Tips for a Land Rover newbie?
Discussion
Folks
Changes in my lifestyle have presented the opportunity for me to purchase a Land Rover for the first time. I spend many of my weekends driving up rutted tracks and occasionally across fields and streams, carrying dogs and some kit, and I would like a Discovery.
I have two options:
- to buy a Discovery at the higher end (let's say £25k) and use it as my daily drive as well as for weekends (probably doing 10,000 motorway miles each year for work)
- or stick with a saloon for the motorway miles and go for a cheaper weekend Discovery, in which case I'm looking at £5-£10k max. It would need to be able to do longer distances (500-1000 mile round trips) a few times a year reliably, but otherwise would stay local and be weekend only.
Having never owned a Discovery before (although I did have a Freelander for a couple of years back in about 2000 - I never really liked it), I would welcome views from the PH massif on the practicalities of ownership, and the risk of it all going horribly wrong. I've been running an E-class MB for years, so I'm used to reasonably steep maintenance costs, but the Merc is also very fuel-efficient as well as having been completely reliable for 9 years now. Could I expect the same from a higher end Discovery?
Thanks all
Steve
Changes in my lifestyle have presented the opportunity for me to purchase a Land Rover for the first time. I spend many of my weekends driving up rutted tracks and occasionally across fields and streams, carrying dogs and some kit, and I would like a Discovery.
I have two options:
- to buy a Discovery at the higher end (let's say £25k) and use it as my daily drive as well as for weekends (probably doing 10,000 motorway miles each year for work)
- or stick with a saloon for the motorway miles and go for a cheaper weekend Discovery, in which case I'm looking at £5-£10k max. It would need to be able to do longer distances (500-1000 mile round trips) a few times a year reliably, but otherwise would stay local and be weekend only.
Having never owned a Discovery before (although I did have a Freelander for a couple of years back in about 2000 - I never really liked it), I would welcome views from the PH massif on the practicalities of ownership, and the risk of it all going horribly wrong. I've been running an E-class MB for years, so I'm used to reasonably steep maintenance costs, but the Merc is also very fuel-efficient as well as having been completely reliable for 9 years now. Could I expect the same from a higher end Discovery?
Thanks all
Steve
By a decent D3 and you'll be fine - as long as you don't expect the decent fuel economy - it's not bad considering the size and "brick" aerodynamics - but compared to latest saloons it is shocking.
Around town expect 24mpg ish and on a run low to mid 30's. It's not a vehicle you end up caning so most seem to get similar MPG.
To me, more than acceptable considering most of my previous cars have been pretty heavy on the juice.
By the time you also consider two cars, two tax, insurance, servicing,tyres etc., the one vehicle makes economic sense - by the time you include a few long trips where max comfort is desirable, again you'll want the comfy car not the cheap 4x4 hack.
At £25k I'd be looking at a 2008 HSE with all the toys, less than 50k miles and very well looked after with a year's comprehensive warranty.
Around town expect 24mpg ish and on a run low to mid 30's. It's not a vehicle you end up caning so most seem to get similar MPG.
To me, more than acceptable considering most of my previous cars have been pretty heavy on the juice.
By the time you also consider two cars, two tax, insurance, servicing,tyres etc., the one vehicle makes economic sense - by the time you include a few long trips where max comfort is desirable, again you'll want the comfy car not the cheap 4x4 hack.
At £25k I'd be looking at a 2008 HSE with all the toys, less than 50k miles and very well looked after with a year's comprehensive warranty.
SteveM46 said:
Folks
Changes in my lifestyle have presented the opportunity for me to purchase a Land Rover for the first time. I spend many of my weekends driving up rutted tracks and occasionally across fields and streams, carrying dogs and some kit, and I would like a Discovery.
I have two options:
- to buy a Discovery at the higher end (let's say £25k) and use it as my daily drive as well as for weekends (probably doing 10,000 motorway miles each year for work)
- or stick with a saloon for the motorway miles and go for a cheaper weekend Discovery, in which case I'm looking at £5-£10k max. It would need to be able to do longer distances (500-1000 mile round trips) a few times a year reliably, but otherwise would stay local and be weekend only.
Having never owned a Discovery before (although I did have a Freelander for a couple of years back in about 2000 - I never really liked it), I would welcome views from the PH massif on the practicalities of ownership, and the risk of it all going horribly wrong. I've been running an E-class MB for years, so I'm used to reasonably steep maintenance costs, but the Merc is also very fuel-efficient as well as having been completely reliable for 9 years now. Could I expect the same from a higher end Discovery?
Thanks all
Steve
Guess it comes down to what type of Landy you are after. £5-10k will place you more in D2 territory than D3, although you might pick up an early base model D3 at the higher end of this.Changes in my lifestyle have presented the opportunity for me to purchase a Land Rover for the first time. I spend many of my weekends driving up rutted tracks and occasionally across fields and streams, carrying dogs and some kit, and I would like a Discovery.
I have two options:
- to buy a Discovery at the higher end (let's say £25k) and use it as my daily drive as well as for weekends (probably doing 10,000 motorway miles each year for work)
- or stick with a saloon for the motorway miles and go for a cheaper weekend Discovery, in which case I'm looking at £5-£10k max. It would need to be able to do longer distances (500-1000 mile round trips) a few times a year reliably, but otherwise would stay local and be weekend only.
Having never owned a Discovery before (although I did have a Freelander for a couple of years back in about 2000 - I never really liked it), I would welcome views from the PH massif on the practicalities of ownership, and the risk of it all going horribly wrong. I've been running an E-class MB for years, so I'm used to reasonably steep maintenance costs, but the Merc is also very fuel-efficient as well as having been completely reliable for 9 years now. Could I expect the same from a higher end Discovery?
Thanks all
Steve
300bhp/ton said:
Guess it comes down to what type of Landy you are after. £5-10k will place you more in D2 territory than D3, although you might pick up an early base model D3 at the higher end of this.
You can pick them up for as little as £8k, but they will have 130k plus on the clock, be manual and usually the base spec models. I'm not usually bothered about cars with high miles, but a turbo could go and thats going to be big money to replace on a D3.
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