PETER replied:

1 call racv and ask their opinion.

2 dont expect anything and your friend will not be disappointed

3 trade-in not worth mentioning

4 land rover australia support non existant.

5 dealers and agents great when you have your money in the fist but try after you have paid.

6 beautiful until a problem and then it is a big problem.

7 having experianced all these minor faults myself i will not have another discovery if it was given to me


regards and merry christmas

Blackie replied:

Try this forum.
http://www.comcen.com.au/~blumx/

scotty replied:

Why anyone would waste their money on any model Land Rover I would not know. The Discovery has proven to be the worst performer, the highest cost to maintain, the most de valued as far as a trade in and basically the crappest 4WD on the market. Trust me folks this car is not a luxury vehicle once you get under the glossy paint. My old HR Holden is more reliable than any of my mates Discos. I even drove it through a flood one night with the water over the headlights. The good thing was that I could follow the little white line with the lights working under the water perfectly.

On a 4WD trip in the high country my mates 3 week old Stuart Webster Disco caught fire mysteriously while we were at camp one night. The whole things interior burned up in about 15 minutes. This was a $57,000 car with no Mods. Land Drover called it a "Wiring Problem". They didn,t replace the car either. They spent 2 1/2 months repairing it and after an ordinary respray they gave it back to him. He ended up selling it after 2 years of problems (mostly electrical) and the trade in was $23,000 dollars. Aparently no one wants them any more (can't understand why). Another mate had a 3 year old Disco roll backwards off a 150 foot cliff after the handbreak failed. Lukily his kids had all got out to look at the veiw too. The car was totalled. The airbags didn't even go off.

Up north the most likely car to break down in the NT and Q'land was the disco. One had a wheel fall off while exiting a clean and go car wash in Darwin. My mates one is difficult to wipe the seats after kids ice cream spilt. Once when demo driving a Landy in Melbourne the gear knob came off in my hand. Once at Mallacoota a disco got hung up while exiting the Mobil service station with a boat on the back. The centre diff lock failed to engage after sand interupted the power supply to the feebulator. A mates Disco had a crook felman wire in the electric windows which caused the left rear window to go up and down all night while we were at the drive in. My mums Disco does bunny hops and it is a Gay Automatic. My grannys disco will only do 40 kmh on the highway. Gary Ablett drives one. Lisa Curry Kenny drives one. Jelena Dockich drives one. Salman Rushdie Drives one, Saddam Husein Drives one with an Anthrax spray unit built in to the side rails (ARB of course), Osama Bin Ladin would drive one but he is lost in Pakistan at the moment.

Just tell your mate that they suck. In fact all Land Drovers Suck. Scotty

Slunnie replied:

Kev,

I notice nobody above has asked which turbo diesel Discovery does your friend want to buy? There are 3 variants, a pre '94, 94-99, 99 on? This is the first thing I need to know to give you an accurate answer, and not the absolute and total crap that has just been written above by somebody that knows absolutely nothing about the marque, yet claims to. By the way, ask yourself Scotty, why have these happened!

I will require a prompt response to help you Kev, as I leave for 8 days tomorrow at the crack of dawn.

Regards
Slunnie
(who will give you an accurate answer especially if it regards a Discovery Series II)

lindsay replied:

Kev . Don't take too much notice of all you hear on landrovers. I am on my third landrover (defender) basically same running gear as the disco. My first .92 series 2 model only trouble was with the early gearboxes was a problem of lubrication of one of the gears landrover did look after me. I traded in 1997 with 130K Ks on it . I know the ownerand it has now clocked in excess of 450 K ks at 420 K Ks the turbo had to be o'hauled and bearings replaced in the transfer case. Apart from the regular odd seal & brake relines he has had no problems. I purchased a series 3 traded it at 90 K ks and had no problems at all. I now own a td5 I have had an ABS sensor replaced under warrantee with a wiring loom. And had a modified flywheel fitted to it as apparently one cracked in England. Last year up the Canning and Mitchell plateu a crack developed at the bottom of the rear door again repaced by rover at no cost to me. The defenders have been across the Simpson 3 times , Gunbarrel ,Connie Sue canning Anne Beadell Sandy Blight road so they get a rough time and have had no problems other than stated they use less fuel than a tojo or Nissan. Some may have had problems, but I have seen a Jappo with the suspension pushed up through the guard. Another with a ruined clutch with 7,000 Ks on the clock. another with a cracked diff. Tojos with broken wheel studs and broken rear doors to where they almost fell apart. They all have their problems it is just that some people have hangups with other vehicle types and are quite vocal and hating landrovers seems to be the order of the day.

daren replied:

Kev
I read with humor all the rover bashing going on here. It will usually be "My mate had....". Take it all in and then do what you want. I will add my 2c worth.on my 2nd rover , 1st a rr and the 2nd a disco. both petrols. extreamly happy with both. only probs i had were normal stuff like altinators and uni joints and stuff like that, which can hapen nomatter whitch car u drive even the "given to us by god toyota's" (said with tonge in cheak).i would strongly sugest you and your freind actully talk to rover drivers face to face in the car park and stuff like that and then u will get an honest answer. You will most likly find that nearly all rover drivers are on there 2 and 3 rovers, and like the people in the street that i talked to, would not go back to what ever they were driving befor. All cars have good and bad points, just like people.
that's all .

