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Absolutely love our 2001 disco… my father bought it at 5 months old and it’s now my wife’s daily car. It collected both my boys from hospital when they were born, took me and the wife to our honeymoon, been all over Europe from southern Spain to the artic circle and many more family road trips! My eldest passed his driving test in it and my other so will be doing the same next year. I can honestly say that it’s been a very reliable vehicle with the biggest problem being a new engine fitted by myself around 83k after the oil pump bolt came loose! Axles never been touched, main gearbox never needed anything and the transfer box had a seal fitted a few years back to stop a leak! It’s still the same as it was when it left the factory apart from the engine now puts out around 170hp which makes it a better drive.. we will never get rid of the old girl now.. it’s literally one of the family!
Why this channel doesn’t have at least another 1 million subscribers confuses me, no others does this kind of variety or can pull off these ‘it’s just one of your mates telling you about a car’ videos you always seem to do.
I still have my 2003. Bought it for $8000 ten years ago and put an engine in soon after. Other than that unexpected expense and faded paint, it still takes me to work everyday. As stated, the good ones are still going and the bad ones have all been recycled. I love mine, 130,000 miles and going strong. I just wish the 4.6 was not so thirsty.
Nice to see a review of the Disco 2. I have also a V8 4.0 Auto 2002 model here in Australia - was imported from the UK by a previous owner and was full leather, 7 seat, ACE, even has rear air conditioning! Rare though, it does NOT have any sunroofs, but they are notorious for leaking so not too upset! It now has almost 400,000km on it, and apart from service items, I have had to replace an auto gearbox (my fault, I filled it with muddy water one time) a power steering pump and an alternator. I did replace the transfer box, not because it was faulty, but the 2002 model has the version without a centre diff lock, so I got that rectified :-) It truly is a great long-distance cruiser, and very capable off-road of course.
Greetings from Central Europe. I have my rusty(not that bad) 1997 D1 3.9 V8 imported from Saudi Arabia(what a traveller) and it's a beast capable of running on 7 maybe 6 cylinders and I just love it. Seriously got degenerated by LR. Even thinking about getting L322 4.2SC😂... it's a diagnosis, i geuss...
The original Disco 1 was designed in a month using entirely already existing parts. It was the fastest selling new LR product ever! The D2 with the TD5 was a huge improvement and by the time the facelift version came out was very reliable, indeed. The HP was 135, (not 120) and my 2003 facelift version was the most reliable LR vehicle I have ever had. Though the D3 was nicer to drive and surprisingly not that unreliable.
At 7:50 you sum up the main problem with most Rover owners: you say you know nothing about off-roading. That is THE reason to buy something like this; it's a proper 4wd with body on frame and solid axels at both ends. As all Rovers before it, it's off-road ability was paramount and on-road performance was secondary. Too often people look at a Rover as just another up-market SUV, cross shopping against BMW, Merc, Lexus, etc. That's just wrong and leads to many people's poor experiences. They simply bought the wrong car, expecting a soft road-only luxury car when they bought a real 4WD off-road capable truck. Yes, truck - look at those underpinnings again and you'll realize it's got more in common with an F150 than something from BMW or Lexus. And of course that's the beauty of the vehicle - it's easy to modify to suite your specific needs. I would argue the Discovery 1 is actually better as it doesn't have the long overhang of the D2 and actually shares more (full float axles for example) with the RRC and Defender but there were other upgrades that the D2 received in suspension design that were superior. (front link joints for example). Sadly, this was the last solid axle Discovery and marked the start of the end for them with each generation getting progressively less easy to modify and "build to suite" ...now they really ARE trying to sell luxury on-road vehicles to compete with the Germans and Japanese at the mall instead of proper, easily modified four wheel drives.
The good thing about Land Rovers this can also be said for Jeeps is you can keep them running for ever as all of the parts are available from a new chassis to a light bulb.
My family has a 1999 Discovery with the 4.0 V8 in it and it is one of my all time favorite cars. It was the car my mom drove through my entire childhood and I have so many good memories in the car. It's so much fun to drive too, the V8 isn't very fast but the torque is so low down that in traffic it actually has good power for quick little get up and gos. Unfortunately it has a crack in the engine block because it got very hot in Los Angeles and broke down when it overheated. We still have it, but it needs a new engine. Besides that and the headliner its such an amazing vehicle, I love the way it looks feels and sounds.
I had a mk 1 disco....the 3 door version. Slow, rolled like a fishing boat and as rusty as the titanic when i eventually sold it ...and i loved it. The td5 engine was so good and sounded brilliant. I could carry 7 people and tow a boat. Long journeys were comfy, thanks to a lovely commanding driving position. It had so much character. Maybe ive got my rose glasses on....
@@Khloya69 Unless you’re American It is “galvanised”. “Galvanized”is the way our American cousins spell it. The British spell it with an s, though both can be used.
Had one new in 2002. Also the 4 liter. 20 mpg? Not even if you measured that pushing it off a cliff. The best I ever got was 17.7 mpg - with 12 being my average. That being said in a year of ownership (it was actually a company car and I left so gave it back) I never had a single problem. The self leveling suspension was amazing in corners and sports setting. Didn’t go off-road too much but you always felt there were 3❤ options when faced with a Greek mountain - over it, round it or throw a rope around it and pull it out of the way.
