defender versus disco

[deep]

Ahh, Discoveries go out and discover, Defenders stay at home and defend -- seriously it comes down to what you have and what you want it for, I originally wanted a Toyota Land Cruiser Series 80 - coil sprung and a close copy of the Series 1 Discovery and with a fabulous mechanically injected turbo 4.2 litre 6 cylinder engine but, even second hand in good condition they were well beyond my budget, so the 300Tdi with all it's inherent cooling problems was my second choice.

I've now done a tad over 230,000 kilometres in her (this is bush distances and not including 60,00 0K's local black-top driving) and while I have carried out several , many modifications the Disco is now as reliable as any 4 WD can be. It comes down to what you have, what you can afford, how you drive it and what and where you want to go and do with it.

Drifting well off-topic now but I recall coming across many Toyotas with that engine when I did my Aussie desert tour in 2004. When I talked to the drivers, they invariably were only getting around 17m.p.g. and were very surprised that my petrol Range Rover was getting a steady 20. Tdi drivers reported much better economy than that, of course. The fuel savings you have made in 230,000 km would be massive!

[Boydie]

No argument from me there, a young east German couple asked Julie and I if they could "tag" along with us when we crossed the Simpson Desert, they had a petrol/gas series 80, our Disco used a tad under 100 litres of diesel for the 480 kilometre crossing (90% of that distance in low range and about 40% of that with diff-lock engaged) they used up 180 litres of premium grade petrol. But it's not always about economy, that Toyota turbo 4.2 is so reliable and so smoooooooth - the extra 90KW of power wouldn't go astray either.