Member - Bob replied:

Kev
I bought a new Series 2 a couple of years ago and have been very happy with it. There was a problem with the electronic imobiliser/alarm control unit which was rectified under warranty. The Eurovox CD player had to be swapped over as well. Other than that it has been completely reliable, and performed comfortably and economically on some major remote region trips. It handles better than most 4 WDs (bar BMW/Audi), is amazingly economical. I can't speak for the Series 1 however. It is interesting how the Disco provokes such irrational responses from a significant number of contributors to this forum. I suspect there is a strong media-fed proJap bias. In one magazine recently they compared several vehicles and on one test vehicle the diff failed (Prado). You'd reckon a major mechanical failure would hurt its rating but it didn't. Imagine if a Korean vehicle had failed - they would have caned it.

damien replied:

The only experience i had with a Disco was a bad one. It involved my neighbours '99 TDi.
The list of problems he encountered were (these are the ones i can remember):-

New rear Diff, new steering box, new manual tansmission - twice(could not engage 1st gear), new alternator, power steering pump fell off, extensive leak in front passenger door, power window failure, rear cargo door wouldn't close.

At the time, i was looking at purchasing my first 4wd & this experience certainly turned me off the Disco - the vehicle was at the workshop more than it was on the road.

He has since purchased a brand new GU Patrol & through 40K, it has not been to the workshop once (except for services).

Maybe he just had a lemon, i don't know, but the amount of people out there with similar stories leads me to think there is certainly a problem that bears keeping in mind before purchasing.

Tim replied:

i love it !!!! when someone asks about discos - it opens a can of worms bigger than texas, but you guys that can l/r and discos have it right - no dealer in the world will take a punt on landrovers, now you could say that they are all thieves but if the product was any good some dealer would like it, they dont they hate them - they are the biggest causes of insanity in the dealer network - keep clear and buy another brand of 4wd or invest your money - dont throw your money away on a landrover

brian replied:

Hello Kev
for what its worth i bought a new turbo disco sept 95 and sold it in 2000,
Repairs as follows, transfer case repaired 5 times,interior mirror fell off,2nd gear collapsed,known fault according to l/rover gearbox replaced,two universal joints replaced,3 diff seals replaced,3 sets of brake pads,when i complained the first set only did 20000klm the dealer said this was better than normal,rust treatment for interior steel body frame due to constant water leaks from curved glass panels in roof,glass panels resealed 3 times still leaks,drivers side window mechanism totally collapsed,sheared of rear shock on frazer is,more brake pads on frazer,constantly jumped out of low range into neutral at the worst times,when i was driving it to the dealerto drop it off to pick up the new nissan the right rear wheel bearing collapsed,the new owner of my disco replaced the rear axle and transfer case within about 6 weeks of his purchase, if you doudt the above ring the dealer in wollongong and ask about rego TYL760,there must be some good ones somewhere just wasnt mine
Great to drive exceptional off roadbut totally unreliable in my experience,perhaps you can find a good one,good hunting,by the way the warrenty only covers 30kilo on roof off road,and as for water crossings warrenty only to 500 mm which is BELOW THE BOTTOM OF THE DOOR> you have been warned.

daren replied:

Tim
Anouther one of those "my mat had ...or I heard ..." stories.
I have a disco. I go out of my way to talk to rover drivers. I have never herd anyone bag a rover as much as people on the forums that have "mates, or heard about.." But thay dont or very rearly have had one. Dont the toyota's, nissans ect,ect ever brake down??
i sujest u type in Toyota and do a serch as i did and you will posibly be disapointed.

RetiredBob replied:

Kev

I have had an auto Disco TD5 for the last two years. Have done the "big one" plus many other small trip in Oz. Have had a couple of probs but were all fixed Ok by the dealers. I am very happy with the vehicle for on-road, off-road and towing. I spoke to many Disco owners when I was on the big trek and touring about Oz and certainly there were a couple of horror stories but in the main all were very happy with their vehicles. I also found that the main detractors of Landrover were non- LR owners. If I wanted to I could tell some horror stories about other makes but why bother - most are blown up out of all proportion.

Regards