Land Rovers

DaveKJ02 · **Posted:** Fri Feb 10, 2006 11:06 pm

Anyone have experience with them? We're shopping for a new (well used) vehicle for the wife so I can have the KJ all for myself. She kinda likes the Discovery. I thought I stumbled on a thread of somebody here wheeling them, but this would be more to take over the grocery/kiddie toting duties. Just curious.

skrracing · **Posted:** Fri Feb 10, 2006 11:24 pm

Great rigs but way under powered...Later...Clint

dirtykj · **Posted:** Fri Feb 10, 2006 11:57 pm

... and overpriced. Great if you want to flaunt how much money you can throw away.

UKKJ · **Posted:** Sat Feb 11, 2006 11:01 am

I have looked into buying a disco a number of times over here as they are ten a penny.

the manual gearbox has a life of 60000 miles, they are unreliable, the transmission is not that strong, they rust like hell ( aluminium/steel mix) but thats not going to bother you too much in the US

The V8's from the 90's have serious ECU issues as they don't log faults...an intermittent problem can never be found

The air assissted suspension is not reliable, people retrofit springs

apart from that, they go well off road, and they look OK!!

BUY A JEEP!!!

Cheers
M

DaveKJ02 · **Posted:** Sat Feb 11, 2006 11:32 am

dirtykj wrote:

... and overpriced. Great if you want to flaunt how much money you can throw away.

Unfortunately, I dont have much to throw away. :cry:

That's why we are looking used. She likes the Commander and wanted to lease one, but to me, leasing is also throwing away money because you have nothing to show for in the end.

I love the reliability of the Jeep, and when that fails, how easy it is to work on. I actually enjoy it. Nothing like the PIA VW's I'm used to.

OBX KJ · **Posted:** Sat Feb 11, 2006 12:38 pm

To quote the movie The Repalcements... "NO DISCO!" is all I can say. Reliability aside, you can also die of old age waiting for parts. And you WILL need parts :!:

Taz · **Posted:** Sat Feb 11, 2006 12:56 pm

Not sure about the Discovery, but the small one(LR3) has had a lot of problems. I work witha guy who bought one and had lots of problems, he traded it for a Jeep.

kj lad · **Posted:** Sun Feb 12, 2006 3:47 pm

EXACTLY what UKKJ said!

The only Landie I'd have is a Defender.......... They are rugged, easy to work on, cheap to mod (in the UK) and very good offroad. But even they're not very reliable.

Ian

jpzkj · **Posted:** Sun Feb 12, 2006 10:12 pm

I think they're cool as they come...but they are supposed to be kinda top heavy on the trail. You sure can't argue with the camel trucks going around the world in LR's.

Look into an 93 to 04 Jeep Grand Cherokee...lot's of comfort and very capable rigs.

2003KJ · **Posted:** Sun Feb 12, 2006 11:07 pm

my old man used to work in the local Land Rover dealership back about 10 years ago....never a slow day in that place. Always a new Rover coming in with some sort of problem. You pay out the wazoo for parts, wait half your life to get them, and chances are it's probably going to break again.

Nothing wrong with it if ya got the money. If not, stick with a Jeep.

Guest · **Posted:** Mon Feb 13, 2006 3:22 am

if she's just getting groceries and using it for a school bus, why not a Ford Escape?

don't waste a Jeep on mall crawling

auggy · **Posted:** Mon Feb 13, 2006 3:12 pm

I hate to be the guy to bring it up on this site, but that's what the libby was technically designed for :oops:

krazz1e · **Posted:** Mon Feb 13, 2006 3:13 pm

I got a '96 disco 1. First off they are cheap. You get a lot of truck for the $. For example. You can get a '98 for around $8000 with around 70-80k mi. This gets you Leather, Power, Sunroof, Rear Air and some nice luxury's that are nice to have on the trail :lol:

There are 3 "Discovery's" out there.

1)1995-1999 These are called Disco I and they are the preferred over the other models for offroading.
2) 1999.5-2004 is the Series II. You got bigger engine and some other changes, MAJOR problem is they removed the center differential lock on the transfer case which is no good for offroading. 99.5-03 actually has it on the transfer case just no mounted lever in the cabin..... THANK FORD.
3) And now the '05 Series III which, well the old farm land rover is dead.

Best year is 98-99 when BMW owned them.

The Disco I has a 189HP/220 Torque V8. It's based off a Buick v8 just aluminum. It has GREAT power low-end for wheeling, but towing and even cruising it is greatly under powered. Plus it only avg 15mpg lifted and stuff, 18-19mpg stock. The engine is reliable actually, the problem is it runs rich and if not properly maintained (oil changes, plugs, good gas, ect) it burns off a lot of carbon and can cause sticky exhaust valves and just general engine problem due to a dirty engine. However, if properly maintain they will go for very long. The Tranny is a ZF tranny and is solid. With proper fluid changes they will last 200k+. The transfer case is a gear driven case so it's rock solid. It's loud though and you do get "humms" inside the cabin from it. The axles are a 24-spline and run a 33" stock locked. The front uses CV Joints and even though they are 24-spline they are known to break when turned and on high traction surfaces offroading, like slick rock (i've broke one took 24 mins to swap out on trail) The good news is they are readily available and cheap. Plus you can upgrade to Heavy Duty Joints to prevent this. While it is rare it's something to watch out for.

