Need advice... Looking to buy land rover

[champ5307]

I have been a big fan of land rovers for a while but never have owned one. Im selling my truck and i want to get 2002 or higher disco II, the only think i have doubts on is that i here they are not very reliable and need a lot of maintenance. I need something pretty reliable for work, does anyone have any advice for me or am i getting myself into a money trap.

 

[joey]

It all depends on how well it was taken care of... it could be almost maintenance free or could suck your wallet dry.....

 

[fbrems]

Buying a used car is always a risky issue as you never know why the previous owner got rid of it and every opinion (and car) is different, but personally I suggest if you are not handy and need to go to the dealer for every defect which is going to occur on your LR, it is going to be a big money issue. Go over the threads and you will notice that even LR's with low mileage are not spared from major defects. Disco 1 and 2 never scored high on reliability and you are going to get dirty hands. Most of my minor (not to mention) and major defects (gearbox, fuel pump, alternator, gas tank, steering hydraulics, two water pumps, both exhaust collectors, distribution cables, steering joints, roof interior came down, belt tension bearing, engine oil leak from front bearing) occurred between 60 and 100.000km.

 

[john65b]

Alow me to offer up my opinion...my 2002 Disco II has been quite reliable - no issues - I haven't had it for very long (about a year - bought used with 55K miles), but understand if your intent is to take it offroad everyday, you cannot expect it to be as reliable as highway driving everyday. I, for one, do not offroad, because this is my primary vehicle.


Many of the issues outlined on this site are from pretty ******** offroaders. I would bet the farm that the "Highway Rovers" are not as problematic. Offroading puts some major strain on engine, and suspension, and also could manifest other problems in areas you wouldn't expect. I think Rovers get a bad rap because they take some monster abuse...not that they are nessessarily unreliable - so maybe it's not as reliable as a Toyota 4-Runner, but definitely better than a Pontiac Fiero (don't get me started).

Also, driving and maintaining the car properly - using good gas (I put in premium all the time), using Mobil One Synthetic Oil, and fixing any issue as soon as I am able - also helps reliability. I remember my sister whining about how here Prelude was not a good car. She drove over 29K miles before she relaized she had to change the oil... It forever affected her Prelude (but it still ran for 225K miles)....

Now also, I am very prepared and capable of fixing quite a few things myself (brakes, change oil, replace lamps and simple switches, troubleshoot electronics, etc), and I am not one to immediately run to the Stealership at the onset of any issues...I will first make an attempt to fix myself, and only when I am not able to fix it would I consider going to the Stealership.
My 2 cents

 

[roverman]

I have a RR '99 that literally breaks sitting in my driveway while I drive my LR3...
John, I beg to differ bigtime about your assessment that the majority of problems come from off roading. Off roading really does not stress out much on the car (in terms of the things that usually go bad), except the suspension. Not one of the couple dozen ridiculous problems I've had with my range was caused by anything but cheap/faulty engineering.
Will I buy another one? yes

Champ, my advice would be to see if you could find a clean one with low miles and lease it for a couple years while it still hopefully is under warranty. Or assume someone's lease somewhere like leasetrader.com. If you have good experience with it, maybe go ahead and buy it after the lease is up.

Roverman

 

[joey]

Oh, and for the record I off road my Rover at least 4 times a year, not much by many standards, but other than upgrades I haven't spent more than $1000 in maintenance over the last almost 4 years and 50,000 miles. I don't drive it as much as I would like because my buick gets almost 28 MPG with a 350ci engine vice the 16 MPG out of my rover... if I removed all the extras I have added it would be a lot better, but still not over 20MPG.

I have broken one thing from off roading so far, and that was a swivel seal that I need to replace right now. Cost for repair $20 and about an hours work.

 

[fbrems]

I agree on the off-road issue to certain extend. I'm driving my Disco in the UAE remote desert 5 days a week as part of my work and probably, yes, the fuel tank and exhaust collector cracks could be from the impact of desert driving (but should not be) although I am not a dune basher and mostly stay on the tracks. In my opinion, fuel pumps, the common oil leaks, bearings, water pump, distribution cables, ect. should not fail before you push 200k out your truck if compared with other trucks. Before somebody reply "it must be lack of Maintenance" to know that our cars are all well maintained by the company with original spares and on a periodic maintenance schedule. Some years ago I wrote a long complain letter to Rover in the UK and they replied politely that they agreed entirely to all the issues I mentioned and recommended me to purchase a new LR where all this issues are taken well care off (helpful customer service) The new LR's must have been improved a lot as in the Emirates the are sold with 5 year (unlimited km/miles) guarantee, unfortunately the cost price jumped beyond most people budgets.

 

[Kestreljr]

fbrems said it best- I wouldn't get in this LR market if would take your car to the dealership every time it has a faulty switch. If that describes you, buy a brown or white Honda Accord and by a silk shirt or something, but if you want the whole effect of a bad ass vehicle then there is a price to pay- which is regular ticks and tears and a few big issues that spring up now and then.

Concerning the 4x4 debate- everyone has a different version of off-roading. If you are rock-crawling or driving through arid deserts that is different then crossing a 2 inch deep creek at 10mph before you pop back on the gravel road.

 

[john65b]

"I have a RR '99 that literally breaks sitting in my driveway"

Are you sure that's not an '87 Fiero?

My sides are still hurting from laughing so hard.