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I am always amazed at the prestige that you guys in the US attach to LR Discos. In the UK they are well known to be the MOST unreliable and expensive to run SUV around. The new Disco 3 is meant to be leagues better.

If it was me I'd have a Touareg. They are way cool, especially if you have a VAG COM and a laptop - hack your car!

What a well known UK car journo has to say about the Disco:

Quote:

What's Good
Revised, more expensive, slightly longer model from October 1998 with new 136bhp 'TD5' 5-cylinder direct injected diesel engine, up to seven forward-facing seats and much better road handling than the old model. Same high driving position good for sightseeing. Outstandingly competent and comfortable off-road. Price of entry level Discovery E TD5 cut to £21,995. Facelift Summer 2002 (see separate entry). Unlimited mileage 3-year warranty on all new Discoverys sold by official UK dealers from 1-3-2002.
Owners bulletin board: www.landrover.org/wwwboard/wwwboard.html
What's Bad
Appalling catalogue of build problems - worse even than 300 model. Sometimes delivered with wrong spec. Hard to distinguish visually from older model except for forward facing 6th and 7th seats. Fuel consumption of TD5 around 17% worse than previous four-cylinder diesel and has reputation for poor trailer pulling at low revs (ECU chip now available from Land Rover dealers to increase torque at low revs). 6th from Bottom of 100 models for reliability in Auto Express 2002 survey. Joint 16th from Bottom in 144 car 2002 JD Power / What Car? Customer Satisfaction Survey of V and W reg cars. Facelifted with 700 improvements in Spring 2002. LandRover had joint highest average cost in warranty claims for cars up to 10 years old in 2002 Warranty Direct index. Joint second bottom in 2002 Which reliability survey of cars up to 2 years old; 35 cars surveyed. Land Rover 3rd least reliable of 31 makes of car in 2002 'Which?' reliability survey cars 2000 - 2002; least reliable of 32 makes built 1997 - 1999. Spate of engine power, gearbox and exploding clutch problems which LandRover will not repair under warranty. Floodwater or water from fording streams gets into rear air suspension and causes it to collapse. TD5 Oil pump prone to sprocket failure and without oil pressurer engine self-destrects. More on this at www.amanet.co.uk/td5oilpumpfailure.htm Only 89% breakdown free in 2003 Which survey. Land Rovers had third highest warranty repair costs in 2003 Warranty Direct Reliability index (index 167.53 v/s lowest 31.93). Link:- www.reliabilityindex.co.uk 98-2000 models average for breakdowns, problems and faults in 2003 Which survey.

get a used BMW X5??

My brother in law has an MDX it's quite the car - I really liked it, felt small still too!

My dad has an MDX daily driver, good car, very reliable, very comfy and good room inside. Downsides are horrible acceleration, really ugly looking and everybody has one around here it seems. Still, a great car with good features that's priced very well IMHO.

Not sure this is much help....

I just bought the 2004 4Runner V8 4x4 Sports a few days ago. Seems to handle much better than my 95 4Runner but that was only a small engine.

The 2004 still feels 'truck like' compared to normal sedans.

I bought from Longo for US$31,500 including a range of options.

Have you driven the '04 to compare with yours? Any difference?

[QUOTE]Originally posted by blogic
[B]get a used BMW X5??

My business partner has an X5 and he hates it. He prefers his 4Runner(he bought the X5 to replace this, but still ends up driving the 4Runner more often).

As for the Disco comments--I agree, never a big fan, although my buddy does wheel the heck out of his, and it hasn't left him stranded yet.....Me, I prefer my 79 Jeep Wagoneer--a real SUV.;)

Trading in our 2001 Volvo Cross Country (V70 XC now called XC70) for an MDX Thursday. Looked at everything.

As a sports car guy (small/light) in need of 3 rows of seating (I'm soccer and t-ball coach again this year), there was nothing that felt smaller or drove better except the Volvo XC90 - and that has a 2nd row seat no bigger than our current wagon. Didn't want a Suburban-type real truck. Cadillac SRX was close but no cigar due to gun-slit front windows (loved the big sunroof though).

And expect Honda/Acura build quality to mean no repairs. Love to work on the Porsche, but every other auto task means time away from other pursuits.

VW/Porsche, X5, Infiniti, all too small for the junk we travel with these days with 3 kids and the occasional friends. As they grow larger and their toys smaller, we might look at an Audi/Volvo/Merc AWD wagon again. But for the next 3 years (leasing), Acura was best.

Lexus is coming out with a hybrid of their small SUV the RX 330. Its going to get close to 50 mpg.