Hi all,
I'm looking at getting an older discovery (1998ish) to pull my 5 berth caravan, and have heard some good/bad things about them..
(main reason is I like discoverys, as they are quite cool as well as being practical)..
I have however been told that service and parts etc are very expensive (although I have a mondeo st24 atm which is more expensive than my other standard mondeo, in fact some parts are double)...
I would probably get done what I could at a local garage rather than a dealer anyway, so was wondering what advice any of you guys/gals could give me regarding this...

Thanks in advance,

Steve

get a tdi, you won't regret it

I have been advised by a few friends to get a jeep cherokee....
Could you give me some unbiased pros/cons of discovery TDI vs jeep please ?
Thanks
Steve

And you think land rover parts are dear ! lol

jeep's(spit) are an american piece of **** that cost a fortune to put right. you can get either a 4 ltr petrol with a 50 year old tank engine in them or a 2.5 diesel with an itaian vm engine that will do well to pass 50,000 miles before it needs replacing at a cost of over 2 grand. no competition in my eyes.

thanx yella
I need to have a serious conversation with the missus when she returns from work

i actually like the look of the cherokee and i hasten to add i once considered buying one but once i found out that the petrol does about 9mpg and the diesel is a vm engine i gave up and stuck with landies.98 reg disco's are plentiful and parts are reasonable. you can get many parts from 4x4 specialists rather than main dealers and there are plenty of amatuer mechanics to give you advice, especially on here.

VM engine was originally a boat engine, came as a 2.4 then later modified to a 2.5. Horrible things, unless you are a boat.
Ive gone back to Discos after a 2 year break, which seen me drive a 2.5 td Frontera, and a 2.5 Shogun, both later models.
Frontera was ok, but limited and i got bored of hearing the bits drop off and break. A well aimed f**t could loosen interior trim on them. The shogun lasted all of 94k miles, then it was shown a motorway one day and deceased, via head, valves and pistons.
The Discos are what they are, not dressed up as anything other than a bloody good 4x4. I tow a 6 berth caravan with mine, and have used older Discos to tow previous vans. Ive also ran caravan rallies/meetings and believe me, when you see someone pull on a field and get bogged down in their imaculate new X-trail and have to be dragged out with a disco, you get the point.
plus, look on ebay and see some of the mileage on some of them, 150k is normal, 200k is easily within reach without any major problems provided they are looked after.
They (can be) noisy, smelly, slow, infuriatingly awkward at times, but i promise you, if you ever need to rely on their capabilities to get you out of a sticky situation, you'll be gald you and your family are in a Solihull special.

The VM engine is a horrible engine EVEN if your a boat. Or own a boat with one in. Don't anymore and would never again.

I have a Disco 300Tdi Auto and I pull a large 2 berth caravan. My main problem is forgetting to look back to see if it is still there? Cos you never would know you had one on (they will pull about 3.5Tonne from a standing start) .

The fuel consumptions not that much different with or without the caravan but if thats an issue you need a smart car! I only get 24 ish anyway so wouldn't really notice. The good thing is that my firm pays for it. If you are worried about servicing stay away from landrover dealers. Any reasonably good mechanic can service a Landy. I use a guy in Morpeth 4muddyfeet.com He collects and delivers and you don't have to cringe when you ask the price! The reason I always wanted a landrover was because of the simplicity and ease of repairs and maintenance. If I can't fix it I know someone who can. The newer one's are becoming scary tho' but if you stick to Tdi's or NAD's you cannot go far wrong.

If its only a towing vehicle you could splash out on a TD5 but too many electronics for my liking and much harder to service. One electrical fault and the dash lights up like a xmas tree.

Stay away from all that Jap & American ****e! They may look good (arguably) but could it pull a caravan out of a quag myre field after 3 days of torrential rain? I don't think so.

Hope this was useful

good luck