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heck of a deal on a DD for you guys in the north east

I gave the guy a call because my wife has always wanted a Land Rover as a winter car. I just don't know how good of a deal that really is? It is only about $1000 under KBB and it would cost me a day and a couple hundred in gas to get the dang thing. I thought it was a sweet deal as well but I was suprised at how low kbb was for it. Maybe KBB gave it so low of a value because of the mileage? Or do Land Rover's just have sucky resale value? I thought this car was around $30,000 new in '00?
 
probably more than $30k

they have low resale value because theyre a PITA as far as repairs and maintenance go (so ive always heard) but that price just seemed LOW. hell, you cant even find a really nice contour for that price :shrug: it says it has a new short block so i would think that would basically raise the value on it a little more. looks very nice, thats for sure..
 
That aluminum 4.0 liter V8 dates back to 1961 as a Buick motor. Rover made some adjustments to it over the years, but it retains much of its basic heritage. Back in the Sixties, coolants were not up to dealing with aluminum components, and cooling system failures were common. With today's modern mixtures, of course, that's not a problem.

Discos have never been much for resale value -- something they owe more to their spotty reliability than anything else. They're certainly capable off road, but I would not be rushing out to buy one since I don't relish frequent mechanical and electrical failure.
 
So would reliabilty really be that much of an issue even if I stay up to date on maintaing the thing? It wouldn't be for offroading at all. Just a good winter daily for the wife. What do you guys think? For that price, good car or would that be a bad decision? I always have back up cars for the wife if anything did go wrong but I don't want to put her in something completely unreliable. I'll probably keep her Honda Accord anyways in case she needs something reliable. Anyone ever own or drive one? Anyone know anyone who has had one awhile?
 
Reebs said:
So would reliabilty really be that much of an issue even if I stay up to date on maintaing the thing? It wouldn't be for offroading at all. Just a good winter daily for the wife. What do you guys think? For that price, good car or would that be a bad decision? I always have back up cars for the wife if anything did go wrong but I don't want to put her in something completely unreliable. I'll probably keep her Honda Accord anyways in case she needs something reliable. Anyone ever own or drive one? Anyone know anyone who has had one awhile?
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I'd be most concerned about electronics.

If I were preparing to spend $4000 on a used 4x4, I'd be looking at Broncos. Once in a while, you'll find a well-cared for one with not too many miles for about that money.

As for the Disco -- do I think you'd be making a terrible mistake by buying it? Not necessarily -- maybe the thing ends up treating you well. However, I wouldn't go after one with 185K on it. That's just a bit too much, I think.
 
LauraSVT said:
That aluminum 4.0 liter V8 dates back to 1961 as a Buick motor. Rover made some adjustments to it over the years, but it retains much of its basic heritage. Back in the Sixties, coolants were not up to dealing with aluminum components, and cooling system failures were common. With today's modern mixtures, of course, that's not a problem.

Discos have never been much for resale value -- something they owe more to their spotty reliability than anything else. They're certainly capable off road, but I would not be rushing out to buy one since I don't relish frequent mechanical and electrical failure.
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It's funny you say that because I had a friend ask if I knew anything about LR cooling systems.:laugh: He had a friend with one and it was shot.
 
My buddy just sold one with 120k for $2500. It was a bit older (97 iirc). It always seemed to have something wrong... but never anything big.
 
Jeff, if you decide you want this, we may be able to help you out if you fly into ABE.
Philly is around an hour from me.
 
LUCA said:
Jeff, if you decide you want this, we may be able to help you out if you fly into ABE.
Philly is around an hour from me.
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Awesome. Thanks. I'm waiting on more pics from him before I fly out. He is supposed to take alot of close up pics today.



Jeff
 
In late '99 all the Rovers went to Bosch electronics thus eliminating Lucas from the mix...essentially solving the electronics bugs on a wide scale.

The most important thing to look at, even though it's a 2k is underneath and around the door posts etc. While most of the body is aluminum, the chassis and inner panels are steel. These rigs can look very very solid from even a foot away, but the Northeast is not kind to them...check under the plastic rocker covers for any rot or rust. A small hole there means bigger issues within as they tend to go from the inside out. The seatbelt anchors out back need to be looked at to assure they're not rotten.

The 4.0 V8 is a little weak in the brute force department, but it pulls well down low (Done several swaps of the 4.0 into earlier discos and rangies for that reason). With any Rover V8 it is VERY important to look for low coolant or spitting coolant from the system. The #8 cylinder is known for dropping it's liner juuuuust a tiny bit. It's very hard to spot. The truck will use coolant and slightly pressurize the system...except when you assume it's a head gasket, you're wrong and you can end up in there twice. The dropped liner is very hard to spot even with the head off.

All that said, they are very stout trucks. Just be sure you give it a solid once over.

In fact I'm currently looking at a '96 Discovery for my wife right now...need to get her out of my SHO first~!
 
It is a closed cooling system so trouble shooting is different than an open system. The cooling system combined with the bad headgasket issue and the dropped liner can be a very frustrating thing to diagnose.

My old '88 Rangie puked coolant...just a few ounces whenever you'd drive it. Just enough to make a small puddle in the driveway. Folks tend to assume it's overheating etc. What's happening is the dropped cylinder liner is allowing the cooling system to pressurize (similar to a bad head gasket). Once we knew the cooling system was fine, we pulled the heads...both gaskets were perfect...one plug and cylinder were AWFULLY clean!

I spent years building these trucks and even though they're not the most reliable, I still love them.

http://www.discoweb.org/ is a great resource but not very nOOb friendly so just tread lightly and you can learn TONS.

RJ

todras said:
It's funny you say that because I had a friend ask if I knew anything about LR cooling systems.:laugh: He had a friend with one and it was shot.
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Reebs said:
Awesome. Thanks. I'm waiting on more pics from him before I fly out. He is supposed to take alot of close up pics today.

Jeff
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If you want to fly into Philly's airport let me know as well. The Philly airport is only 20 min from me and I'd have no problem picking you up. PM me for my cell # or you can get it from Grant.
 
1BadCSVT said:
If you want to fly into Philly's airport let me know as well. The Philly airport is only 20 min from me and I'd have no problem picking you up. PM me for my cell # or you can get it from Grant.
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Thanks guys. Everyone is very helpful here. :) I'll keep you guys updated.
 
or if you find it cheaper to come through BWI, I may be able to get you over into DE as well. According to his zipcode, he's about 100 miles from me.
 
Hey Reebs, you guys want another CSVT in the family haha i'll trade ya, saves me the trouble of having to sell the damn thing come spring.

P.S. Make sure there's no trailer hitch on the back
 
Tomato said:
Hey Reebs, you guys want another CSVT in the family haha i'll trade ya, saves me the trouble of having to sell the damn thing come spring.

P.S. Make sure there's no trailer hitch on the back
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They almost all have hitches from the factory.
 
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