What's better, discovery with high miles or discovery with low miles?

In my experience Rovers require lots of maintenance. Sometimes it's small maintenance , like a relay, and sometimes it's big maintenance, like a head gasket.

Wait, you know what, this might be the perfect car for a kid! The constant maintenance and repair will teach them mechanical skills. And the constant maintenance will keep them broke enough that they cant afford to get into any really big trouble.

So my advice is to get the worst highest mileage one you can find.

Receipts.

If you're buying higher mileage so high-dollar maintenance items have been done, you'll want proof. At least that's how I feel when shopping for Subarus that have the 100k timing belt service item. I wanted 150k with receipts over a 90k car. 150k without receipts? I'd have to deduct to cover fixing deferred maintenance issues.

2004, like mine, will be right in the middle of Rover's issues with the oilpump. They basically machined the pins wrong on the block that mate the oilpump housing to the block, this puts pressure on the side of the pump and fractures the gears.

That said, I bought mine last july and have done almost 12000 miles on it.. a 1000 of them towing 5000 pounds of boat and trailer through NY, and the Catskills and then up to PA and back. Except for a power steering pump, no issues. The pump, btw, if you catch it early, can be rebuilt. There are seal and gasket kits available for that.

the biggest issue with the disco.. it's thirsty. Open road, no stops, at about 50mph.. I can get into the 20s.. around town, in traffic and with stops, I am lucky to get out of single digits.

The biggest issues with rovers though.. are the owners. If he doesn't drive it like he stole it, doesn't beat on it mercilessly offroad, and does little things like "exercising" the hill descent and low range, it shouldn't give him any issues. they were a vehicle that was not designed to be at home at the mall.. but that was how most people used them. And do not even think of taking it to a dealer.. they will rape you good

A Jeep.

I wouldn't want a jeep if you gave me one. Around here jeep owners are worse than BMW owners

I've had 2 Rovers over the past 12 years. I guess I would help my 20 year old buy a Rover, but the motivation would be to spend more time with him in the garage. Electrical strangeness, HVAC, Head gaskets, the "three Amigos"....etc....

If I wanted him to have an off road, thrifty, reliable, easy to work on car, a Rover wouldn't be it. They force you to be Rover enthusiasts.

Yeah...averaging 12 MPG for our Rangie.

The answer is Land Cruiser not land rover. all the good, none of the bad.

Honestly I liked the 02-03 trailblazers in 4wd. Buy in is relatively cheap, maintenance isnt to bad either

In reply to Datsun1500:

What's better, discovery with high miles or discovery with low miles?

This has to be a trick question

May I be the first person to point out that selling a car that needs about $3.6k's worth of maintenance because it needs that amount of work and then considering a Land Rover doesn't quite compute?

Yes, they are cheap to buy but they do cost a fair amount of money to run - fuel consumption has already been mentioned, keeping on top of the, err, quirks, costs a fair amount of money also and you don't exactly find parts in the bargain bin at Napa either.

My wife loves her Range Rover P38, and I like it enough that I would consider a Disco, but (a) we have a very good independent Land Rover mechanic locally and (b) we're in the financial position to take the hit when (not if) one of the usual expensive repairs come up.

Oh, and don't have the emblems removed.

Anything with an Isuzu badge can often be bought cheap but still stout enough.
Trooper, very stout.
Rodeo, more comfort but still enough capability...and the cheapest.
Amigo, unique.

Well, my wife's Range Rover was worth about what we paid for it (around $6k) and we immediately had to get the head gaskets done. It's still worth what we paid for it, and we did dump a few grand more into it since.

Anything with a Land Rover badge that's available on this side of the Atlantic doesn't suffer neglect very well. It's not quite the case in the UK as you get more diesel engined base models over there, but even those want very regular attention.

Isn't around 100k when the head gasket likes to go on those?

I ended up with a montero instead of the trooper, but both were in the running for a spare expidition rig. Bought mine with 207K miles but LOTS of maintenance records and except for clear coat, its in great condition.

4Runner....if he liked the Pathy, he'll like a 4Runner even more.

"Brakes, struts, exhaust" equals $3,500?

In reply to Datsun1500:

I just saw PartsGeek KYBs fir $64 each...

If you can't afford maintanence on the Pathy how the hell is a Disco going to work out? Does not compute. How does a car need 3500 in maintanence at 90k miles? I don't understand how the Pathy could be any more labor intensive than a Disco. Good luck but 22year old kid plus Rover sounds like a bad idea, then again I'm a realist.

Datsun1500 wrote:

mad_machine wrote: I wouldn't want a jeep if you gave me one. Around here jeep owners are worse than BMW owners

His exact words when I said "get a jeep"

Despite what it looks like, you don't NEED a tribal armband tattoo and an XBox to have a Jeep.

benzbaronDaryn wrote: If you can't afford maintanence on the Pathy how the hell is a Disco going to work out? Does not compute. How does a car need 3500 in maintanence at 90k miles? I don't understand how the Pathy could be any more labor intensive than a Disco. Good luck but 22year old kid plus Rover sounds like a bad idea, then again I'm a realist.

As a lazy mechanic, I would much rather work on any Land Rover than any, ANY, Japanese SUV. They are just made BADLY. They are labor intensive to the point where it feels completely pointless. Horrible horrible design decisions everywhere.

This is before you factor that they seem to be made pre-rusted.

Datsun1500 wrote: He's looking at Troopers now.

Holy crap, a Trooper? Talk about out of the frying pan and into the fire.

How about an Explorer or a Blazer? Those can't be too expensive to maintain.

Everybody seems to have missed the fact that the car has only 27K on it. Is it still under warranty?

Sounds like a good price. Rebuild the oil pump out of the gate, enjoy it for a year or (maybe) 2, then sell it quickly as a low mileage car with no issues.

There's not a lot you can do to destroy a car in only 27k miles. Even a Discovery.

Knurled wrote: As a lazy mechanic, I would much rather work on any Land Rover than any, ANY, Japanese SUV. They are just made BADLY. They are labor intensive to the point where it feels completely pointless. Horrible horrible design decisions everywhere. This is before you factor that they seem to be made pre-rusted.

I have found what little work I have had to do to my disco to be fairly easy. Everything seems well laid out and logical

Datsun1500 wrote:

mad_machine wrote: I wouldn't want a jeep if you gave me one. Around here jeep owners are worse than BMW owners

His exact words when I said "get a jeep"

Man why do so many people let others opinions and stereotypes dictate what they drive? People like that miss out on a lot of great stuff.

mostly because I do not want people to stereotype me.