I'm thinking of getting an '03 Land Rover Discovery and was wondering if anyone here has or have had one? I'm reading about two different extremes on how they are. Some say they are always in need of fixing, espically pre 99's and other people say if you take basic care of it, it will run forever with little or no problems. I have always loved the looks and thinking of getting rid of my Wrangler and getting one. I only live a mile from work so gas isn't a problem.

Anybody got any good or bad experiences with these?

 

My understanding is to avoid them like the plague. Know a few people w/ LRs and while they love them, they have had numerous problems with them (electrical gremlins on a regular basis). The choice is yours. My father has avoided them because of reliability--Consumer Reports does not lie.

Think about a pre-owned Toyota Land Cruiser or a Lexus LX470. The 'rents had an LX470 and it was great. Very reliable, really capable off road, and of incredible quality and luxury. I loved that thing--further, it had incredible road presence (the same as a Land Rover, IMHO).

Good luck!

 

I have a co-worker that had one, thing was ALWAYS at the dealer, i can't tell you how many times i had to pick him up from it.

 

Thanks for the input so far. I do keep hearing "...are you sure you want to get one?" and I'm like they can't be that bad. I'm hoping the earlier ones got a bad rap, but not the Discovery II's I've got an Escalade as my main car, but want something to replace the Jeep. I have my own shop garage to work on stuff, but I'm hoping to hear from someone that's had one saying their not that bad.

Thanks and keep the replies coming.

 

My mother had a Freelander, had above average amount of problems, but nothing out of control

 

I would agree, my best friend owned a Disco for 3.5 hellacious years and swore he'd never touch one again. Since then he's purchased a 9-3 Aero and is happier...in a marginal sort of way.

Another friend of mine recently purchased an LR3 V-8 and he loves it.

 

There's a reason you keep hearing that, no? And now you come here and hear teh same thing? That HAS to mean something. That's like the OPPOSITE of Toyota or Honda.

 

My co-workers sister has one. She has the Range Rover, and from what I hear, the replacement parts are expensive, aside from the issue of reliability. I guess you really need to be rich to own one.

 

my girl friend has a Freelander. She says she loves it, but she's told me about little problems she personally feels are "wear and tear", like TPMS going out randomly, constant windshield wipers going out, wheel lugs loosening, the dash going blank. Right now, the check engine light is on. But she "loves it"

 

A while back there was a thread on reliability of auto manufacturers. Kia had the worst reliability, and guess who had second worse? LAND ROVER.

 

yep. i still cant believe their owners are so loyal though, and put up through all their car gives them.

 

I would stay away if I were you. Consumer reports, JD Power etc have them rated down at the bottom of their respective reliability scales for a reason. A guy my buddy knows just got a new LR3 or whatever its called, and has had some major problems. The gas tank somehow failed (defective I guess), leaking its entire contents onto the ground,....plus a bunch of electrical problems. Its not a good idea to base decisions on one or two ppl's stories about reliability,.......but when you ALWAYS hear about LR's poor reliability for others, combined with things like consumer reports,.........well, you get the idea.

That said,.....I think Land Rovers and Range Rovers are pretty cool. Maybe I would get a nice Range Rover if I had tons of money to burn. Im pretty sure I would never buy an SUV, but if I did a RR would be one of the few I would consider.

 

The Discovery is a crap box. The Rang Rover 4.6HSE however is not. They do have common minor problems though. I wouldn't say anymore then a Ford car.
The discovery though I know some guys at work that had them(for their wives), & they always had problems. Not major ones, but alot of little things.

There are better SUV's out there, & cheaper. I also only saw woman driving those Discovery's.

 

I have owned several LRs and my experience boils down to this:

1. NEVER EVER buy one used even from a dealer
2. I haven't had near the problems as some people have had and I used them all HARD, but they all did end up at the dealer more than most cars I have owned and the dealers were always excellent at getting the issue fixed
3. The later Discos are better than the earlier ones but the key with Rovers is the simpler the Rover the better it is. The old series LRs and the Defender were the best of the best they all would run forever. I had a 73 Defender which was awesome.

I love the new LR3 simply incredible vehicle but too much electronics to consider in a LR.

My suggestion is if you go in with your eyes open you can run a Disco as a second vehicle BUT if it were my money and depending on what you plan to use it for I would consider a FJ Cruiser which is quite capable and is on the proven Prado chassis with 4Runner drivetrains and is cheap. Depending on your use the LC/LX is getting long in the tooth but is an excellent choice if you need a badge with your off road ability.

