Outdoor Ed Posted October 31, 2010 Share Posted October 31, 2010 It has come to the point where we are going to have to sell Tiger the V8 Disco, after falling in love with her and fixing her up, she has become uneconomical to keep. The initial thing with here along with fixing her up was to put a diesel engine in her too, but due to lack of time thanks to my great new job, doing an engine swap is just not happening, and in the meantime she is costing my fiance a small fortune to run. So the decision has been made to buy a Diesel Disco, after finding a couple of absolute cracking examples of the 300tdi disco's we found out that some other people had also spotted them and bought them before we could get to them To be honest we are struggling to find any decent ones we have about £3K to spend, and would rather spend and get a decent one with low-ish mileage. So my parameters are having to change as this needs to happen soonish. What are the TD5 Disco's like in terms of up keep and working on them yourselves and are there any additional issues related with these ones over the 300tdi's Also (and I really don't like this but it is the fiance's car) as she likes the Freelanders what are the TD4 freelanders like? problems? etc.... we have spotted a very clean 52 plate TD4 freebie that seems like a good deal at £3.5K with 93K on the clock and with a full service history. Is this going to cause me issues, eg expensive garage bills or can I still do a lot of the work myself? HELP!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cjmt Posted October 31, 2010 Share Posted October 31, 2010 LPG??? An LPG conversion can pay back very quickly (< 1 year) on a V8 doing even a moderate number of miles, might well be worth thinking about. You say you have a budget of £3000, given the fuel economy of the vehicles your considering isnt great it would take a very very long time before you spent that much running the V8, even (especially) if you spent £1500 on an LPG conversion. I have a spreadsheet somewhere I think that dos th maths if that helps. I say this as a TDi owner and a tight ex small company car fleet manager rather than a V8 enthusiast Charlie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Outdoor Ed Posted October 31, 2010 Author Share Posted October 31, 2010 LPG??? An LPG conversion can pay back very quickly (< 1 year) on a V8 doing even a moderate number of miles, might well be worth thinking about. You say you have a budget of £3000, given the fuel economy of the vehicles your considering isnt great it would take a very very long time before you spent that much running the V8, even (especially) if you spent £1500 on an LPG conversion. I have a spreadsheet somewhere I think that dos th maths if that helps. I say this as a TDi owner and a tight ex small company car fleet manager rather than a V8 enthusiast Charlie No to LPG! Why is everyone so obsessed with LPG systems! it would be our main vehicle and I don't want the hassle with LPG, also the V8 was NEVER going to stay it was always going to become a diesel. We have a buyer for the V8 Disco already a diesel is the way to go for me, I prefer them and they have less issues with water, which we seem to get A LOT of in the Lake District these days. I have a diesel in the 90 but that is more of an off-road toy now. The budget is £3-4K we would just rather spend 3K considering we get married next easter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retroanaconda Posted October 31, 2010 Share Posted October 31, 2010 £3k could pay for a company to do a diesel conversion for you couldn't it? If you didn't have the time. Especially if you know the car is in good nick. Else-wise, Td4 Freelanders are pretty reliable with the exception of the well-publicised VC/IRD issue. My dad had one for 7 years and 90,000 miles without any issues though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disco-Ron Posted October 31, 2010 Share Posted October 31, 2010 £k would indeed pay for a conversion, however, the budget i suspect won;t be 3k if he doesn;t sell the existing v8 disco.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Outdoor Ed Posted October 31, 2010 Author Share Posted October 31, 2010 £k would indeed pay for a conversion, however, the budget i suspect won;t be 3k if he doesn;t sell the existing v8 disco.... You are very right indeed! We already have a buyer for it, which is good but means I need to get a new one sharpish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turbocharger Posted October 31, 2010 Share Posted October 31, 2010 Ed - From doing 20k miles a year in my Defender, I did the maths and worked out I can tax, insure and MOT another car from the money I'd save on fuel. I chose an MGF but you could buy a diesel Mondeo / Vectra / Saab / Volvo etc for less than a grand (bigger cars are cheaper), take advantage of 50+mpg and still enjoy the V8 Disco (that you know is good because you've fixed it already...) on weekends and when it snows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Outdoor Ed Posted November 2, 2010 Author Share Posted November 2, 2010 It's not my car the Disco, it is the Fiance's she would like another Land Rover, as she feels safe in them, especially in the bad weather, which we seem to get a lot of up here. The V8 is going to go, we have a buyer that we have promised it to, who has more time to spend on it. The 90 is the play toy, as I have my company car to use all the time. So the replacement is for the other half and she want's something to feel safe in and will get her about when the weather is bad and I'm off around the country and before you all say it she doesn't like driving the 90 on the road. what do I do? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maverik Posted November 3, 2010 Share Posted November 3, 2010 4-5k would get you something like this My link To be honest, you'll have to put more money in (maintenance/fettling) for any Land rover of starting price 3k. Best look at Jap makes but even then you're gonna struggle with that budget. Will she still feel safe when she's broken down at the side of the road in a tatty 4x4... If I were you I'd have a word with her about car prices... How posh is she... My link it has tax & MOT... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FridgeFreezer Posted November 3, 2010 Share Posted November 3, 2010 <cough>Freelander<cough> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M&S Posted November 3, 2010 Share Posted November 3, 2010 £3k should get you a very tidy 300tdi Disco. You just need to be patient. £4k might get you a nice, early TD5 Disco. They are easy enough to work on yourself, there is still an engine under the bonnet despite what people think To be honest though, as a road going vehicle, if she doesn't need the space, I too would be looking at a TD4 Freelander. Get a nice 5 door with a decent spec, some AT's on it, and she'll be able to tacke the worst of the Lake District weather. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aragorn Posted November 3, 2010 Share Posted November 3, 2010 Ignoring the freelander (as if one of those was suitable i'd be looking at something like an Audi Allroad or Volvo XC or similar instead), I'd be looking at a D2. Spending 3 grand on a D1 is no guarantee that the floors not going to be hanging out of it. D2 is a better car all round. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maverik Posted November 3, 2010 Share Posted November 3, 2010 <cough>Freelander<cough> Are you that immpressed with yours? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FridgeFreezer Posted November 3, 2010 Share Posted November 3, 2010 Are you that immpressed with yours? Yes I am, despite their problems (hey, it's a Land Rover) it's proved itself a cheap, reliable runabout (or even "sports convertible"). I've put nearly 50k on mine so far ('98 1800 petrol) bringing the total to ~170k. Parts are as cheap & available as any other LR, they're easy enough to work on compared to the average eurobox, and they just don't rust. It's quite noticable now the number of Freebies in the club as runabouts is constantly growing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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