Land Rover Discovery - Talk to me

EH75

EH75

EH75

Associate
Joined
28 Dec 2003
Posts
1,056
Location
Scotland / Norfolk
In the very early stages of considering one of these for the next car. Never owned an 4 x 4 before but the other half has her heart set on one. Anything in particular to look out for or be aware of? We'd probably be looking at one that is around 3-4 years old. Budget is around £30-35k. Looking at a petrol model (aware these are relatively rare) as we do a lot of short journeys.
 
I know a couple of people who have had either range rovers or discoveries and every single one has had issues, not just niggly things but really game stopping stuff which costs thousands to fix.

Strangely though a couple of them still seem to adore them despite it costing them thousands in repair costs and the inconvenience of being without it while it's being constantly fixed..
 
Any actual experience rather than ‘I read something about it so I’ll use that as experience’. ?


I had an evoque once. Zero issues in a year of ownership. Great car
 
Yeah there's a lot of anecdotal stuff out there which means I'm not 100% sold on one. Will probably go to go look at a few of the usual alternatives - Q7, XC90, Tourag, Kodiaq etc.

I don't really know anyone personally whose has had a discovery or range rover although one of her friends has had two discoveries in a row and apparently had no issues. This makes it more difficult to put her off of the idea. "some bloke on the Internet says they break down" isn't convincing her!
 
Greebo said:
Are these practicably un insurable? Or is that just the Range Rover?
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Depends where you live - around where I am where it is quite rural the only people who own them really, due to the cost, are the likes of movie stars and so on :s the police once joked, more serious than not, if they see one in the area at night there is a 50/50 chance if they stop it they'd find the person driving it wasn't supposed to.

I don't have any ownership experience myself, but what I hear from those who do isn't inspiring - especially the diesel variants with dual turbos.

EH75 said:
Tourag
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I really like the look of the new Touareg and both of the older styles are great, but hah VW doesn't have the best of reputation with new cars of late, at least around my acquaintances - one of the fun ones several people are having is the electric windows deciding to open on their own at random :s I'm somewhat leaning to replacing one of mine with a Touareg at some point.

One thing I'd say with Land Rovers/Range Rovers - if you've got someone local who specialises in them and/or if you can buy from someone who has actually cared for it it can make a world of difference - a good bit of the poor reputation comes from people who've bought one second hand after the typical first owner who doesn't give a **** about the vehicle.

EDIT: Also, while probably not so applicable at 3-4 years old/30-35K, old/high mileage 4x4s are money pits unless you have the experience and setup to be able to work on them yourself.
 
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Simon said:
Any actual experience rather than ‘I read something about it so I’ll use that as experience’. ?


I had an evoque once. Zero issues in a year of ownership. Great car
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I had a new evoque under lease around 2019 and while it was too new for any mechanical issues it was plagued with little software problems. For example it would often not engage drive when I took it out of neutral the first time. After 4k miles when I returned it (lack of use due to pandemic) it had developed an infuriating vibration rattle inside the dashboard. The one service I had to have before returning it was shockingly expensive for what was just an inspection and maybe an oil change. The lease company asked if I wanted to extend the lease or consider buying it. It was a lovely car to use but I wouldn't want to own it.
 
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I’ve had two D5s now, apart from a couple of issues with a heat shield on this one and something minor on another no catastrophic failures.

Your budget is wonky though, not enough to get you the newer model hybrid with the newer engine and infotainment all miles better and falls into the old model D5 which you don’t want.

For your money I’d buy a D4, there’s some fabulous examples out there, high spec and low miles, one owner etc and pocket the change for repairs. The D4 has fallen into the older car market so any failures are well known and solutions easily found cheaper than the newer models.

Assuming you mean the proper Discovery not the Sport (freelander) which is atrocious
 
sovietspybob said:
I know a couple of people who have had either range rovers or discoveries and every single one has had issues, not just niggly things but really game stopping stuff which costs thousands to fix.

Strangely though a couple of them still seem to adore them despite it costing them thousands in repair costs and the inconvenience of being without it while it's being constantly fixed..
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Had an old boss who had a Mk.1 Discovery that **** it's driveshaft along the M8 about a month outside its warranty. Thousands of pieces of metal rained down on the tarmac apparently. LR only covered half the bill and it cost him around £1500 all in back in the 90's. I asked him if he'd have another and he said absolutely, great cars he said. Owners really love them for some reason.
 
Diddums said:
I'm convinced that the sole reason this car exists is for paupers to have the badge at a lower cost. They're absolutely hilariously crap cars.
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And that is one problem the atrocious ‘sport’ fuels the all Discoveries are crap reviews.

I’ve had two and done 150k in both over five years. I had more problems with a new ranger and a modern hilux.
 
MissChief said:
Had an old boss who had a Mk.1 Discovery that **** it's driveshaft along the M8 about a month outside its warranty. Thousands of pieces of metal rained down on the tarmac apparently. LR only covered half the bill and it cost him around £1500 all in back in the 90's. I asked him if he'd have another and he said absolutely, great cars he said. Owners really love them for some reason.
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People like the idea of it more than the car itself I think.
 
To add an actual experience to my post, a guy i work with had a 2018 i think discovery from brand new.

It kept shutting down completely while he was driving along, happened 4 or 5 times over the course of about 18 months, took it to the dealer each time and they couldn't find anything wrong with it. It happened again with his family in the car so he took it straight to the dealer and got rid of it as he felt it was unsafe and didn't trust it anymore. It was probably something simple, a sensor somewhere or something but the fact that the dealer couldn't even find an issue let along fix it in 5 visits is pretty shocking...
 
sovietspybob said:
To add an actual experience to my post, a guy i work with had a 2018 i think discovery from brand new.

It kept shutting down completely while he was driving along, happened 4 or 5 times over the course of about 18 months, took it to the dealer each time and they couldn't find anything wrong with it. It happened again with his family in the car so he took it straight to the dealer and got rid of it as he felt it was unsafe and didn't trust it anymore. It was probably something simple, a sensor somewhere or something but the fact that the dealer couldn't even find an issue let along fix it in 5 visits is pretty shocking...
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I think they like to leak around bulkheads and fittings. So you get wiring sitting in water. That's what we found with a work RR when we stripped the interior.

They claim they can wade through X amount of water. Maybe for about the first week after it rolls out of the factory :D
 
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