I currently have a 300 tdi 90 as my works vehicle (I do fencing, drystone walling ,mole catching and forestry stuff)

I need more room and seats so I'm torn between a 110 station wagon and a disco TD5

Saw a nice one on a galv chassis for 7k so alot less than a 110 on a galv chassis

What are they like to live with every day?
How long reliable are they?

I had a disco 2 for four years. They’re much more civilised on the road than a 90, as expected. You can hold a decent conversation with passengers, don’t get soaked inside, they’re comfortable to sit in and drive and the theft risks are considerably lower than with a Defender. But for me, I missed the Defender experience.

I prefer the Tdi over the Td5. Again, that’s personal,preference. Lots prefer the Td5 and it’s ability to be remapped for efficiency or performance. The Achilles heel of the disco 2 is the chassis and it’s ability to rust but if it’s got a galvy chassis already fitted, that’s a definite plus point.

My Td5 had the head gasket fail at around 130k. It had been losing a small amount of coolant for some time beforehand. The rotary oil filter housing stripped the threads as it is an alloy. The high pressure hose on the power steering failed too. Otherwise, it was quite reliable in the time I owned it.

I'm still running the 2001 D2 TD5 manual I bought s/h 10 years ago at 155,000 miles. It's now got 203,000 miles & is still going strong.
For the first 6 years it was my daily driver to get to & from work. But now only gets used for driving to & competing in off-road events.
It's only broken down once - when the clutch plate decided to break up in the middle of town.
There are well known wear & tear items you can research on here (eg (engine injector wiring looms, Fuel Pressure Regulator, front suspension & steering bushes, ARB links (front & rear) & rear Watts linkage centre arm bearings etc).

As already said, the rear chassis can be a rust problem, but yours is "cured" - lol.
£7k sounds a bit high, but a galv chassis for a D2 is probably at least £3.5K plus fitting, so maybe the price can be justified.
I can't imagine replacing mine with anything that would be a better set of compromises.
It's good & comfortable on road & off-road & with standard, regular maintenance will probably last quite a few more years yet.

D2 are a nice car, much nicer than the D1. but also not as tough as old boots like the D1.
Defo plus that no one wants to steal them, which is a serious issue with the defender.

I can second all the above comments , D2 are a great vehicle but you will miss the Defender experience and realistically you are not going to get much more room in a D2 than your 90, they are bigger on the outside but much of the inside is taken up with trim panels etc. A 110 will give you much more load space IMHO.

It may have a galv chassis, but most D2’s are showing signs if body issues now. Inner wings, footwells, bulkheads, roof above windscreen, rear arches etc can all be problem areas. Having said that, I have had my 2001 for over 10 years now and with a decent maintenance regime it’s never let me down. (Apart from a wee immobiliser problem recently )

Thanks for the reply I do love the 90 but its cold and draughty at this time of year

I wasn't sure about the reliability of the td5 engine

I thought 7k was on the high side but there's a similar one on ebay for 11.5k now !

And still considerably less than a 110 csw on a galv chassis