SOTW: Land Rover Discovery V8
Shed gets its Disco on. Flared jumpsuit optional
But the Disco was a hugely important car for Land Rover. It created the brand (before the Discovery Land Rover was just a model name), it helped to bridge the ever-widening gap between the workhorse Defender and the luxo-4x4 Range Rover, and it gave the Rover group something to counter the encroaching Japanese 4x4s.
Underneath, the Discovery was in fact largely based on the Range Rover; it used its big brother's ladder-frame chassis, and even the venerable Rover V8 (although Rover was initially reluctant to give the Discovery the Range Rover's fuel injection).
It all worked pretty well - getting positive reviews in the press and selling in big numbers. These days, cheap Series 1 Discoveries are generally a bit tatty, a victim of either a life as a family workhorse, or as a recreational mud-plugger. This one looks like it might have seen service as the former, especially as it's the seven-seat version. It looks pretty tidy, however, with a reasonable 93,000 miles on the clock.
At £695 we can't think of another car that might pull-off the near-Rangie kudos and big V8 combination. Except for an actual Range Rover. But what to do with it? Well, you could stick in an LPG conversion and keep it as a load-lugging family car, or you could jack the suspension, lob on some knobbly tyres and a snorkel, and go off-roading. Gripped, sorted, etc...
Advert is reproduced below
1994 Land Rover Discovery 4.0 V8i Adventurer 7 Seat 5dr Sw, £695
1994 (04 reg)4x493,000 milesManual4.0LPetrol
5 Door Estate, Petrol, auto Air conditioning,p/ a/s Passenger airbag, Roof rails Adjustable cloth seats,cd player mot august 2012 tax may 2012 ideal off roading vehicle px to clear but may px. £695
They have one daily driver which seems to run and another two discos on their driveway slowly rotting away. I'm sure you could put your hand through the rust on one of them that also seems to have collapsed suspention.
I'm tempted to set them on fire so they get moved away :-)
Not my cup of tea but still better than last weeks SOTW.
Was thinking the same, but didn't want to risk incurring beard-wrath in case I was wrong.
Been looking at these for a while, wondering if I should swap my Series III for one. It'll be OK as long as it doesn't make any nasty noises and isn't too rusty.
The 300 Series also bought a new interior (far inferior to the original IMO), different door handles, mirrors, headlights, front grill, indicators, axles and gearbox. Along with the 300 Tdi over the 200 Tdi.
Was thinking the same, but didn't want to risk incurring beard-wrath in case I was wrong.
Been looking at these for a while, wondering if I should swap my Series III for one. It'll be OK as long as it doesn't make any nasty noises and isn't too rusty.
Its one of those things, if you didnt have to bother with insurance I'd have something like that in a heartbeat along side my existing car. Its just the £500 - £800 (I suspect at least) cost of insurance which just makes it un-justifyable!
Cant believe i've found a picture of the old girl! It was quite nice back in the day!
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