Fat Felix

I've been browsing around for a little adventure vehicle, one that I can take to do some mild off roading, camping, zombie escaping, etc. I also wanted to take advantage of the current trend of everyone dumping their trucks and suv's. There's a ton of Land Rover Discoveries that are listed for about $3,000 (right around my price range with some room to do repairs/maintenance/upgrades).. most of them being model year 95-97.

I've read some reviews about them, and they seem to have quite a bit of recalls and fluid leaks, but nothing else really major. I'm also aware that parts for Land Rovers are "expensive", but are they BMW expensive or more?

I always see Land Rovers in crazy safari's in Africa and stuff, so I didn't think they can suck that bad, but I want to get your opinions if you have any first or second hand experience..

PhilipMSPT

iTrader: (5)

Here's the deal:

Land Rovers are poorly reliable. They will have issues, and although not major, such issues will still be expensive to repair due to rarity and exclusivity.

At least for BMW, there is a wider range of dealer and out-of-dealer services that can handle almost all situations, and a greater range of vehicles offered. For Land Rover, the service community is much smaller and more exclusive. To find parts, and to service such parts, it will cost significantly more than any other luxury marque.

Put it this way: if you know how much it costs to maintain a Jaguar or a Porsche, then you get an idea of how much it costs to maintain a Land Rover. They are all more expensive than BMW or Mercedes or other similar marques.

Zephyr

iTrader: (1)

Imagine a Land Rover as a 944 Porsche ....only higher height wise... and if you don't know what that means, the 944 was considered the "poor man's Porsche" because the maintenance required made the owner poor.

valgs350

iTrader: (1)

I used to do alot of off-roading with Land Rover owners and they are great cars if you maintain them. I really can't say anything bad about them, never saw one break except one did over heat in Joshua Tree, it was a Land Rover Defender.

The parts are super expensive and Toyota is expensive also for the LX470/Land Cruiser but Land Rover takes the cake, over $1500 for a new diff without install, lol

Great cars, really can't say anything bad about them!

I was going to sell my LX470 and get a 2005 Subaru WRX STI but I think I will keep it just incase the big one strikes California!

OneJay

iTrader: (14)

My dad has a 94 Defender which I think is a GREAT car, despite replacement parts being expensive. It drives great, and does even better off road. The Discoveries share many of the components with the Defender and I'm sure that they drive very similarly as well. They are very nice inside as well as they were designed with comfort in mind. I was considering picking up a Discovery in the next few years as well to keep in Colorado as my "winter" car.
Here are a couple of pics of the Defender. I say if you have the money, pick up one of these. You can find one in good shape for about 25k.

RXGS

iTrader: (2)

go for it and yes look at it like a 944,to maintain it, it may be expensive, depending on where you take it, but it will be worth it and give you a well running machine, and 944 aren't all that unreliable well the n/a later models aren't at least from those i have talked to

luxury1

We have a lot of people on the Range Rover forum that are talking about buying a used Range Rover. I would advise you NOT to get it!

If your price range is $3,000 then you will not be able to afford the repairs that will blow your mind and budget. Everything is expensive with Land Rover. From tires (mine lasted ~10,000 miles) to brakes (23,000 miles) to all the repairs. This will rock your budget.

Go with an old Toyota Land Cruiser or something similar and you will be much happier (especially financially).

With that said, I love Land Rover and will own one for the rest of my life but I am willing to pay the high bills for my hobby.

herbvdh

What was the small SUV they came out with briefly. I remember major issues with them. The biggest was the engine would seize up. IMHO not acceptable. They dropped this from production very quietly.

luxury1

I think you are referring to the Freelander.

LexusChris

iTrader: (1)

I think the maintance on the Land Rover will cost more than the car in a long run.

Fat Felix

damn.. so sticking with a toyota product it is then..

UberNoob

Defender is great
discovery II, not so much in terms of reliability and such

i think u should look into an FJ Cruiser
or GX470

GX470 is quite a capable off-roader too

yusef

We got a 97 Land Rover Discovery, i love that thing. its been really reliable and good to us so far. we dont do alot of offroad driving, so i cant say anything about that. but its a great car overall, we havent done any major repairs to anything, just the usual servicing. imo its an amazing car

mmarshall

If the Range Rover could just get the well-known reliability problems under control (not all Land-Rover owners will have problems, but its reliability record is clearly well-below average), it would be one of the finest-performing, sophisticated, refined, most versatile off-roaders on the planet.....better, in some ways, than the Toyota Land Cruiser/Lexus LX570 and Mercedes Gelandewagon, though the old G-Wagon has the body structure of a tank.

But, unfortunately, with almost any British-designed vehicle, even if it is owned by a non-British company, goes the likelihood of worse-than-average reliability. That just seems to be a fact of life, although Jaguar, under Ford ownership, did seem to improve briefly in the 1990's, just to slip back down again.

lfeharri

I have a 1998 Landcruiser and a 2008 Range Rover Supercharged. Don't get me wrong, the Range Rover is beautiful inside and out, super quiet inside, and great ride. Took it off roading once with a few folks from the dealership and it handled those rocks/sand/everything with ease. As far as the maintanance and everything, the car was a little bit under 100,000$, and the maintanance was not be cheap. Something went wrong with my trunk (4 months after having the car), and it took them around 1-2 weeks to get the parts and have it fixed. As far as the landcruiser goes, other than the scheduled maintanance.. I've had 0 problems in the past 10 years. Honestly, if you had just 3k to spend, I would go with a used landcruiser or a used lx.