| Author |
Message |
    
Sanderskog
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 02, 2002 - 12:32 pm: | 
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I have always loved Range Rovers and am currently considering selling my Dodge Ram Quad Cab 4x4 to buy one. I have a couple questions I am hoping you all can help me with. Specifically I am looking at a Discovery and would like to spend under $19K.
Sorry for the long list of questions. If you have a recommendation of a site with buyers info. it would be greatly appreciated.
Are there any years that should be avoided (I was looking at '97-'98ish)?
Anything I should watch out for when buying a Discovery?
How is the overall fuel economy? What do you get on average (it will be better Than what I get now, believe me)?
My friends always warn me about repair bills with Range Rover. How is the reliability? Are they really that much more to repair?
What is towing like with a Disco? I'd like to be able to pull a tent trailer and my track car when needed ('68 BMW 2002 - around 2000lbs).
How isthe room in the back seat for car seats and such?
Any guess at what I should expect to pay on an annual basis for maintenance?
What should I expect to pay for a low milease '97-98?
Any additional insight you can provide? I'd greatly appreicate it.
Thanks,
Todd |
Leslie N. Bright (Leslie)
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 02, 2002 - 02:16 pm: |
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Todd,
First point of clarification: Land Rover is the company (owned by Ford), and they have several models: Defender, Discovery, Range Rover, and Freelander. (Don't take this the wrong way, I'm just wanting to point out that Range Rovers and Discoveries are both Land Rovers, but a Discovery isn't a Range Rover... it's a common error, so again, don't take this personally).
Your questions:
1) '97 -'99 are usually good years for Series I Discoveries.
2) Make sure that it has been properly maintained. These things are great, but you have to take care of them.
3) The '99 I had, when it had stock tires, no extra lights or roof-rack, got about 16mpg. If you get better off-road tires, add lights, get a roof-rack, etc., the mileage will drop, 14mpg would be decent then.
4) Range Rover-specific parts are expensive; Discovery and Defender parts, while not cheap, are usually not as bad. A lot of parts are common between the vehicles, but, of course, not all. The thing that makes them rather expensive to maintain is paying dealer-prices for parts and labor. If you can work on it yourself, you'll be better off, and will learn your truck better. Also, there are non-dealer sources for parts that are much more affordable.
5) A tent trailer or a small car should be no problem. Realize, though, that these vehicles aren't fast to begin with, so don't expect it to race down the road while towing things behind you. I pulled my SIII from Knoxville to Kingsport without any problem, but it wasn't up and down hills and was not fast at taking off, or braking.
6) A Discovery's backseat is okay... there are vehicles with roomier back seats, but this one isn't bad. My 12-year old daughter, 7-year old son, and newborn in a rear-facing carseat all fit comfortably enough. The nice thing is the amount of visability that they have from the rear seat of a Disco.
7) Depends. If you do the labor yourself, get your parts from non-dealer sources, keep on top of maintenence (preventive instead of corrective), it's not bad. If you drive it to the dealer for every single oil change, though, it's gonna cost a lot. And I do mean a lot.
8) Location dependent, a clean, low-mileage late Disco I can be found for $15k; the later the more, of course. I got $18k for my '99, w/ 81k on the odo. I held out for that, though.... I wouldn't have bought it for that if I was shopping for one.
9) A Rover isn't for everyone. A lot of people at work asked me about it all the time, and I kept pointing them to other things, because a Rover needs to be a hobby, if you're really going to enjoy it properly. But if you're wanting to not have a mall-crawler, if you really want to take the thing off through the muddy trails, etc., once you've taken a Disco off-road and really seen what it can do, you'll love it, if that's your thing.
Hope that helps some......
FWIW...
-L |
KJ
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 03, 2002 - 01:40 am: |
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Leslie,
You're a sweetheart to always take the time to answer these questions. Now, leave Laura alone or you'll need an SE7 for your next Disco.....(G)
Karen  |
Binh Nguyen (Lrdisco)
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 03, 2002 - 02:21 am: |
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in addition to your help, Leslie, I am planning to test and probably buy the new 2003 Disco tomorrow. Have you or any else have had any problems such as electrical or other problems that dealer may tell you "there is nothing wrong" or "that's normal"? thanks a million |
Leslie N. Bright (Leslie)
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 03, 2002 - 08:18 am: |
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lol.... No, KJ, 3 is enough, there will be NO more, THAT'S been taken care of now.... lol....
Binh,
The dealer was a couple of hours away, so I never took the Disco to the dealer, I always took care of it myself instead.
Yes, there are things that happen with Discos that are "normal".... the British just weren't great at seals, so a little bit of oil on the ground underneath wouldn't be a surprise... not all leak, but, most do. A lot have a clunk when shifting the transmission into gear, too. Or rather, all do... a lot of 'em are realy soft like mine was, but some have a pretty noticable clunk when putting it into drive, or reverse.
Electric-specific, mine never had any real problems. It did have a quirk, though.... sometimes it wouldn't even try to start... Turn the key, and it wouldn't even turn the engine over. If I turned it all the way back to off first, though, let it sit for a sec, then try, it'd fire up. Kinda odd, but, well, it didn't ever leave me stradned or anything.
AAMOF, one day, when I was putting on Magnecor wires, replacing the factory wires, my wife commented "Ah, so you're de-Lucasfying it, are you?" lol.......
Anyway.... there are other issues that have happened that some dealers try to say is normal, but are not. If you search the tech-section, you'll find all of them..... these are just the ones I've dealt with...
Good luck,
-L |
Jake Hartley (Jake)
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 03, 2002 - 10:19 pm: |
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I have a strong preference for the 94-95 DIs. They are simple (relatively)have a distributor and OBD I (read w/o code readers) and other such things, They are reasonable in price and that gives you more $$ for upgrades! My 94 has 247,000 miles on the original drivetrain and is still going strong. |
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