Anyone own a mid 90's land rover discovery?

[grandkodiak]

im lookin at mid 90's like 96-98 land rover discoveries. i was wondering if anyone here has one and can give me some info? ive heard that part prices/availability where high, but i havent had any hard tiems nor seen outrageous prices on most things on autozone/pepboys type sites. are they hard to work on? what usually goes (besides electrical) in particular? im lookin for a cheap super compfy car that will do winter snow and ive always like the way they look, no idea why. and you can find them for $3500-5500! compared to a wrangler/cherokee, they are lightyears ahead in interior looks/comfort. i dont care about gas miliage issues, but am worried that itll need serious work. some people haev told me they are dead reliable as long as they arent off roaded, otehrs have told me that they are some of the most unreliable machines ever built.

[BigAls87Z28]

Unreliable...

[sweetbmxrider]

i've never had a good experience working on one in general. parts a rather expensive and hard to get. its very well engineered but that can only mean that when **** goes bad, it goes real bad! jeeps are tried and tested to be tough and reliable. think of how many jeeps you see on the road in one day then compare that to the rover. personally, if i had a choice between the two, i would take the jeep. the dependability outweighs anything the rover has.

[MonmouthCtyAntz]

Those things are garbage....Like said there unreliable and I use to valet park at high end places and they are the slowest things known to man.

[transmaro93]

Unreliable...

ditto... and they accordion pretty bad in frontal crash tests... go watch some movies of them in slo-mo....entire pass compartment accordions... landrovers, and lincoln suvs have some of the worst reliability rate in the buiss...

[transmaro93]

Those things are garbage....Like said there unreliable and I use to valet park at high end places and they are the slowest things known to man.

glad to know you ripp on peoples cars when they hand you the keys....

[BigAls87Z28]

Yeah...I never valet. I dont care how friggin cool I look.

I thought we went over this at work? Buy Makisha's Jeep GC. Its a fully loaded model too, V8 and all.

[sweetbmxrider]

I6 > v8

[MonmouthCtyAntz]

glad to know you ripp on peoples cars when they hand you the keys....

What? lol, yea whatever u say man.....

[maroman88]

yea... they blow, nuff sed.

[grandkodiak]

erm... so no one can site specifics. for example, if someone said they wanted to buy a 90's fbody, id say:

"look for front timing cover seal leaks, rear main seal leaks, tell them to expect to replace optis at least once, and if they plan to abuse them, watch for the rear end to take a **** after awhile, flip up headlight nylon gears to strip, and window motors to go if you use them often."


anyone have that sort of info, on mid 90's discoverys? not lookin for a debate on whats better or worse, im looking for first hand info, no the general consensus of what people have heard or speculations. trim the fat. i know its hard since this is an fboa forum, but thought maybe id get lucky.

[BigAls87Z28]

Electrical problems galore. Ranging from non working headlights to starting issues. Expensive parts to replace, and due to the fact that it was bought and sold like a street walker, you have mix matched parts. Rover engines, then BMW engines (i know that will get you happy), then Ford transmissions attached to BMW engines...ugh.
Brakes are a disaster too.

Not to say that Jeep's arent a fuggin mess either. GC's tend to have poor rear brakes, rotors warp. Tranies tend to be weak, but they are solid.

[Squirrel]

buy a regular cherokee, you can fix major problems with some gum and duct tape, and 15's are a couple mods away

[sweetbmxrider]

labor intensive. over engineering which leads to massive headaches. chasing ridic electrical problems. its all weird bull **** and takes alot of time

[The Fixer]

How soon are you looking to buy? I'm planning to sell my '01 Cherokee in the next few months. It's got a new waterpump, HD clutch fan, and upper/lower hoses, recent AC evaporator replacement (AC is nice and frosty now!), Bilstein shocks, rear disc conversion off a GC, and some other stuff. It's only got 82K miles on it, which is nothing for the 4.0L.

[Tsar]

Electrical problems galore. Ranging from non working headlights to starting issues. Expensive parts to replace, and due to the fact that it was bought and sold like a street walker, you have mix matched parts. Rover engines, then BMW engines (i know that will get you happy), then Ford transmissions attached to BMW engines...ugh.
Brakes are a disaster too.

Not to say that Jeep's arent a fuggin mess either. GC's tend to have poor rear brakes, rotors warp. Tranies tend to be weak, but they are solid.

Sounds like a 4th gen. Does it have ****** window motors too?

[sweetbmxrider]

Sounds like a 4th gen. Does it have ****** window motors too?

no, just a **** load of windows :lol:

[grandkodiak]

lol on the window comment.

well as soon as my motorcycle sells and ill save up some cash, probably early next year, jan/feb?

after that its goodbye trans am too. but i cant do that until i secure somethin else.

[wretched73]

my cousin managed to crack the engine block on his