land rover discovery

[JonnyG]

Do like the look of these beast,and have been offered an 06 diesel with 90k on the clock.Not my normal type of vehicle but know it would make a fine towcar for towing our van,and its priced too good to not think about it seriously.
Are there forum members using similar aged or miles of this beast

 

[JTQ]

Similar age but much lower mileage 32K; as you say great towcar, well simply a great car. An 06 should get you the lower RFTax.

 

[MichaelE]

If you want an 06 plate with lower road fund licence make sure it was registered before 23 March 2006, after this you will be paying £450 a year with emissions of 244

 

[OmOnWeelz]

See my post under "Detachable Discovery Tow Hook". 2x Disco 3 and 1x Disco 4.
Lots of - nightmares, breakdowns, loan cars, waiting at road side, cruddy dealer support, dodgy software, solicitors letters + bills and there's more

Only a good buy if they work and keep working, and the towing ride isn't that brilliant either!
Would I bother, Nohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

 

[hgv dave]

hi
i use to own a landcrusier amazon and i sold it last year and now tow with a ford mondeo
last year i used price comparison sites to get motor insurance and this year ive been getting emails from these sites saying my insurance is due soon and as they still had the details for my old car i had a look at the prices
last year i paid £550 for fully comp...................this year the cheapest it would have been was £945
insurance is another cost to look at when buying a 4x4............i loved the amazon i use to own it was the best i have ever driven untill i got the mondeo which if a far better drive..........that aside im glad that i sold the 4x4 as i would now be struggling to keep it running with the road tax,fuel price and the inflated insurance
sorry ot be negative but insurance is another cost to concider

hgv dave

 

[otherclive]

Why not try a Sorento we had one for 7 years and it was faultless, wiith low servicing costs and good off road. Insurance fully comprehensive with full european cover £195pa, new Volvo X750 is more expensive at £223pa!!

 

[ProfAlGoogle]

Hi otherclive, is this a new hybrid model from Volvo Volvo X750, sort of a cross between a V70 and V50

Joking aside that is really cheap Insurance, who do you use? I pay over £400 for my V70 and thats with full n/c

Allan.

 

[MichaelE]

Insurance costs have gone through the roof,they went up 30% in December due the increase in claims due to the bad weather.
My 17 yr old nephew has just passed his test and his insurance is £3493 TPFT for a 98 plate 1.0 Nissan Micra

 

[otherclive]

Hi Cookieones, the XC70 is the new 205ps model and we insure our cars via LV=, with protected NCB. We are both insured for the cars, but no one else on the ploicy, and the main tow car ( ex Sorento now XC70) we limit to 10k miles per year for insurance purposes and generally stay within that limit, Although one year it loked as if we might go over during the last 3 months so just rang up the company and they said 'Okay' with no increase. The XC70 has just been insured so that is 'today's' cost to us.

Cheers

 

[NigelHutson]

I can confirm that the D3 is an excellent tow vehicle. It wasn't Practical Caravan's class winner for two years without reason, and pushed the XC60 all the way on the third. Then the D4 came along, and at the time of testing last year, there was only the Range Rover Sport that got close. There are many good vehicles out there, and also some popular ones that are quite frankly, awful. The flaws really show up when they're tested back to back.
However. The D3 is an expensive vehicle to buy, and also to maintain. Whilst they don't enjoy the best reputation for reliability, there are thousands of people out there who are very happy (same with any make really, it's just that we like to have a go at our own, and believe the PR blurb of others). What you have to consider is why is it cheap? The next thing is that it's next service will be expensive as the timing belt and rear of engine drive belts are changed at 105,000 miles (15,000 mile/12 month intervals), and £750 would appear to be about average from LR stealers.
I speak from the experience of owning one. As an all-round practical vehicle there's very little to touch them (towing ability, seven seats if needed, VERY refined ride and noise supression, space for carting junk about, etc, etc), but having had my share of issues (EGR valves, suspension compressor, and turbo) it's not been the most reliable vehicle I've owned. However it's replacing it with something that ticks half the boxes which is the problem. (I don't fancy a Toyobishi Santasorento X-Toureg CRX5XC6/90 thank you)

 

[Carwyn]

Jonny - I owned an 06 model year Disco3 for three years and would concur with Nigel's views above. There's lots of things to look out for such as EGR valves, electronic park brake and suspension bushes. A most excellent forum to look at is disco3.co.uk. . I've bought a Discovery 4 now as nothing else was ever going to be so capable, the Disco 3/4 is a tremendous all rounder despite the running costs and issues.