 

Thanks for the additional inputs. I do hear a lot more bad than good, but it seems to be an annoying bad. Everyone I talk to or read about says the engine/drivetrain are rock solid, it's everything else that acts up, mainly the electrical system. I seems most all of these problems (electrical connectors, starting, oil leak and gas tank failures '94-'97) were before the Discovery II in '99 and problems seem to have gone way down by 2002.

It will be a secondary vehicle and I live a mile from work. I really just like the rarity and style of one and there are none around here. I do wheel, so it will be off-road, but I do plan on keeping the miles down some.

The one I'm looking at is a 1 owner with all service records no problems and garage kept. It's about as clean as you can get from the looks of it.

I will take everything here in consideration and if I get one and it falls apart I will post and you all can laugh at me.

 

The drivetrains are indeed solid old Buicks that they might be! The electrics are what get you but I never had a Disco strand me, just secondary electricals which didn't keep it from going. Bottom line you will probably be one of the people like myself that loves them, they do have "soul". As I said I love the LR3 but it is just too gadget filled to trust LR, the late Disco may indeed serve you well. Odd though it may sound BMW did wonders for their quality control, well bought by Ford compared to the Jag plants which were stone age at best!

 

 

unless of course someone wanted to buy a 2nd gen CL or 3rd gen TL

 

 

They do make a good play toy, but hard to find a nice one that doesn't cost a fortune.

One on ebay for $27,000

 

http://tinyurl.com/h8kkn
This is the reliability rating of the LR Dicso. Suprisingly, the 2003 seems fairly reliable. Shock!

 

Thanks for the info. I just looked up Consumer Guide Auto Reliability and the 03-04 Discos had no listed trouble spots and no NHTSA Recall History reports. The only bad thing they say is it sucks for what class it's in compared to the BMW X5, Mercedes-Benz M-Class, and Lexus RX 300 that offer better performance, handling, road manners, refinement, and quality...

http://auto.consumerguide.com/Auto/U...reviewshowall/

 

well sometimes you have to make sure you are getting the right info. we all do it

 

like everyone else says, stay away from em

 

For that much I rather have a mid '90's LR Defender 90.

 

stay away

 

my dad has an 06 LR3. No problems so far and its pretty pimp

 

my mom used to have a 99 discovery. it caught on fire and was totaled out. electrical short that caught the carpet on fire.

 

today, that girl i brought up previously complained about the brakes seeming "weird". i asked politely to drive it just to get a feel for the brakes, since that's a better way of diagnosing the issue. the pedal pulsed a little, and it seemed like the brake lines were an issue seeing that there was no rotor warp.

thats still horrible for a car that she got exactly 1 year and 1 week ago. again, she "still loves it!"

 

Thank for the all the input! I'll let you all know what I end up doing.

 

the newer land rovers also have suspension problems. and someone mention earlier the gas tank problem, there is a tsb on that too

 

The shop I used to work at was constantly dealing with their problems. They leak oil like no other (pre 00 seem to come from the factory with more leaks than an old VW Bug). I'd also get a lot of customers complaining about rear end noises. I wouldnt buy one, new, used, old or new (I do like the defender 90 though). \

Good luck with your choice.

 

I had an 01 Disc for 4 months. It was in the shop 6 times. I traded it for a pathfinder.

Stay away.........

 

weird.
I had a friend in college with the a Defender 90 it was like a 98 or 99. He had me look for leaks when he had them. as soon as I patch or find one next week he'd say "damn Defender peeing oil again." bottom line they have some SERIOUS QUALITY ISSUES.

 

Toyota Land Cruiser

 

sorry i should have been more clear. i didnt want to put the defender in another category, they still run into pretty much all the same LR problems, but I think they are bad ass. thats all.

 

Why cant LandRover get their shit together? Is it really that hard?

 

dayuuumm !

 

Q. Why don't the British have a major compute manufacturer?
A. They haven't figured out how to make them leak oil.

Landcruiser all the way!

 

my friend has a 97 Range Rover....he has had so much work done....new suspension (because the air ride went out)....he had ac problems, engine problems..etc...spent like 6k to fix a whole lot of things....it looks great and runs great now....but the problems are costly when they do happen...