As the family has grown I need a 7 seater. And for some reason I'm really fancying and Disco.

TD5 or V8 on LPG?

Td5 is known for unreliability and many common faults.
The V8 seems to have a hell of a better opinion of it on the LR sites.

LPG and the Td5 will be about the same to run if not a little cheaper for the V8. Td5 does about 30mpg and the cost wise of the v8 LPG works out about 30mpg.

Anyone have any experience and/or opinions?

One bonus being I can crawl under and service it my self and parts are hugely available and cheap.

Cheers.

 

The td5 bmw engine is so under powered it's un real lol. Mate of mine had one and I had to drill out and replace most the exhaust manifold studs as they snapped. Commen fault as well so I'm told. If you really won't a disco the older Diesel engines are better

 

A mate of mine had one... It turned into a money pit. That's all I know about discos.

 

The tdi300 were spot on.

Army land rovers proper used and abused and never had an issue with one.

Just after one that's a bit more modern though. 2000-2004 model. And an auto.

Injector looms leak deisel into the ecu as well I've read.

Thought about a Nissan Pathfinder but the gearbox cooler can leak into the gearbox and kill it and massively common. I'd rather a common fault be cheap rather than several thousand

 

Feels like an itch i need to scratch. Was thinking of a BMW 535 but thanks to twins I need more seats

 

S-max turbo or zafira gsi/vxr?

 

Outside my budget. Looking around the 3k mark.

 

I had a 2001 TD5 ES model with all the toys, active suspension, full leather 7 seater, was very nice.
Auto is the best although slightly worse on mpg.
Not underpowered, will do a ton if you wanted to.

Make sure you search hard and get the best you can afford, active suspension can go wrong but most change to springs if it does, good example will have been repaired, head gaskets can go and oil coolers, if you can find one that's had some of these points addressed it should be fine.
Would go for the ES model as the GS is quite basic and the interior is poor, wouldn't worry about mileage either as with proper service history (receipts not stamps) and some of the above dealt with they run forever.
Got a defender now but miss the disco as it had far less rattles and leaks
Also if you go look at one have a tug on the wheels especially fronts, it weighs 2.5 ton or something so could be play in wheel bearings, can be hard to get out and usually you'll have to replace the whole hub, £140 to buy plus fitting so £250 a corner if your not good with the spanners

 

Exactly the type of info I was after cheers pal.

I'm alright with the servicing, brakes and pads etc. Id get a Haynes and have a go with most stuff as I'd feel comfortable to have a bash after doing defenders basics.

There seem to be quite a few about that people want to swap. Even dealers.

I'll make a list of points you've given. Cheers for that.

 

No probs, i changed the hubs on the front myself with help from a mate and I'm no mechanic, quite straight forward.
Make sure it has good tyres too as expensive compared to the average car tyre.
Hope you find a good one

 

The normal road tyres are? Good info to know.

At the moment it'll probably be a swap deal for my Mondeo. But no history, only one key and a light scrape down a door thanks to the mrs means I wouldn't get a lot for it any way and saves hassle of selling and then using public transport to go searching.

 

We've all had itches that need scratching. Lol. I'm sure you'll find one that ticks all the boxes. Have you thought of a volvo xc90?

 

I did, that was one of the first options I thought but then I read about them online and would never go near one, ever.

 

Fair enough. I know volvo's can be a bit hit and miss.

 

The reviews of them by owners online were very off putting. Reliability and cost! ( and here I am asking about land rovers haha )

 

True, I had a SEMS control unit go on my old s60 T5. Volvo wanted a grand for the unit. Sod that, so I rigged up a push start button to bypass the problem

 

for around that money you could pick up a decent 2003-2004 zafira gsi. You may even fine one with full leather (easy to wipe spilt.juice etc) and xenon headlights.

 

Not a fan of them mate. Find them very uncomfortable to drive.

We all get various vauxhauls hired to us from work and everyone hates them.

It's known as "Astra back" but not limited to the Astra

 

Zafira is an aweful car/thing, doesn't matter how many letters follow it, soooooo boring to drive just like most vauxhalls, have a daily drive vectra Sri turbo, been a good car but has nothing about it at all.

 

Hi what about the land cruiser tdi I've had one since 97 been fine it's got 7 seats very powerfull compared to the shitty shoguns I've had in the past it's a proper 7 seater not like the back seats are small there massive compared to the modern stuff since I've owned mine just done the headgaskit that's all really it's got 150k now still good lol would recommend it.

 

I certainly wouldn't say no to a land cruiser.

Ones I've seen so far are fairly ugly colour wise. One nice one all black, black leather but 175k.

What they good for if looked after?

 

I suffer from "Astra back" through work, I know exactly what you mean, it's just like driving normally except it feels like your Sat in an old deck chair instead of a car seat.

 

we have very different opinions on under powered. The one my mate had that I used service for him was very under powered and that engine is known as under powered in td5's

 

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=321516244354

I'd have that! Lol

 

[QUOTE=ajamesc;6519566]we have very different opinions on under powered. The one my mate had that I used service for him was very under powered and that engine is known as under powered in td5's[/

All engines are different, depends how they have been used throughout their life as you must know, also what fuel it's been run on or running on.
I had a focus RS from new, ran it carefully for first couple of thousand miles whereas a mate of mine ragged his to death from day one, his was far quicker, more responsive in everyway until I changed the way I drove mine then it got better.
My TD5 was not underpowered at all, kept up with motorway traffic, could overtake slower vehicles if I needed to on single carriageways.
My defender 200 tdi is underpowered, struggle to overtake tractors haha but I still love it.

 

May ring up over this one.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201409107282278?atmobcid=soc3