The Disco is a coil over axle front and back which gives it excellent articulation. It is rated at 35 degree tilt before you become tippy.

As for parts and service. It's all about knowing where to get them. If you go to the dealer, yeah you’re going to get ripped off. If you shop aftermarket parts or there are cross GM parts that fit right in (remember a GM motor) then it comes down to the same price as another type of truck. Again, service you take it to the dealer and they will try to charge you $80 for an oil change, $700 for a tuneup spark plugs and wires.... I can't think of any dealer that isn't a rip, land rover aka ford is bad. There are several independent Land Rover service people that work on them at the same rate as a domestic or Toyota. Better yet, the best thing about them is they are easy to work on. If you can wrench then you will save time, money, hassle and more importantly learn your rig so if you have a failure you know what to do.

The rover won't let you down on the trail, people think they are not reliable because they are sensitive to maintainence and most people don't do mantainence....but the thing with this is these only produce check engine lights. The truck still runs.

The body is all aluminum. Mine is 10 years old and it has no rust on it. Still has a shiny coat..... and I live in a heavy snow state that uses LOTS and LOTS of salt.

There are a lot of aftermarket offroad parts for the rovers, for ACCURATE information please visit www.discoweb.org.

Let me give you some advice. If you’re looking for a mall cruiser for your wife, look else where. These things like to be abused, they like to be driven offroad. If your looking for a capable offroad weekend warrior look no further. You'll be very happy with a rover. If you get one get it checked over by a mechanic that knows rovers so they can tell you if it has been maintained.

Also, these things leak... they are slow leaks but it's just a fact of life.

Here's some weekend pics from this sat.

The blue one is a stock rover.....

Anyway.........later

snowsport · **Joined:** Tue Oct 18, 2005 11:52 pm **Posts:** 1211

frig, Auggy, I nearly peed my pants. that was funny :twisted:

UKKJ · **Posted:** Tue Feb 14, 2006 4:24 pm

The salt in the US must be different from ours!!

There are companies in the UK importing Disco's from Japan as all our early ones are heavily rotting.

Main place to identify early steel/aluminium issues is in the rear door jamb. open a rear door and look at the seam below the catch, even mint UK ones start rotting there.

Like I say, less of an issue for US owners

An in depth report by a UK valuation site rates manual boxes to 60000 miles, autos to 120,000.. http://www.parkers.co.uk...I paid for the review, and this put me off!!!

Other issues to watch are leaks from the roof lights, the seals perish... I looked at one with an unusual interior trim in a large UK dealer, I opened the door to find it was all mould!!! The disco was 3 years old.

Be wary, our weather is obviously a bit harsher than yours, but these issues are in the pipeline!!

They are lovely vehicles, but even with careful maintenance they cause issues regularly. That Rover V8 motor dates from 1966! (bought from buick who debuted engine as the Buick 215ci in 1961)

Why would you buy one in the US when you have Jeeps???

I know we are biased!!

Cards81fan · **Posted:** Sun Mar 12, 2006 10:09 am

Just remember, if it's not leaking oil...

it's out of oil

I love the things actually: awesome off road, awesome truck for the price (because they depreciate like hell!), great aftermarket... but they have their quirks just as any other truck does...

I looked at them back when I got the Liberty (looked at Cruisers and 4runners as well), but I wanted something NEW to make my financing and warranty better. The other trucks just cost way too much money unless you go used.

The slow leaks being the most noticeable, heh.

kj lad · **Posted:** Sun Mar 12, 2006 1:53 pm

Landrovers are famous for their unreliability due to poor build quality, infact the Aussies say that if you want to go into the bush, take a landrover or a landcruiser. If you want to come back again to take a landcruiser.

And you can always rely on the Aussies to say it as it is!

Ian

wendell · **Posted:** Thu Jan 18, 2007 10:47 pm

Ford need to stop jacking around and start putting ford power trains in them. Iknow I'm dreaming now, but wouldn't a defender be awesome with a ford 300 I-6, "NOW", that would be a trail vehicle.

krazz1e · **Posted:** Wed Feb 21, 2007 7:19 pm

kj lad wrote:

Landrovers are famous for their unreliability due to poor build quality, infact the Aussies say that if you want to go into the bush, take a landrover or a landcruiser. If you want to come back again to take a landcruiser.

And you can always rely on the Aussies to say it as it is!

Ian

marty · **Posted:** Fri Aug 24, 2007 12:28 am

A few years ago I spent a couple of months in Namibia, Africa and we drove an old beat up 76 Land Rover. It was left over from some African Safari that Camel cigs promoted. It only had something like 68hp and a four banger, but it was amazing. I could not believe some of the places we went. The roads were so bad that the muffler and pipes had to be re-welded twice, and the bolts holding the carb together rattled out. But we could always fix what was broken and move on.

Since that trip I have been addicted to driving off road, but I bought a Jeep because every thing I read about Rovers sounded bad. I am glad I bought a KJ, but I do not think it would have made it through half of the places I took that old Land Rover.

Land Rovers

Who is online