looking at a 95 landrover, with 126,000km or 75,000 miles for $6500,00 anyone have any experience with these? just curious what the drivetrains is like

 

Drop a PM or email to Ronin007. Very nice guy and very knowledgeable about Rovers. My only experience is with a 2003 Range Rover and a 2005 Land Rover LR3. In fact I'll shoot him a PM with a link to this thread.

 

omni - Which Land Rover are you looking at? In 1995 there was the Disco, Range Rover, and Defender. Either way they are all pretty much the same under the skin however their personalities are pretty different. Drivetrain wise they are pretty dependable for everyday driving and do well stock off road. Where a Land Rover will leave you stranded is their electronics. All the jokes about Lucas electrics are true. Some are just better than others. My 1989 Range Rover had endless electrical issues whereas my 1993 Range Rover LWB has to date been pretty trouble free (probably just jinxed myself). It won't be the drivetrain that will stop you it will be some sensor. Give some more specifics about the vehicle and I can help you better.

 

Jeff sells them now, you could pm him as well

 

Ronin007 its a discovery. the ad basicly just said auto,loaded with leather,and a all aluminium body. is he in the ball park with the price, do you think since your 93 has been good electrical wise, that maybe land rover got that straightened out? thanks for the feed back

 

I agree with everything said. Good drivetrain with fulltime four wheel drive but can have electrical problems. Now fully owned by Ford. The all aluminum V-8 is a reworked Buick unit. Great comfort thru all coil spring suspension.

 

Here's an old thread with a few more opinions (including mine).

CLICK HERE

 

Okay here is the good and the bad on a 1995 Disco. 3.9 liter Rover engine based on the Buick 215 as Lazy K mentioned. Pretty good engine and can be hot rodded if you want (a lot of sites in the UK that discuss this) but not necessary for a DD or off roader unless you are power hunger. ZF auto which is a pretty good unit unless you really hot rod the engine. LT230 transfer box which is a good unit (want to trade for my Borg Warner unit?) especially for off road use. Fully boxed frame and coil suspension. Solid axles front and rear good up until 33 inch tires or 35's if you are ease on the go pedal. Interior is where you will start having issues. Power windows, locks, seats, sunroofs are know to fail and expensive parts. Stepper motors (idle control) are a common problem that fail, but just don't buy from Land Rover ($150) when you can buy a Delco one at the local auto parts store ($25). OBD I which can be a good or bad thing depending on the issue. Build quality is not the greatest, but not terrible.

Probably the most frustrating thing with a Rover is they got into the electronic and sensor game early on and loaded the vehicles with them. Those are the items that are going to sideline you just like any modern vehicle. A 1995 Rover will have more electronics and sensors in it than your average 2000 vehicle. I can't say that it really matters what year Rover vehicle you purchase as electronics and sensors can fail at anytime. I think the main difference between my 1989 and 1993 RRC's is that the 1989 was a sort of a mixture of older 1980's Rover technology and the newer 1990's Rover tech which sort of made a screwed up mess.

Hope this all makes sense to you omni. If you find a good one they are a nice vehicles and ride nice for a full-time 4x4 vehicle. I have driven mine through two feet of snow for a commute on seasonal roads for years along with taking 7 to 9 hour road trips at 70 mph. Plus I have had mine at speed on Watkins Glen race track along with wheeling it with several different off road clubs. Not many vehicles can do all of that.

Jake - I don't think Jeff would be able to help omni as I know the dealership that he works at and they don't keep anything on their lot over 5 years old. Not enough of a profit margin for them.

RocketScience - As to the other thread I am not too impressed with any vehicle that has all of this electronic stuff on them (Rover, Cadillac, Ford, etc.). The more I wheel my Rover the more I rip out the electronics and sensors. That stuff may be cool on the road where if your vehicle fails you can call AAA, but if you are 50 miles or more from the nearest road AAA is just going to laugh at you if you call them.

 

Thanks for all the input, I'm going to check it out this weekend

 

Reliability - as aforementioned, electrics and build quality aren't their strong suit.

However their motor, transmission, and axles are reasonably stout.
And the alloyblock Rover motor can be built up to make quite silly amounts of power... and I happen to love the off beat "woofle" of them...
(my neighbours stroked 5.3l supercharged beast https://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gal...113289&width=0 )

On top of that - if you are into wheeling, there wouldn't be another stock wagon style 4x4 that will touch it off-road...

