question for the 'rover guys

[Houndoc]

Given the choice for the uses we have talked before)moderate off-road, some towing, family hauling etc) would you choose a 03-04 Disco or 00-01 Range Rover? Why?

 

[MRJ]

I would go with the 04 Disco. I really do like the P38 Range Rover but the Disco has free scheduled maintanence and a warranty. There is also more off-road accessories for the Disco. Like I said before our Disco has been great.

 

[pokeyYJ]

With the 00-01 RR's you can only seat five, Disco seven.

Seriously, from a service stand point, the RR is more of a crap shoot when trying to find a reliable one. There are soooooooo many electronic systems on these cars that the possibility of something failing goes up. I have customers with 240K on their RR's with no major problems, and I have customer's with 60K on them and they are constantly in for service.

If you are looking at older RR's, look for oil leaks from headgaskets, rear main seal and cross seals, and pay close attention to the air suspension condition. Does the compressor run excessively? You will be able to feel it in the floor boards, does it take a long time to raise or lower? It should take far less than a minute to raise from entry position, to offroad hieght, and less than 30 sec to go back down. Maybe take a bottle of soapy water that you can spray on air springs to look for leaks, they are semi common but really expensive.

Pay attention to A/C and heater operation, they are controled by blend doors behind the dash and replacing motors is about a 10hr job.


I would say that you are safer purchasing a Disco, and for offroad, look for an 04 with the center diff lock, it can be added to the later vehicles. But not at all on the RR's.

 

[Jate]

With the 00-01 RR's you can only seat five, Disco seven.

Seriously, from a service stand point, the RR is more of a crap shoot when trying to find a reliable one. There are soooooooo many electronic systems on these cars that the possibility of something failing goes up. I have customers with 240K on their RR's with no major problems, and I have customer's with 60K on them and they are constantly in for service.

If you are looking at older RR's, look for oil leaks from headgaskets, rear main seal and cross seals, and pay close attention to the air suspension condition. Does the compressor run excessively? You will be able to feel it in the floor boards, does it take a long time to raise or lower? It should take far less than a minute to raise from entry position, to offroad hieght, and less than 30 sec to go back down. Maybe take a bottle of soapy water that you can spray on air springs to look for leaks, they are semi common but really expensive.

Pay attention to A/C and heater operation, they are controled by blend doors behind the dash and replacing motors is about a 10hr job.


I would say that you are safer purchasing a Disco, and for offroad, look for an 04 with the center diff lock, it can be added to the later vehicles. But not at all on the RR's.

I have owned 3 range rovers over the past 6 years - two 95s and one 98 4.6HSE. The 95s have been fairly low maintenance with the exception of the air suspension. The air suspension consistenly dies on all of them. The best thing is to replace it with the coil suspension which can cost $1,200 - $1,500. On my 98 I just had all of the leaks listed above fixed under warranty. The 98 drives great both on and off road. I have not done any major off roading with it. The 98 towed our boat pretty well.
The high net is: I believe the issues listed above are valid. The Disco is going to have a lower cost of ownership. The Range Rover is going to drive better.

 

[andy d]

the disco can fit seven, and has rear air, alot more comfortable for kids in the back. we are seeing very few problems with the 04 disco so far. one major concern when wheeling with a RR is the air suspension. if you lift a tire off the ground and one of the air springs pops off, you are screwed. it will set a fault and you will be driving to the dealership on the bump stops. don't get me wrong, the RR is a really nice car, but like pokey said, there are a lot of electronics. I would choose the 04 over the 03 for the diff lock. the traction control on the 03 works great, but all of the good stuff comes together in the 04. if you are not buying brand new, find one with the lowest miles so the warranty lasts longer (of course), and its not a bad idea to bring one in to get looked at if you are not getting it from the land rover dealer. I love my 95 RR, but one day I'm gonna get an 04 disco.

 

[Houndoc]

Just the info I needed. Thanks all. It is good to hear the same from everyone- sounds like the hands down winner is the disco. Once I get around to selling the Jeep, my pickings are going to be between the Disco and 4runner, with the main Disco problem being gas milage.

 

[dieslcruserhead]

If you are looking to buy one my two college roommates run San Diego Autohaus which sells a ton of Rovers, they buy low mileage lease returns with full factory warantees (60K miles) with 20K on them so it is 1/3rd off sticker or more and no different than buying from the dealer. They are all also California cars to they are way clean. Thought I would forward it along sandiegoautohaus.com; steve@sandiegoautohaus.com or pete@sandiegoautohaus.com - only thing is you'll have to drive down there to pick it up. You can also say Andre recommended them.

 

[pokeyYJ]

, they buy low mileage lease returns with full factory warantees (60K miles)

Factory warranty on ALL Land Rover products is 4 year 50000 mile, with the option of extending after purchase. BUT, you can only extend the warranty if you are original purchaser.