It's been a week since I purchased my 2003 Disco 2. With 70,000 miles on it in ten years I had high hopes for this vehicle. Iparted with $6000 to make it mine and bring it home:
First Impressions: it's a truck! Lacking the Air Ride option for the rear springs or the ACE system, my Disco uses plain old coil springs and heavy duty Sway bars. This gives it a hard ride (harder than my volvo, but softer than my coilover suspended BMW) that generally handles better than I expected. I probably handles better than my old Volvo 850 as it feels more neutral and balanced than the Volvo's nose heavy push.
338 Miles since I filled it and brought it home saw me putting just under 20 gallons in it for an average of about 17mpg. While I do accelerate a lot slower than I did in the Volvo or BMW.. my usual cruising speed has not changed. I still do 5 over the limit, it just takes me twice as long to get there,
It did throw a CEL: this was for the Secondary Air Injection. It will be going back to the dealer I bought it from for a repair as they gave me a written guarentee it would pass inspection. It won't pass with the CEL on. Honestly, I am not surprised, this pump, that comes on for the first 70 seconds after a cold start sounds like a hairdryer on 50000 watts.. very angry and throwing air out of every crevice of it's housing. A common problem and easy fix.
Things that needed to be fixed when I got it:
Passenger seat controls.. somebody smashed them into the console
Headliner is starting to fall down.. Easy fix, I may go with alcantara for more luxury
Radio steering wheel controls.. One button falls off, another easy fix
Taillight has water in it.. Another easy fix
Missing rear ashtray.. hello ebay!
Wiper Motor does not park.. While a cheap fix, this will require me to remove the hood and cowl
Ergonomics: The English seem to have an odd idea of what is ergonomic.. but I may be spoiled by swedish cars. steering wheel has an odd grip to it and the window switches are pretty stupidly placed. Otherwise this is a very comfy truck with a seat that grabs you in all the right places to keep you steady and confortible. Upgrades are coming: I already bought the wiring harness kit that plugs into the stock wiring and goes to the 4 pin trailer harness. No cutting wires for me. four new Yokohama Geolanders are on their way from Tirerack, and I am expecting to put a free flow intake on it and a magnaflow exhaust in an effort to bring the MPGs up a few points. I may look into a high lift, short duration cam that should pump up the torgue and supposedly raised the MPGs a few more precentage.
This is a truck I can take on safari or to dinner in manhatten. Truely the best of all worlds. Let's see if it can continue to deliver the goods as go for an 800 mile stroll into Upstate NY and back to drag my sailboat home and how it continues to do on my 12 mile commute back and forth to work
Watch this space