(yes, I am a bit of a Land Rover fan )

 

omni - if you want to read up on the Disco checkout the discoweb.org forum. They are somewhat purist there and would not think kindly to my suggestion of running tires larger than 32's or ripping out electronics and sensors, but there is a lot of good information there on the vehicles and what can go wrong with them. You might want to check out roversnorth.com and atlanticbritish.com as well. Both are parts vendors and have a lot of good information on their websites. Like any vehicle check it out really well and know what you are getting into before you hand over your money. There are plenty of Land Rovers out there and one that suits your taste and needs will come up. You just might have to wait awhile. Let me know if you need any more information.

BigF350 - how are things in OZ? Did you get to the Outback Challenge this year? I like your neighbor's Rangie. Wish we had more Land Rovers available stateside. We don't have a lot of the really nice models you get in OZ or in the UK. Would love to have a Defender or Series. Because there were so few Defenders brought to the US (only 500 D110's in 1993 and D90's were from 1994 until 1997) they command a high price and Series vehicles are getting hard to come by at a reasonable price too since the last one imported was in 1984. The Rangies and Disco seem to be the best buy right now.

 

As Darren said, that seems to be hit or miss even with the current Land Rovers. My wifes '03 Range Rover had no problems, but her '05 LR3 has had a few electrical bugs and a couple of mechanical problems (could just be first year bugs, I don't know). We never took the RR off-road, but the LR3 did pretty good. Like Darren, all the electronic gadgetry scares the heck out of me, I've learned to rig a lot of parts, but I can't bench test a sensor or circuit board and fix it in the field. So we kept it fairly close to a main road. It's hard to beat one for comfort and the Disco II's with their coil spring suspension lend themselves well to custom lifts.

Now that's a Range Rover.

 

I had a 96 Discovery 60 k miles, no problems 15 MPG fill up to fill up, nice ride! I traded it for a truck.

 

Hey Jonathan!! That is why you wheel that Sammie!! I know you know the following, but so others realize the new Land Rovers "are still" capable off road vehicles. I am just not a fan of electronic traction control, ABS, ride height control, etc. on an off road vehicle. Yes the stuff works when it works, but when it breaks you have a big problem. That is why I prefer the simplier Series and Defender models for off road use.

The Land Rover dependability and reliability was a result of the Series and now the Defender models that are still the choice vehicle for expeditions, safaris, wilderness travel for different organizations, and even the US Special Forces and Rangers for air drop and special missions. The Series and some of the current Defender models are very basic and easy to work on. Land Rover moved away from that with the Range Rover and Disco models to appeal to a wider market and to make them more "civilized". The "civilized" part is what gives the vehicles their issues as I mentioned before. This by no means make them a terrible vehicle. They just have their share of problems like other vehicles. Some have more problems than others while some like TN-W124 Diesel report having no problems at all.

If you are not afraid of doing alittle research (Land Rovers are not the most mainstream vehicles out there), tinker on them, spend alittle more money on them for parts (again not mainstream) you will have a vehicle that you won't see coming and going everywhere you go along with being very capable both on and off road.

 

BigF350 - how are things in OZ?
Good thanks!!!
Did you get to the Outback Challenge this year?
No - unfortunately have been busy Would have loved too though.
I like your neighbor's Rangie.
I happen to love it too... I saw a genuine Mk1 Overfinch the other day, and my heart was oh so tempted, but my head said no...
Wish we had more Land Rovers available stateside. We don't have a lot of the really nice models you get in OZ or in the UK. Would love to have a Defender or Series.Unfortunately they are becoming more expensive here too. The newer ones aren't that popular new, but are very popular second hand... leading to a supply shortage.
Because there were so few Defenders brought to the US (only 500 D110's in 1993 and D90's were from 1994 until 1997) they command a high price and Series vehicles are getting hard to come by at a reasonable price too since the last one imported was in 1984. The Rangies and Disco seem to be the best buy right now.My favourite model (not sure if you got them) was the Land Rover County.
First model with coils - and had the turbo'd 3.9l Isuzu diesel...