 

[mcghee]

Hi Johnny. A member of my family has used Discoverys since the very first model on a G-plate. He buys a new one every 2nd or 3rd year, because he can. He had 2 D3s and now a D4. My point is that just before he replaced the last one, which had done only 13000 miles, he asked how much it would be to extend the LR warranty for the 4th year. £1200 is the answer. Now, if LR want £1200 to extend the warranty on a 3 year old car with one years' mileage it doesn't really say much for their confidence in their vehicles.

Has he had any problems with them? Yes, every single one. The £52000 car he has now with less than 1000 miles on the clock has been back to the dealer's twice already. Why does he keep buying them? Who knows.

 

[Wendy-Norfolk]

We've had our trusty D3 for nearly five years, bought it at a year old, it's now done 110,000 miles and it runs like a dream. Yes, it's expensive to run and maintain, but it's been reliable and tows our 1900kg 'van with no problems at all - it does what it says on the tin!

OH now saving his pennies up to buy a D4!

 

[emmerson]

Thanks for that Wendy. There are an awful lot of people like you and me out there who've run various Land Rovers for many years and had no problems at all. The trouble is that they are such high-profile vehicles that when they do have problems, these are generally blown up out of all proportion to the number of Land Rovers on the road which give exemplary service. It's the old story - good news ain't good news!

 

[OmOnWeelz]

Thanks for that Wendy. There are an awful lot of people like you and me out there who've run various Land Rovers for many years and had no problems at all. The trouble is that they are such high-profile vehicles that when they do have problems, these are generally blown up out of all proportion to the number of Land Rovers on the road which give exemplary service. It's the old story - good news ain't good news!

Let's us not miss lead potential owners. There are a huge ammount of dissatisfied Landrover owners compared to "an awful lot of people like you and me". Landrovers have bottomed out on reliability and and hire and lease car reliability surveys for years. They have also had a terrible reputation in overseas markets.
My wife and I have had a wide variety of cars and tow cars over the years, some have been brilliant reliability wise and we've had a few issues and had to go back to garages and dealers.
None of other cars brought us the trouble, upset and heartache of owning 3 Discoveries. No other dealer network has been so bad and uncaring and up themselves.
We've had our driving style of car ownership and driving criticised by dealrs and a few Landrover geeks. We've always got good mileage from tyres on other cars and top end MPG from a variety of models and we've never broken cars. So why would our 3 rugged off roaders be any different.
I always fancied having a Range Rover from the day I saw ine of the first pre production models around 40 years ago. I've had more than my fare share of Landrover experiences through out my working career. Never was it a brillliant brand and never was it reliable!
The 'new' Disco 3 was a 'different' car. I'd always fancied a Disco as a caravanner and found myself in the position financially of being abe to afford one. We'd spoken with some entusiastic owners whilst on holiday and plumped for nicely loaded model. From day 1 we had problems. Leaks, gear box, transmission, software, engine radio, central locking and breakdowns and failure to start and electrical problems.
We've not had problems dealing with car dealership staff in the past and I've dealt with car dealers during my working years, ranging from old day Skoda dealers to Bentley - Rolls, Ferrari and Aston Martin dealers. So I take acception to being told that our approach and attitude towards the dealers could have been wrong.
We went further a field so as to get a dealer with staff we liked, traded the troublesome 3 for a brand spanking new one. Well your not going to gave the same probllems twice are you. WRONG, not only the same but worse, the saleman and technical guy we'd liked and got on with soon left as they'd had enough of Landrover problems. Part from our cars problems the whole Landrover experience was very poor and we had problems with Landrover loan cars.
Then came along the sooper dooper Disco 4 with the newer engine. After a lot of double talk and round the houses wheeler dealing we scured a 1/4 decent trade in price for our sad 3 and were given a loan car until our new 4 came. Of course the low mieage loan car failled to start and had susoension problems. But all hail the Disco 4. Stood in our drive way in the sun afer driving it home it looked a real gem, even our neighbour stopped to admire it, it would have been nice to have taken himand his wife for a drive in it. but we were awaiting the dealers breakdown crew, it wouldn't start. We went on holiday late Juy in a Disc 3 as the 4 was yet again in the dealers. I can't say much more as I secured a full refund on the heap of _____

"Only a good buy if they work and keep working, and the towing ride isn't that brilliant either!"
I will also say that MPG figures are somebody at LR's idea of a joke. I could get good MPG from my old battered M Class and other cars. Never managed to get anywhere near Landrover's figures in any of the 3 Disco's. Somebody please explain how we've not had the same problem with other cars. Landrover dealers came out with a load of 'bull' and 'hot air'
A mate recently bought his first Range Rover, £90000 +, problems in the first week. 10mpg and less a lot of the time, average published as 19mpg and that's not happened. He wants rid already. My best friend tows his caravan with a 2009 Range Rover, seeing 2.8 mpg on the read out and being able to watch the fuel go down is quite a daunting expeience he says apart from the gremlins.

