RE: Shed of the week: Land Rover Discovery V8
Discussion
tomsugden said:
How has shed managed to look up the MOT history when the number plate is obscured?
She’s being an admin has used the data put into the system when creating the advert! It’s not displayed to us. Pretty sure that’s the automotive equivalent of sharing your medical records without permission! Naughty shedEdited by only1ian on Friday 4th May 09:44
How many of us have been stuck in jams caused by upended overloaded trailers towed by Discoverys ?
They are loved by the horsey ladies to drag their steeds all over the place , you can smell most of them from about 60 mtrs in most villages .
That mixture of horse , wet dog , dung , diesel and BO.
The garage that I worked for was an NFU insurance repairer so lots of these appeared at our doors , we hated them !
Rot rot rot and more rot .
All the usual places have already been mentioned but add to the mix roof gutters/seams , rear quarter panels at the top and bottom, any window opening, bottom of all door posts and sills , all front panels and headlamp bowls all rot . Most of the decals were not available from the manufacturer for quite a while during the Ford years .
They are loved by the horsey ladies to drag their steeds all over the place , you can smell most of them from about 60 mtrs in most villages .
That mixture of horse , wet dog , dung , diesel and BO.
The garage that I worked for was an NFU insurance repairer so lots of these appeared at our doors , we hated them !
Rot rot rot and more rot .
All the usual places have already been mentioned but add to the mix roof gutters/seams , rear quarter panels at the top and bottom, any window opening, bottom of all door posts and sills , all front panels and headlamp bowls all rot . Most of the decals were not available from the manufacturer for quite a while during the Ford years .
Turbobanana said:
CS Garth said:
Whoever designed it had a picture of a Montego van close at hand. Awful but brilliant. C'est la vie. La vie.
There was a Montego Van? Do you mean a Maestro?Hopefully someone will be along soon to tell me what I meant. But when it comes, it's definitely that.
BFleming said:
4 out of the last 5 SOTWs have had 'Made in England' stamped on them, and all have been horrendous, with the possible exception of the Jag. It's worse than those bargain pages of classic car weekly. These are cars that people paid handsomely for when new - the cheapest Discovery was £19249 in 1989. These were cars that people deliberately chose whilst avoiding something much more competent. The Mitsubishi Shogun for example, or even the Isuzu Trooper. I understand that British people buy (or rather bought) British cars to support their domestic industry, in much the same way as French people have allegiance to the majority of domestic dross they produce, the same as the Italians. It must be great being German, getting to both support your own car industry and drive something decent.
This weeks SOTW is a heap, and an even worse heap than when it was new. The engine bay is greasier than a chip pan. The addition of the oversized offroad tyres without the mandatory suspension lift... all a bit half-arsed.
And yet in last year's JD Power report, those lovely BMWs and Audis were in the bottom 3 for reliability, well below those hateful British built Vauxhalls, Jaguars, Hondas and Toyotas....This weeks SOTW is a heap, and an even worse heap than when it was new. The engine bay is greasier than a chip pan. The addition of the oversized offroad tyres without the mandatory suspension lift... all a bit half-arsed.
Although I agree with you on the Mk1 Disco, hateful things....Just don't bash all the British built cars from the 90s and 2000s.
I out nearly 100k miles on a LPG'd manual D1 V8 of 1998 vintage for over 7 years, to me it represented very cheap motoring. The V8 is certainly faster than the diesel offering, especially in manual form. Oddly I didn't experience any of the normal rust issues people get, regular use seems to keep some of it at bay. I replaced it with a 1994 Range Rover classic and a 2001 P38 Vogue.
CS Garth said:
Turbobanana said:
CS Garth said:
Whoever designed it had a picture of a Montego van close at hand. Awful but brilliant. C'est la vie. La vie.
There was a Montego Van? Do you mean a Maestro?
Definitely Maestro. And Marina, for the door handles.
Before EVO mag there was Performance Car mag and, like EVO mag, every year they had a Performance Car of the Year award issue.
Most of the writers for the mag nominated a car and they all voted for the various choices. Jeff Daniels was the technical editor for the mag and for 1990 he nominated one of these V8 Land Rovers. Think he reckoned the lofty driving position gave it an advantage down the twisty lanes by being able to see over hedges etc, plus you got a V8, 4wd and the ability to carry/tow stuff.
Sadly the other writers didn't share his enthusiasm and it finished last. Audi Quattro 20v took the honours that year
Most of the writers for the mag nominated a car and they all voted for the various choices. Jeff Daniels was the technical editor for the mag and for 1990 he nominated one of these V8 Land Rovers. Think he reckoned the lofty driving position gave it an advantage down the twisty lanes by being able to see over hedges etc, plus you got a V8, 4wd and the ability to carry/tow stuff.
