1.3L things) are they gas guzzlers or fairly economical? And what about maintainance, are they buy now fix later types or a good reliable car?

I won't be buying new it will be an older cheapish one
 
the parts are expensive for repairs and are typical for going wrong if your unlucky, im sure there are better ones out there
 
Which model are you looking at? Old shape or new shape? I love my Disco
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Unfortunately when anything goes wrong with any 4x4 it is normally expensive to fix. Parts for Discoverys are readily available & very often buying parts over the internet will save you alot of money. As a towing vehicle a Discovery is quite good & they are one of the more frugal diesel users. I have had one & it towed my trailer easily.

Go for the 300 model rather than the old 200, the engine is far more reliable
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I hate my Disco, but it's brilliant for towing
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It's the older shape - not keen on the new shape (sorry
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). Easy to drive. Not too bad on fuel if you keep your right foot light
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. Can carry seven people in reasonable comfort. Ours has all the bits and pieces, which makes it cool and comfortable.
 
I love my discovery. Have an S reg 3.9 v8. Its petrol but gas converted. I don't find parts that expensive. I look for discovery breakers, Got a seatbelt for it for £10 and it matches perfectly. So with the bushes it needed for the suspension it only cost me £30 to get it through its mot. Will definitely get anotherone when this packs in
 
I'm on my 4th Disco and wouldn't have any other 4x4 (well, hubby loves Range Rovers but I found them too big). We use it to tow & I feel 100% safe towing with it and it does the job well.

We had no trouble with first 3 but have had quite a lot of trouble with this one. Will say though, when they're good, they are very, very good but when they go wrong it's expensive.

I would try to go more newish if you can because the older they are I assume more will start to go wrong. I don't think you'll have a problem getting parts though. If you have to go older try & get one with low mileage for it's age. Go with diesel and avoid the V8 petrols, they are guzzlers, you should be able to pick them up fairly cheap now.

All in all though, I love Discos.
 
I love my Disco and it would now take a lot to get me to part with him (he's called Disco Dan!!) I have an N reg ('96ish) 300 TDI so one of the older ones. They do take a fair amount of maintenance, but if you can find a handy man (or woman
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) who can look after it for you so you don't have to take it to a garage where you will be charged a fortune for labour, they are like mechano and almost nothing is unfixable.

I don't find it horrendous on fuel but I rarely go faster than 60 in him as he gets a bit thirsty when going faster!

There is a massive LR following and if you go onto www.lro.co.uk they will answer any mechanical questions you may have, there may also be someone in your area that will go and look at them wih you if your needing a second opinion.

It is definately a way of life owning a LR, you will learn to live life in a slightly slower lane but they are great for towing and you can fit so much horse rubbish in them!!
 
It has the word "Rover" in it so I would stear clear, there are lots of better 4x4 vehicles out there, my Terrano had 2 new tyres tracking and balance, cost me £130.00, just had new clutch £313.00 not particularly expensive I thought
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, friend just had clutch in a Jeep, cost £1000.00
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I am soon going to buy either a 4x4 and trailer or a small lorry.Having done alot of research into the 4x4 and spoken to several Landrover owners it seems that they are prone to headgaskets going and the older types often have problems with the floor behind the front seats. If you can afford a newer 4x4 then something like the SSanyong is a good buy.Unfortunately it will set you back at least 5k. From looking through old posts on here it seems like the Fourtrak is a popular older towing vehicle for reliability and fuel consumption.
 
I'd agree with T_Z - the 300's are better than the 200's & that came from my disco mechanic before I ever bought one.

He got me a P reg 300 series with 40K on the clock when it was 4 years old (I'd been looking at an N reg with 100K for £1,000 more!!) so it's well worth shopping around.

I loved mine & in 4 years it only ever broke down once (handbrake seized on) but we managed to rock it loose to drive it to mechanic & my mechanic bought it back when I no longer needed it !! (Hope he's still got it as I want to buy it back soon).
As soon as I need to tow again they're what I'll go for but definitely prefer the old shape !!
 
We used to have a 200 Disco (I say "we" because technically it was my boyfriend's but I used to drive it around and tow with it lots!).

We absolutely adored it - it was fun to drive and brilliant at towing. Would take two big horses up a hill in an ifor williams no problem. It wasn't madly expensive fuel wise either.

Of course, everything was pricey when it needed servicing/repairing but bf used to get most of the parts off the internet and fix it himself as much as he could. It was suprisingly reliable for a landrover as well. We didn't have too many problems with it, especially considering he used to thrash it off road every now and then.

Unfortunately 'Maggie' has gone to the great scrap yard in the sky now as (like many Discos) she got horribly rusty to the extent she failed her MOT and it was too much to be worth fixing her.
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A word of warning with buying an old Disco. Many are know for having rubbish boot floors that rust. Look for one that has had the boot floor replaced or it will cost you. But ALSO make sure that the boot floor has been WELDED when it is replaced, not RIVETTED as rivetted boot floors are an MOT failure. We were caught out by this and it was bloody annoying as we thought we'd been smart by getting an old Disco with a new boot floor only to find out, it was a botch job.
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Have fun, I still miss our old Disco. My bf put off road tires on it and it used to career around the lanes like startled racehorse.
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I would do a bit of research before committing yourself to a discovery. You'll here bad & good reviews on all vehicles as peoples tastes are different but in general:

little uns - steer clear of: Freelander, Rav4, Honda CRV's etc.

Good towing cars: Kia Sorento, SWB or LWB Shogun, Terrano II, nissan navara if you fancy a pick up, I would steer clear of the L200 as it has the turning circle of an ocean liner, defenders (not very refined drive), Discovery, Rexton


I have had a SWB Shogun and now drive a Kia Sorento, which i REALLY would recommend. The Kia got the whattowcar of the year award a couple of years running.

Whattowcar.com is really helpful. it's for caravanners, but you can put in the weight of your horsebox and it'll tell you what can tow it and how that vehicle performs.
 
I had a L200 warrior was great for everything but turning circle was not very good at all.
3months ago we bought a new Range Rover and i have to say everything about it is fantastic and tows like a dream infact you dont know your towing and the turning circle is fantastic.
 
Be careful of the Nissan Navaras, my other half is a cow hoof trimmer and alot of his colleagues bought Navara's to tow their crushes with, alot of them had problems with the engines blowing up only after a few thousand miles, they don't have a good reputation (this is the model before the current one, think its the Dci).
 
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