Which Land Rover?

[Grayfox]

I know this may have been done to death but...

...later this year I am planning on buying an off road vehicle. Despite all the negative stuff out there I'm still hankering after a Land Rover.
Either a Defender or a Disco new or used.

I would be interested to hear anyone's comments on these two vehicles, positive and negative, and any general 4X4 comments which would be relevant.

I shall now don my tin hat and retire to my bunker!!

 

[pastymuncher]

What do you want to do with it?????

 

[Chambers]

Im in the same boat and Im going to go for a Disco for a two main reason, they are great off road and have comforts too

Defenders look so cool its unreal and I would love a 90 but driving one for a few hours on the motorway etc and they are so loud.

Of course if its not going to be your everyday car then it could be a completely different situation

 

[Retired Member southey]

Have you looked at Jeep unlimited diesel chap? Comfy and quiet and very good off road.

 

[spoony]

One of these

 

[nuggets]

defender all the way !!

 

[vizsla]

iv had both mate plus a few others, id choose a defender everytime but it depends how much youv got to spend, a couple of grand will get you a 300tdi disco with mot and in good nick but but for a similar spec defender you will need double.
dont rule out turbo diesel(non injection) defenders you pick up chjeap and as long as belts changed and serviced etc they dont feel that much diferent to a tdi but half the price i had one quite a while and it neva broke down once and was awsome off road.
cheers ash

 

[sandbender]

defender all the way !!

Another vote for the Defender, great pics Nuggets.

 

[Grayfox]

I just love the defender but the Disco looks like it might be a better option. It will probably work out about 60% road work and 30% off road or hauling.
Is there much difference between the two in terms of off-road capability and what are people's experiences of the oft repeated reliability problems. My experience of cars is that they can all be unreliuable if not looked after and serviced regularly.

 

[Grayfox]

That should have read 40% off road

 

[JDO330]

If your going for a new one dont worry too much about reliability as you will have a 3 year warranty, granted its a pain to keep having to use it but at least you have peace of mind. I was in a similar position in Dec 09, really wanted a Land Rover but was worried about reliability so opted for a 9 month old Discovery 3 and to be honest, I love it! Likewise (im touching wood now!) its been really reliable as well, its great on the motorway (better than I expected actually), has proved to be capable in the snow and ice and generally gives you a feeling of being very safe. The down side is running cost, £435 tax, £480 for a second service, £750 for 4 tyres, 30 mpg economy etc, etc. I also really like the 110's but for me I dont need (arguably) improved off road ability, my vehicle is used mainly on road.

Having said all the above, if I was buying an off road play thing, I would go Japanese every time. From my experience old LR's that are used extensively off road need a lot of TLC whereas the Jap 4x4's tend to need significantly less.

Regards, Jon.

 

[vizsla]

in my experiance, off road a defender with decent tyes is pretty much unstopable due to being higher better aproach an departure angles, alot lighter and smaller if 90, when i had mine, many a time i looked at a big mud bath or steep muddy climb and thought do i bother or not but when i did it very rarely even lost traction.
discos are also very good off road but id recomend at least all terain tyres because they can get bogged down in mud due to there wait and are a bugger to get out, the trick is to use the wait for momentem and keep going, a few times i stopped for a moment to check somthing and then had to work hard to get going again but i only had general grabber tyres on mine which soon become slicks with mud in the tread.
im probably being alittle nagative to the disco because they are brilliant but theres always going to be negatives when your comparing to a defender off road.
discos are very good at towing very comfy too and theres alot of parts available now cheap.
your right about reliabilty it comes down to being looked after properly belt changes are a must or can cost a fortune. gearbox wine is worth keeping an eye out for on 300 tdis. always check for signs of head gaskets going or close. rot will always be a problem because people keep landrovers on the roads alot longer than other cars but dont always look after with wax oil.
obvious places to check on defenders are chassis, bulkhead, doors botoms, rear crossmember.
discos, boot floor,sills chassis.
hope that helps
ash

 

[pastymuncher]

O.K. 60/40 road offroad
When offroading are you greenlaning, farmwork or pay and playing?
What budget?
Do you do your own maintenance?
How many people/ load do you expect to carry?
What mileage do you expect to do?
Does fuel cost matter?

 

[nuggets]

for comfort and motorway miles go for the disco, it has a better ratio on the transfer box than the defender - the older disco`s have a reputation of attracting rust - boot floor -cills - wing arches etc - But for offroad `abuse` it has to be a defender !!

and touch wood - my TD5 engine ain,t give me any bother in 3 years !!!

 

[Peter_t]

if you want a working vehicle a defender is better. toyotas don't need so much maintenance to keep them running but they cannot take so much abuse. you can overload a land rover and things will be ok but i have heard of people bending chassis of jap 4x4s. of course you shouldn't overload any vehicle but its good to know that it can take a little more.

not sure but defenders will probably be easier to fix. whether or not a defender is better off road I don’t know, it is probably marginal. things like tyres make a big difference and probably the biggest factor being the driver! no matter what your driving if you act like an idiot or don’t know what your doing you won’t get where you want to.

tyres don’t have to be expensive, a friend of mine got a pair of Goodyear G90s for £50 each. ok they are a little noisy on the road but the army uses them so they can’t be bad and he rates them.

one thing with land rovers is that you NEED to have some mechanical know how and should be prepared to do repairs. parts are dirt cheep but labour at a garage will be the same as any other which is where things will get expensive.



Pete

 

[Grayfox]

My plans are not that well formulated yet. At the moment the plan is to buy an area of woodland and manage it as a 'nature reserve' for photography, bushcraft and perhaps school visits. I would want a vehicle that would help me with all that some greenlaning general stuff up here, especially after the last two winters and escapeds like this week when I had to drag some tit out of a mud bath he'd managed to drive into. My first thought when I saw him was. 'wish I'd got the defender' plus camping/caravanning haulage. At the moment I'm thinking of two possible transport options.
1 have one dual rurpose vehicle that would off road and haul and yet be a good long distance vehicle. That would be a new Disco

or 2

Buy a new car and a second hand Defender. When you take into account tax and insurance the yearly running costs of each my not be that different from each other. (That's just a guess though, I haven't done the sums.)

 

[spiritwalker]

you can pick up a japanese import pajero (shogun) that will do you needs for less than 2k and get yourself an economical road car for your 60%. I had a shogun pinnin for a while and it easily went off road and was comfy on the road. Road tax was £280 30mpg and a full set of tyres was £250.

 

[woodspirits]

having had the 2a, 3, 90 and 110 guess im going to say landrover defender!
a good one well looked after can be expensive though, unless your buying new? either way a lot of pedigree for your money, its a marmite thing

 

[Peter_t]

i wouldn't buy one new as they are now made in india and the quality is questionable. also the new defenders don't have the bench seat in the front or the inward facing seets in the back like the old ones because of some BS EU standard. this is rediculos as a 90 now only has 4 seats instead of 7! for a car that size i think thats pretty poor.


i would definatly go with option 2.

also i couldn't drive any brand new car off foad in case i scratch it


pete

 

[lou1661]

i wouldn't buy one new as they are now made in india and the quality is questionable

from the Land Rover website "Land Rover manufactures Defender, Discovery 4, Range Rover Sport and Range Rover at the Solihull factory"

new defenders don't have the bench seat in the front

Have you ever sat in the center seat of a defender, one leg wedged between the gearbox tunnel and the handbrake, getting hit where you dont want to be every gear change, and only a lap belt, thank god they got rid of them!

BS EU standard
Im not sure that i would call passenger survivability BS?