Need help with potential buy of used disco

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motherman

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Hello,

I am looking for a cheap car just to go to the mountains for snowboarding season. I found a '95 land rover discovery for sale... it has 170,000 miles..this is the link to the advertisement: 1995 Land Rover Discovery se.Very.Reliable.no.mechanical.problems

I'm worried on the mileage... i havnt seen a used car with that many miles on it... do you think it would be reliable for atleast a year with 170,000 miles?.. I am not sure on how these trucks last with age... should i shy away from it.. or is it a good buy if my time to ownership plans to be ~1-2 years?

Thanks...
 
depends how much skill youve got with a toolbox and how much money you want to spend on fixing it, because IMO it will break down, bits will need replacing soon. If you want a disco, then buy it and save some cash spare to fix it, if your not fussed on what truck you want and you dont mind driving round in a jap can then get a toyota pickup or something! Depends how much you want a landy
 
colinl said:
the mileage is not the problem with discos! its the rust that kills them!
Click to expand...

As he ^^^ says it's not the mechanicals that is a problem it's corrosion particularly over here.
The advert shows a nice looking car for it's age certainly better than some examples of the same age in this country, a lot have been scrapped by now.
If you go and look at it I would spend a lot of time on my back underneath it looking at the condition of the chassis, the front inner wings and the rear wings.
Also lift the rear luggage space carpet and look for corrosion of the floor.
Lift the carpets in the front and again look for corrosion of the floor.
The sunroofs generally leak rainwater as does the windscreen eventually.
Apart from all that I don't see why you shouldn't get a couple of years without hassle particularly given the amount of work carried out on it.
I hope you don't intend to pay much for it.
Best of luck
 
170,000 miles on a discovery isnt that bad ! especially if its been looked after with regular oil changes. obviously there will be parts that are worn and at some point will need replacing but most of these parts are easy to do.

if the price is right get the cam belt changed and a service with a decent quality oil and dont drive it like a race car it will be fine :)

like some one already said its rust that will be the problem but depending on what and how bad even that can be a relativly simple repair.

just had a look at the add and for that money i think its not to bad. the climate isnt like the uk so the rot might not be as advanced as most in the uk.
 
Last edited:
Great thanks!

Thing is I dont know much about cars, or want to think of or put any money into fixing potential problems... i would like something that i wouldnt have to worry about for a year... 2 max...

This is a perfect vehicle for my needs, if it can give me 1 year or 2 max that I dont have to worry about fixing or replacing things.. it wouldnt be worth it to me for what im looking for... thats the main part of my decision and I know nothing about it....

If I look closer at it and theres little or no rust... and you guys think it could easily last a year maybe 2 without any replacements then its my perfect vehicle... if theres a very very high probability im going to need to replace parts within a year.. then its not for me..

I know im asking a really impossible question since you dont know how it was handled or the condition of the engine.. but given that there is little or no rust.. a 95 with 170k miles.. do you think theres a high probability it could go 1-2 years without needing any replacementment parts? thanks1
 
I know im asking a really impossible question since you dont know how it was handled or the condition of the engine.. but given that there is little or no rust.. a 95 with 170k miles.. do you think theres a high probability it could go 1-2 years without needing any replacementment parts? thanks1[/quote]


I doubt any car that age and milage, no matter how well its been looked after will need the odd thing replacing, good thing is on a Disco 1 its all pretty easy to fix and theres an abundance of places both on the internet and probably in your local town that sells parts at a good price
 
eh? a 5.2 engine? Thought the colonies got the same 3.9/4/4.6 as we did.

Was thinking with all the talk about cambelts that it was an oil burner, but then looked at the ad and saw that engine size with a new belt fitted.
 
V8_Disco said:
depends how much skill youve got with a toolbox and how much money you want to spend on fixing it, because IMO it will break down, bits will need replacing soon. If you want a disco, then buy it and save some cash spare to fix it, if your not fussed on what truck you want and you dont mind driving round in a jap can then get a toyota pickup or something! Depends how much you want a landy
Click to expand...

all cars break down at some point, i have both J reg disco 2.5tdi and a R shogun 3l v6, land rover for off road use and shogun for everyday use. id rather fix the disco then the shogun. parts cheaper and easyer to get hold of for a landy,
 
motherman said:
Hello,

I am looking for a cheap car just to go to the mountains for snowboarding season. I found a '95 land rover discovery for sale... it has 170,000 miles..this is the link to the advertisement: 1995 Land Rover Discovery se.Very.Reliable.no.mechanical.problems

I'm worried on the mileage... i havnt seen a used car with that many miles on it... do you think it would be reliable for atleast a year with 170,000 miles?.. I am not sure on how these trucks last with age... should i shy away from it.. or is it a good buy if my time to ownership plans to be ~1-2 years?

Thanks...
Click to expand...


The advert does not read right - either the seller knows nothing about the vehicle or they are lying.

There is no 5.2ltr v8 in the LR range, let alone this period of Disco's. The v8's all have chains I believe? So what's the seller talking about with the "new belt" bull****.

Also, LR V8's don't seem to tolerate high mileages that well, so IF this is an LR V8 and with 170,000mls I would say it would need a rebuild pretty soon.

Sounds to me like you don't need a Discovery and don't want to service and maintain it yourself, so my advice would be find a decent jap/american station wagon and buy that.

Only buy a Disco if your heart yearns for one.
 
thebiglad said:
The advert does not read right - either the seller knows nothing about the vehicle or they are lying.

There is no 5.2ltr v8 in the LR range, let alone this period of Disco's. The v8's all have chains I believe? So what's the seller talking about with the "new belt" bull****.

Also, LR V8's don't seem to tolerate high mileages that well, so IF this is an LR V8 and with 170,000mls I would say it would need a rebuild pretty soon.

Sounds to me like you don't need a Discovery and don't want to service and maintain it yourself, so my advice would be find a decent jap/american station wagon and buy that.

Only buy a Disco if your heart yearns for one.
Click to expand...

I doubt very much if the engine is an original LR one but been stateside theres no shortage of big V8's to transplant into a disco. & if it's a replacement engine then it may well have a timing belt
 
I did post earlier wondering about the engine size and belt change. From what I can remember of my time in the US, whilst there is no shortage of suitably large engines to offer as a transplant, most of them have chain timing gear anyway.

Rover V8s will last for several hundred thousand miles, as long as the oil is changed very very regularly, something that rarely happens once they get onto 2nd and 3rd owners. Of course the bored out ones of 3.9 and above are often scrap if overheated.
 
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