 

[NigelHutson]

"I will also say that MPG figures are somebody at LR's idea of a joke. I could get good MPG from my old battered M Class and other cars. Never managed to get anywhere near Landrover's figures in any of the 3 Disco's. Somebody please explain how we've not had the same problem with other cars. Landrover dealers came out with a load of 'bull' and 'hot air'"
And yet I've averaged just over 30 MPG in my D3 over the two years I've owned it, excluding towing which usually averages 21/22 MPG (best 25) - 1500 kgs caravan. I do not sit all day on motorways at 50 MPH either. The fuel consumption is worked out brim to brim method, not using the always optomistic computer, so for something that weigh getting on for three tonnes, I don't consider that to be bad.
I think most Stealers are full of 'bull and hot air', and many are clueless about the product. I've also had many years experience with lots of different makes. Whilst not defending LR in any way, (they do need to get their act together, but sadly they can sell all they can produce, so I suspect they'll continue in the same cavalier way) but we endured two Mercedes ML 270's at work for a while. You think the LR's are bad?????
With regards to reliability surveys, could it be that LR owners are perhaps more honest than certain other marques? I don't know. However, I've completed several and been totally honest (so won't have helped LR league standings), but a work colleague of mine recently traded in a fairly new BMW 3-Series for a new Mercedes C-Class. It's amazing to hear him talk. When he owned the BMW it really was the dog's danglies, but not he's always talking about "what a pile of s**t that was. Always going wrong", and how fantastic the Mercedes is. Strange.
On the question of warranties. Any extended warranty is an insurance policy (not provided directly by the Manufacturer), and as the D3 is an expensive and complex vehicle, the cost will reflect that. I'm sure that any similar vehicle (expensive and complex, not necessarily off-road 4X4) will cost as much to extend the warranty. However, I bought an extended warranty that was actually much better than the LR one, but cost half as much.

 

[Wendy-Norfolk]

Thanks for that Wendy. There are an awful lot of people like you and me out there who've run various Land Rovers for many years and had no problems at all. The trouble is that they are such high-profile vehicles that when they do have problems, these are generally blown up out of all proportion to the number of Land Rovers on the road which give exemplary service. It's the old story - good news ain't good news!

Let's us not miss lead potential owners. There are a huge ammount of dissatisfied Landrover owners compared to "an awful lot of people like you and me". Landrovers have bottomed out on reliability and and hire and lease car reliability surveys for years. They have also had a terrible reputation in overseas markets.

Nobody is trying to mislead any potential owners Om, there are more satisfied LR owners (geeks if you like) than not, it's just those that aren't, shout the loudest IMO. It's the same with anything, go out and buy a fridge and it could be a piece of cack, on the other hand it might be the dogs do dahs - you pays yer money, you takes yer choice!
Anyway, we've been over the fores and against the good old LR on this forum umpteen times, quite frankly, it gets a bit boring!!

 

[OmOnWeelz]

Nobody is trying to mislead any potential owners Om, there are more satisfied LR owners (geeks if you like) than not, it's just those that aren't, shout the loudest IMO. It's the same with anything, go out and buy a fridge and it could be a piece of cack, on the other hand it might be the dogs do dahs - you pays yer money, you takes yer choice!
Anyway, we've been over the fores and against the good old LR on this forum umpteen times, quite frankly, it gets a bit boring!!

