Anyone own a diesel Discovery 3

I have an HSE TDV6 and it is an incredible vehicle. The motor is amazing, so quiet and responsive. My son has a L/cruiser V8 and he says this is as responsive as it with performance as well. It has no "surge" to the turbo, just hop in and drive and accelerate. The six speed box gives excellent fuel economy, from running in at 9.4L/100 (under 100km) to now (7500km) 11.2L/100km. At 2,500 revs the car is doing 150kmh! (Tried it in the back country). So you can see at ordinary driving, it is just ticking over, hence the first service at 12,000km. The fuel tank could be bigger, but it will easily do 700km, so it is not an issue. Bear in mind that under the back is a spare wheel and a recess to put your feet if using the seven seat bit, so it is very well designed. These will be the engines of the future and it won't be long before they are copied by all 4wds, now that they are showing up to be old hat. Even the TD5 (I had 4 of these) which are so good are not in this league. Add to this the driving position and they are hard to go past.

I'm also interested in the D3 as well. My kids love sitting in the back with the elevated position with our Td5. The D3 now has a flat floor which takes away that advantage.

Any additional input would be great.
Cheers.

G'day Patrol_Driver,

I haven't got a disco 3 .. so no first hand experience, but pop into the Australian Landrover Owners forum... there a quite a few guys there with hthem that do use them off road.

www.aulro.com

You should find your answers there...

Cheers Mark

That would be correct, you could use this space for extra luggage, although when I go camping (with my Sundowner offroad camper) I will just use the flat floor, as with the passenger seats flat as well, there is heaps of space - but of course this is for my wife and myself. It feels a lot bigger than a series 2 and this is because of the new design and much larger interior. I think that there is more room in my wifes Forester with the seats down than in the TD5 series 2. I have had my grandkids sit in the rear seats of this series 3 and they are excellent. As far as off roading goes, I travel lots of gravel and do paddock work but not rock climbing. I will test it out in some really steep country on the Great Divide soon. The "dial up" for what ever conditions you are in definitely works at least on gravel. Also my car has air suspension and raisng this up and down is simple and good. I cannot speak too highly of the comfort and finish on this car. Drive one and you will see, oh and before all the pessimists on this site accuse me of being a dealer, not so. I bought my car because I happened to sell my TD5 HSE manual privately and this allowed me to lay the boot into about 5 dealers and I did a pretty good deal on a genuine April 2006 HSE. There are plenty of 05 models around, make sure if you buy that you get good value, be it 05 or 06.

I dont have one and by all accounts they sound great.
The only thing that I would be wary of is the suspension that wanted to deflate every time it copped extended periods of rough terrain in the 4WD Monthly road test. April/June isssue??
I think the lack of clearance in the rear end without the adjustable suspension option was also considered a weak point.

These may or not be problems for your intended purpose but for my kind of offroad trips,no thanks;)

Also August 06 edition of 4x4 Australia also does a comparison against 3 others in its class.

Hi Patrol_Driver, my wife has a SE V6 petrol D3 and it’s got unbelievable power considering they weigh in at 2.7t.

The D3 is our town car but we have already had a few long trips in it and although fuel consumption was expected to be much higher than my diesel Rangy, it is still getting around 12L/100kms which surprised us.

The Rangy is probably the largest 4x4 in it’s class on the market but the way they have designed the interior of the D3, it actually has more luggage space, with the rear and centre seats folded down than the Rangy does.

We have had a few occasions to have to carry 7 adults, including one off road trip with two 6 foot tall teenagers in the rear seats and everybody had heaps of leg and head room.

I’ve had a D1 and a D2 and other than the name, there is no comparison to the old models.

The D3 has the same wheel base length as the Rangy, so being longer than anything else does tend to give it a much MUCH smoother ride than anything else in it’s class.

We looked at the economics of a diesel over the petrol but with the extra grunt and the $8000 difference in price, plus the additional costs associated with servicing a diesel, it would have ( at the time of buying the D3 6 months ago ) taken 6 years before the petrol costs us more than the diesel. But each unto his own.

There is a lot more I could tell you about how good they are but it would take pages.

Cheers.

I visited a Land Rover dealership to day and had a good look around the Td6 SE model. I was most impressed! It had an impressive interior, well laid out and quite roomy. The only downside was the somewhat boxy shape (I know this is just my personal taste) and the big price tag. The dealer wanted $80k on road for the diesel SE, I find it hard to bring myself to part with $80k and then take the car into the Simpson and High Country!

Oh well, have to start looking at other (more affordable) options.

Price quoted to me for a D3 current model SE TDV6 was $69990 on road.
Lay the boot in! I bought my HSE for $19 grand under list price!

Patrol Driver, email me at robert@logicallivestock.com

Patrol_Driver, I also thought that that the D3 was too pricey. I was about to put my money down on a Prado Grande diesel at the time, to tow my new Tvan. I only drove the D3 to get the salesman off my back. I just couldn't believe what a great vehicle the D3TD is to drive, had it 12 months and done 25 000kms and I still smile everytime I drive it. The D3 is good value for money when you consider its features. I am still finding positive things that it will do.
Get 12.7L/10kms around town (stop start driving) 12.5 towing (Melbourne to Cape York and back last July/Aug) 9.7 to Noosa return in March (loaded, no van)
They did a software upgrade at the 24 000 service, even more power (feels like they added another couple of cylinders) plus better fuel economy. Off to Qld again in September so will report back.
Towed the Tvan into Camp Ck. below Mt. Speculation (Vic High Country) in January. The last 5 kms is like a rocky creek bed, bottomed once, (the tow bar really stufffs up the departure angle. A Prado and a Landcruiser 100, both with 50mm lift came in the next day, the Prado destroyed his sidesteps and they told me they had scraped and banged all the way in.
I drove out down "The Staicase" didn't touch once.
No Problems to date.
Have a test drive (and get the e-diff), Regards Steven