Land Rover Discovery

[Bronze]

I am thinking of buying a Land Rover Discovery for use in Spain.

Can anyone offer advice on how easy it is to maintain/service a LR in Spain. It will be used around the Torre del Mar area.

Many thanks

[ajtg1952]

I had a TD5 for just over a year. The electrics are so sophisticated that it spent a good deal of it's time with me in the garage on a diagnostic machine. I had to replace the cylinder head and several large electrical sending units. €6,000 later I called it a day and lost €5,000 on what I had paid for it. I bought and X Trail. Not nearly as good off road but much more reliable.

Incidentally, I am not anti Discoveries; I also have a 20 year old 200 series that has never given me any trouble at all. It's just the post 2000 models I feel are not reliable.

Have a look at the Forum linked below and you will see what problems may be ahead of you.

http://forum.landrovernet.com/forum.php

[Bowler]

Totally agree with you post 2000 Discos are rubbish tghe earlier ones are fine, you should also consider A Nissan patrol, or Toyota, they run forever and are easy to repair.

[Trooperman]

Oh Dear!

I rather like my Td5 -brought in Ipswich and matriculated here in Spain. Estepona motors do a good job for me if I need them- they're official LR dealers/mechanics but are probably no good for Torre del Mar.

The real problem with ALL Land Rover official workshops is the extortionate price of spares - all with the "LR approved" designation - and that applies to the UK as well as Spain and probably every other country as well. But I do find the labour charges quite reasonable.

So far I've had to have a new wiring harness from the rocker box to the ECU (quite a "normal" failure I understand) which was done by a local mechanic, two new rear pneumatic springs/balloons (pattern parts at half the price of LR ones) also done locally, and a new front prop shaft/cardon joint, done by Estepona motors where the price of the official LR part was horrendous - 600 Euros as opposed to just over 300 GBP had I got a pattern part sent from the internet in the UK.

I find it a lot cheaper to have a set of filters (oil, oil rotor, air & fuel) couriered out from the UK than bought locally in Ronda and the fully synthetic engine oil is horribly expensive if bought via LR.

So. To sum up I suggest you use an official LR dealer if you have a problem to which you don't have the solution and a local dealer for routine stuff with the consumables sourced as above.

Oh........and I still love my Td5

By the way, changing the headlamps was easy-peasy. Got new LHD ones sent from the UK, fitting dead simple, and I then sold the old RHD ones on Ebay when I went back to the UK!

[ajtg1952]

Oh........and I still love my Td5

I loved mine, but it was just too expensive to run. It was beautiful to drive, would go anywhere and I really miss it; my X Trail just can't hold a candle to it!