I would disput that there are more satisfied LR owners than satsfied ones, your only satisfied until the problems start in most cases. And amny thousands have been releived to get shot of a dodgy disco or defender. Many people are just Land Rover owners but ome are just Geeks, some just live n die LR and some live n die LR and put up with the grief the cars have given them. Others like us give the cars a fair crack or two and still get _____on.
I lve the idea of buying a fridge that's cack, as with a fridge the fact is they give you a new one. We bought a new Cannon cooker 3 months ago and a knob for one of the hob rings went wrong. We called Cannon and they were faultless in assessing over the phone what had gone wrong and sent an engineer with a complete switch assembly in case something inside the coojker was wrong. The engineer noticed that the cooker had been scratched on the side and they supplied a new one.
LAND ROVER please take note! My mothers fridge went phut after a couple of years and she got a brand new lates model as her was no longer in production.
It may be vry boring for you Wendy-Norfolk, but so is stting around in a broken down car, so is getting hme in you new pride and enjy only to find iit will not start and hour later. It's also boring spending hours argueing with dealers and haviing their loan LR break down. It's also boring not sleeping when a thousand plus miles from home knowing that you LR is going to break down as for 4th time as it is showing the same problem that has it off the road for weeks (it did). And it gets very boring and tedious fighting ofr service and a good car and regularly trading LR problems and woes with other owners.
Apart from the boredom you may like to consider the expense of LR ownership when they go wrong. Even after getting a full price for our Disco 4 the problems cost us several thousand pounds in a few moths last year. We've also estimated that three Discos cost us over £20000 due the problems and thats without the depreciation. Playing gamesmanship with dealers and solicitors is also very boring.
When buying a car, our idea is that it will be fit to use for about 365 days a year 24/7 if needed apart frm when in for servicing. If one Disco spends more time of the road than both all of my wife and mines other cars since we were teenager, that's also pretty darn boring. When you buy a second that is even worse and then gat the new 4 versionnwith a diferent engine and that fails I'm very bored dear

Try telling my mate with his £900000+ Rangie that he's boring because he has compalined that his new car has problems the first week he gets it. Comparing fridges to cars would be fine if they uplifted crappy Land Rovers and gave you a new one that worked. Even then after spending 40k plus on a LR you should get something that is always pretty faultless for at least a couple of years and not have it spending time in a dealer being tweaked on a PC or whatever

 

[OmOnWeelz]

Nobody is trying to mislead any potential owners Om, there are more satisfied LR owners (geeks if you like) than not, it's just those that aren't, shout the loudest IMO. It's the same with anything, go out and buy a fridge and it could be a piece of cack, on the other hand it might be the dogs do dahs - you pays yer money, you takes yer choice!
Anyway, we've been over the fores and against the good old LR on this forum umpteen times, quite frankly, it gets a bit boring!!

I would dispute that there are more satisfied LR owners than satsfied ones, your only satisfied until the problems start in most cases. And many thousands have been relieved to get shot of a dodgy disco or defender. Many people are just Land Rover owners but some are just Geeks, some just live n die LR and some live n die LR and put up with the grief the cars have given them. Others like us give the cars a fair crack or two and still get _____on.
I like the idea of buying a fridge that's cack, as with a fridge the fact is they give you a new one. We bought a new Cannon cooker 3 months ago and a knob for one of the hob rings went wrong. We called Cannon and they were faultless in assessing over the phone what had gone wrong and sent an engineer with a complete switch assembly in case something inside the coojker was wrong. The engineer noticed that the cooker had been scratched on the side and they supplied a new one without us even asking.
LAND ROVER please take note!
When my mothers fridge went phut after a couple of years, she got a brand new latest model replacement as hers was no longer in production.
It may be very boring for you Wendy-Norfolk, but so is stting around in a broken down car, so is getting home in you new pride and joy only to find it will not start an hour later. It's also boring spending hours arguing with dealers and haviing their loan LR break down. It's also boring not sleeping when more than a thousand miles from home knowing that you LR is going to break down for 4th time as it is showing the same problem that has had it off the road for weeks (it did). And it gets very boring and tedious fighting for service and a good car and regularly trading LR problems and woes with other owners.
Apart from the boredom you may like to consider the expense of LR ownership when they go wrong. Even after getting a full price for our Disco 4 the problems cost us several thousand pounds in a few moths last year. We've also estimated that three Discos cost us over £20000 due the problems and thats without the depreciation. Playing gamesmanship with dealers and solicitors is also very boring.
When buying a car, our idea is that it will be fit to use for about 365 days a year 24/7 if needed apart frm when in for servicing. If one Disco spends more time off the road than both all of my wife and mines other cars since we were teenagers, that's also pretty darn boring. When you buy a second that is even worse and then get a new 4 versionn with a diferent engine and that fails I'm very bored dear

Try telling my mate with his £900000+ Rangie that he's boring because he has compalined that his new car has problems the first week he gets it. Comparing fridges to cars would be fine if they uplifted crappy Land Rovers and gave you a new one that worked. Even then after spending 40k plus on a LR you should get something that is always pretty faultless for at least a couple of years and not have it spending time in a dealer being tweaked on a PC or whatever

If your lucky you may get a Disco 4 that is fine, if you get the sort of experience we had with ours I hope you enjoy the boredom, grief and have plenty of spare money in hand to pay solicitors .

