Thank you so much for all the posts. Hadn't expected so many thoughtful answers to what I foolishly thought was a simple question! Been thinking about what is being said in this thread and there are some real pearls of wisdom in there. The bottom line is that these newer models are expensive to maintain using a main dealer. I hadn't really noticed this because I bought it at a year old and it was still under warranty. But those happy days were masked by the depreciation I was paying anyway. Plain fact I have now realised is that these cars are so sophisticated they cost shed-loads of money to buy and keep on the road. Nice to drive - but lets face it, most of the sophistication is just not necessary. Personally I have no idea how most of the goodies actually work - for example the last (and only) time I used the voice control on the sat-nav I got into an argument with the computer (don't ever use it to try and find a railway station!)...
After reading all that, I've been totting up the pros and cons of the D4 vs my Defender 90 300Tdi. As far as I am concerned the only big plus for the Disco is it is great for super long drives on holiday. Its a real pleasure driving through France on holiday - there's no way I could persuade the family to do that in the 90. Which is why I think a really sweet D1 would be a really smart alternative to the D4 - thanks for the suggestion! I'm really tempted.
I wonder how much a really sorted D1 would cost - and what would be a reasonable amount to budget to have it well maintained and repaired by an Independent garage each year (i'm not sure I trust myself to mess about with the brakes - and certainly my other half wouldn't). Any ideas?