Land Rover Discovery V8

[Rocketman105]

A 14 year old V8 Land Rover. In the desert. Where it's 50 degrees in summer, dusty all year round and the local Land Rover dealer asks you to buy parts for them from the UK as it's cheaper than doing it themselves.

On that assessment you would be forgiven for thinking this is possibly a recipe for utter disaster. You might be right. I'm hoping with every finger crossed that things will be 'okay'.

My previous Saudi car was a SEAT Leon Cupra. I truly rapid car but possibly the only one in KSA. Hence problems with parts down the line and the fact you stick out like an elephant at an ostrich only party. Add to this the low driving position on roads filled with SUVs and you end up looking around for a replacement.

Another European car with poor dealer network and worse reliability would be the obvious choice....

Here it is:

[rumple]

Like it, top car, laughed at what you said about the dealers though, good luck with it.

[anomaly]

At least it shouldn't rust too much in the desert;)
I like it though and so much more interesting with a V8.

[wackydo]

And I guess that fuel costs are not a concern.

[Rocketman105]

The two main reasons for not getting one of these in the UK are probably rust and fuel economy. Out here neither are an issue

I love the V8, it's my first and hopefully not my last!

[TomV8]

Bit of an update on the Land Rover...especially since I last posted a 1994 version of the venerable old V8 has been featured as a SOTW! Mine hardly fits under the SOTW header for the price, even if it does fit every other category very well!

With a mate's Trailblazer



Managed to get it into the desert a while back and it performed admirably, the only issue being the constant collapsing of the headlining with the vibration from driving on an old sea bed and the fact that the hazard lights inexplicably came on and stayed on. For about 10km. Eventually I pulled out every possible fuse and left it alone for a bit. Stuck all the fuses back in and the lights didn't come back on...

(constant and unidentifiable oil leak not visible in this photo)



We were visiting this place:



It's quite incredible that this is fairly close to Riyadh, which isn't 'quite' as picturesque.

Gave it a bit of a clean and wax the other day and it literally looked exactly the same, despite a good couple of hours effort!





So far ownership has involved changing an exhaust gasket, a service, sticking various bits back on that had fallen off or broken (quite a few) and replacing the expansion tank (which has just blown again today, argh). 15mpg and 10p a litre makes lots of other problems seem a little insignificant though!

It makes a change from my other car...

[8cylinder]

Damm that disco looks clean.

[bob1179]

Back in the early 90's we were living in the UAE and my dad had a V8 Auto Discovery too (in white, though ours had some blue stickers).

It seemed to do the job quite well, though I remember the rear air-con unit situated between the front seats always drained onto the carpet rather then down the pipe outside!

I'm glad to see you are enjoying it!