Sadly the other writers didn't share his enthusiasm and it finished last. Audi Quattro 20v took the honours that year
I have fond memories of the 200tdi my Granddad had, he used to drive it from Fuengirola to Leeds 3 times a year to visit us. Bought it when it was a year old (1997) when his Defender was nicked, kept it until 2011 when he made the mistake of trading it for an Almera Tino which he hated. He later found out it was burned out in a field for insurance. I held the opinion when I was selling his Almera after he died in January that if it was the Disco and not the Almera, I'd've bought it in an instant, I just think they look great, if not stupendously slow.
I've had 2 of these. First one I gave it a suspension lift and a few other things to tidy it up. It was only 10 or so years old, so rot hadn't started being a problem back then.
The second one was more 'sheddy', it had the twin sunroofs which let in water, so it was damp and musty inside. It was also LPG, which I came to hate as it always stank, and the gas tanks were under the floor so it made doing work such as replacing brake lines etc a pain.
I loved driving them though, 0-50 is quicker than you think, and they make a lovely noise, either at full chat or gently pootling around. They are great fun to throw around as there's so much body roll and movement of the whole car due to it having two live axles. It's like a cross between a boat and a horse, the way it moves. Not particularly quick point to point, but a real challenge and quite fun nevertheless. Well, I liked them anyway.
Don't calculate the fuel consumption though! 12-14 mpg is its limit, maybe 15 on a very gentle motorway run at HGV speeds.
The second one was more 'sheddy', it had the twin sunroofs which let in water, so it was damp and musty inside. It was also LPG, which I came to hate as it always stank, and the gas tanks were under the floor so it made doing work such as replacing brake lines etc a pain.
I loved driving them though, 0-50 is quicker than you think, and they make a lovely noise, either at full chat or gently pootling around. They are great fun to throw around as there's so much body roll and movement of the whole car due to it having two live axles. It's like a cross between a boat and a horse, the way it moves. Not particularly quick point to point, but a real challenge and quite fun nevertheless. Well, I liked them anyway.
Don't calculate the fuel consumption though! 12-14 mpg is its limit, maybe 15 on a very gentle motorway run at HGV speeds.
I nearly bought a TDi Mk1 Disco in 2009-10 as a winter / backup / firewood fetcher / toy. Interesting to see that the early 90's versions appear to have disappeared off the market (tinworm / offroading?) now but that prices for older Discos are actually creeping up - Autotrader today shows only a few available at Shed money.
After my other half parked her car on a lamppost after sliding on sheet ice, I bought a early 90s V6 petrol Isuzu Trooper at short notice instead. I can't say that I have the experience of owning a Disco to compare it to, but Isuzu motoring was not exactly free of foibles / wallet-hurting experience either:
- MOT fail on rotten rear crossmember; replacement was either a fuel tank off job or rebuild in sections
- very low double digit MPG in typical use, best ever recorded on a long journey about 21mpg
- passenger footwell flooding (about 1" deep in water when I parked the car up for a few weeks), leading to battery draining owing to electrical short
- persistent ATF leak from the gearbox (it's not only LR vehicles that leak)
- hot starting problems
- coolant leaks / overheating
- cambelt tensioner failure leading to chatter
The final point, combined with lack of use, led me to opt to send it to motor heaven. Maybe a Disco would have been even more wallet-punishing, but my experience is that Japanese definitely doesn't equal problem-free!
After my other half parked her car on a lamppost after sliding on sheet ice, I bought a early 90s V6 petrol Isuzu Trooper at short notice instead. I can't say that I have the experience of owning a Disco to compare it to, but Isuzu motoring was not exactly free of foibles / wallet-hurting experience either:
- MOT fail on rotten rear crossmember; replacement was either a fuel tank off job or rebuild in sections
- very low double digit MPG in typical use, best ever recorded on a long journey about 21mpg
- passenger footwell flooding (about 1" deep in water when I parked the car up for a few weeks), leading to battery draining owing to electrical short
- persistent ATF leak from the gearbox (it's not only LR vehicles that leak)
- hot starting problems
- coolant leaks / overheating
- cambelt tensioner failure leading to chatter
The final point, combined with lack of use, led me to opt to send it to motor heaven. Maybe a Disco would have been even more wallet-punishing, but my experience is that Japanese definitely doesn't equal problem-free!
Buff Mchugelarge said:
tomsugden said:
How has shed managed to look up the MOT history when the number plate is obscured?
I would imagine he looked at the house window in the background of picture 3. It looks to have been replaced recently. These are specialist supply, so a quick cross reference of suppliers and fitters would lead you to the southern counties. The foliage in the background of pictures 1 and 2 can be mapped out using special software and compared to satellite images obtained from the Russians (a work colleague of Mrs Shed no doubt). This will give you an address. All this leaves you a quick break in job to the DVLA to get the records up.
Or he just phoned him.
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