 

[ChrisUK]

I see that the LR / Jag group have just announced record profits, £1 bill I recall. I live not too far from the factory, and an ex insider told me that they can sell all the LRs they can produce, so max production is the rule, where as for Jags they have not sold so well in the recent past and most problems have been sorted. In most reliability tables Jag come near the top, and LR holds up the base.
At my last car change I drove a Freelander 2 demo car, unbelievably it had doggey brakes!

 

[Wendy-Norfolk]

Look OmOnWeelz, you may have had a bum deal from LR, but that doesn't mean to say that every other person who ever purchased one has as well. Isn't it strange, somebody buys one, and they always have a mate who bought one, and his was crap as well, what a coincidence!!
Just because you have had a bad experience with your vehicle shouldn't have any bearing, or dissuade anybody else from buying one, it's their choice. I'm not going spout on this forum the virtues of LR ownership, because I don't have to and wouldn't dream of doing so. If somebody asks me for my opinion - would I buy one, then in my experience, it would be yes- end of!

 

[OmOnWeelz]

Look OmOnWeelz, you may have had a bum deal from LR, but that doesn't mean to say that every other person who ever purchased one has as well. Isn't it strange, somebody buys one, and they always have a mate who bought one, and his was crap as well, what a coincidence!!
Just because you have had a bad experience with your vehicle shouldn't have any bearing, or dissuade anybody else from buying one, it's their choice. I'm not going spout on this forum the virtues of LR ownership, because I don't have to and wouldn't dream of doing so. If somebody asks me for my opinion - would I buy one, then in my experience, it would be yes- end of!

Wendy you make the same mistake as many Land Rover afficianado's. We have not had "a bum deal from LR". we've had lot's of bum deals from them and 3 bum cars. 'A' bum deal wuld have been ok from one marque, when you've clocked up dozens of bum deals from one marque something is wrong I can assure you.
At the moment I'm using an Audi, until we get our new BMW, my daughter has an Audi and a few others I know have Audi's. We have two friends/pals/mates/associates/chums ( the problem is?) with current expensive Land Rovers less than a year old with problems,2 different Range Rovers in different parts of the UK with poor dealer response. Plus friends and family who have abandoned Land Rovers and we still went and bought one because I alaways wanted one and ignored all the previous reliability woes as the Disco 3 was a new animal.
All we can say is that our experience of 2 Disco 3 and a 4 was not good, due to the problems we encountered we spoke with and contacted others and were put in touch with others with problem cars, or the LR dealers just walk all over you and getting to the truth about problems and reliability is never going to come out of the dealers mouths.
At the end of the day Wendy you are one person. It is proven fact that Land Rovers have a very bad reliability history and that current Disco Models and others still have many problems and many dealers need a kick towards reality and customer is king thinking.
"Buyer beware"

 

[Oldsalt49]

Chris,
In you pathetic rant about the failings of the Land Rovers that you have had owned, you fail to explain why you had 3 Discovery's. Surely anyone with an iota of sanity would have stopped at the first one. I hope you don't have problems with the 3 Merc's that you will be buying? You obviously have not done your market research on that brand either?

 

[Dustydog]

A reasonably good guide line must be sources such as the JD Power Survey.
Last year they placed the Disco "Worst in class" 2 out of 5 stars and 74th overall.
Previous years surveys tell the same stories. They can't all be wrong.
A friend had one for two years and he had no end of problems. The rear n/s red light must have failed at least six times. Never found out why.
I have to assume these surveys by the so called motoring press are carried out with some intelligence and as a guide do give some indication of the truth.

 

[Wendy-Norfolk]

Look OmOnWeelz, you may have had a bum deal from LR, but that doesn't mean to say that every other person who ever purchased one has as well. Isn't it strange, somebody buys one, and they always have a mate who bought one, and his was crap as well, what a coincidence!!
Just because you have had a bad experience with your vehicle shouldn't have any bearing, or dissuade anybody else from buying one, it's their choice. I'm not going spout on this forum the virtues of LR ownership, because I don't have to and wouldn't dream of doing so. If somebody asks me for my opinion - would I buy one, then in my experience, it would be yes- end of!

Wendy you make the same mistake as many Land Rover afficianado's. We have not had "a bum deal from LR". we've had lot's of bum deals from them and 3 bum cars. 'A' bum deal wuld have been ok from one marque, when you've clocked up dozens of bum deals from one marque something is wrong I can assure you.
.
"Buyer beware"

FYI OmOnWeelz, I don't profess to be a LR aficionado - I don't care what vehicle we have as long as it does what we want!

Why make the mistake of buying three Discoverys if they were that bad, why didn't you draw a line under the first one?!
You were asking for trouble IMO!!