You're not wrong. My local garage claimed to provide courtesy cars while servicing vehicles and, when I took my D2 in and asked for a courtesy car, they gave me a V8 P38. I think they were punishing me for daring to ask for the courtesy car. When I started off, the trip computer was showing 12.2mpg. I figured it'd probably improve during my daily commute of 20-odd miles. It did improve. By 1.2mg, to 13.4mpg. I had the P38 for 3 days. I put in £30 on the first day, £20 on the 2nd day and £50 on the last day to put the gauge back where it was when I got it. My daily commute is 24 miles each way, plus a bit of running around, for a grand total of around 200 miles and 15 gallons of petrol. Never been so glad to get my D2 back, stick £120 of diesel in it and know it was going to get me around for at least a couple of weeks.
Please drive one with active cornering enhancement (ACE) and one that’s got standard suspension on it I.e not lifted for comparison. The steering geometry changes when they’re lifted and the ACE is unbelievably good at getting rid of body roll, seeing really is believing.
I second that. Owned a 2001 and the winding on and off ramps in WA state seemed to have changed overnight driving it for the first time after a Kia Sorento …seating and drive quality are Nec Plus Ultra…
The US TH-cam channel TFL bought a Disco 2 as a fun, cheap off-roader and, despite their misgivings, ended up loving it and using it as a rescue vehicle on their off-road shoots. Yeah, it leaked oil but it never failed them. Reminds me of James May taking the Lotus Esprit off-road and the car surprisingly not failing.
Many many dealings with these over the years……. In my opinion the best (in concept if not execution) Land Rover ever made. One common thread is that the core ownership, faced with a Disco, Landcruiser, Trooper etc etc, used, abused and ignored them as a rule……… the Disco being the least able to cope with this treatment…….. The 200 and 300tdi seem to be the sweet spot……. enough and no more. Then came the Disco 3 and 4 with the grenade style Ford TDV6……… built with a monocoque body that alarmingly cracked - a lot ! So, ended up stuck on the same old ladder frame……. so, two chassis’s for the price of one…… and 2600kg 😳 Good God ! Ditto the Range Rover (not) Sport (anything but) In my opinion, the new Defender (hateful name 😡) is the logical Disco 5 - style, size, price The Disco 5 is a Ssangyong rebadged and jacked up a bit. JLR should make a stripped out, hose down buggy style utility……. like a John Deere Gator or Kawasaki Mule, for the real farmers, at a decent price and call it a “Landrover” perhaps 🤔……… like an original short short wheelbase series one 80” only, with room for an adult human with both legs to sit and drive. Trouble is, six months later JLR would launch an URBAN version with 24” wheels, neoprene lined with 1000bhp hybrid drive, for £180k…….. destined for the Chelsea TossPot market…….. ruining it.
The Belgian tomatoes are easily explained. British market gardeners are closing down because they can’t afford the massive prgoce hike in gas to heat their greenhouses. An Essex grower has closed and that’s 300 jobs gone, because his annual gas bill went from 900 k to 14 million So we have to rely on imported tomatoes from the EU.
Hate to say it but a lot of Land Rover products are bought by people who can’t really afford them. They then run them cheaply, rag them around and are then the most vocal when it comes to reliability!!
Loved my ES TD5 which was really fuel efficient. Bought another 10 years later and drove it from Russia to the UK umpteen times. It was brilliant too. Just bought a Jaguar EPace 240D to replace our 2017 Evoque 150D. Surprisingly the 240D is better on fuel than the D150. It's like any car, look after it and it'll look after you!
I've owned 3 of them. You get a lot of car for your money, however they're very heavy on their maintainence. The TD5 is a good motor, but they require a lot of maintainence to keep them running. They are still excellent cars
Whilst the Discovery 1 did indeed have a Range Rover chassis, the Disco 2 had a completely different and newly designed chassis. The "body on frame" construction is still being used today in most 4x4 and large SUV's. Also, the pre 2002 headlights are essentially the same units as the 300tdi Disco 1 , they're just blacked out on the inside . A cheap upgrade for your Discovery 1 as they are a straight swap - no messing with bodywork or electrics, just plug in and play . I fitted a pair to my 1995 ES and it really transformed the front end. As for reliability, one only has to look at the mileages of vehicles for sale to gauge that. Most are 150,000 - 200K plus. How unreliable is a vehicle if it regularly achieves these kinds of mileages ? But they will most often be tired,looking forward to retirement as a cheap off road play thing with lift kits and winches being fitted. Really low mile examples will have been cosseted and will command north of £10K .
Air suspension on the rear, on most models. Coils on some export vehicles. I only get 22mpg with a TD5. Yes, they can be troublesome, usually through lack of care. That looked a very tidy example.
The D2's require constant maintenance and some basic flaws addressed, but they are terrific off-road vehicles. I've had 4, and only one left me stranded when I lost an oil pump on a trail. That said, it did get me off the trail even with the bad engine! My current 04 has always gotten me home no matter how badly it's been abused on a trail (rotted frame and all). Terrific video!
I had a early 2002 SE7 with the 4.6L. I did love that car, but without any locking differentials and 2002 Land Rover traction control it was useless off road. I do regret selling that car.
@@enjoyingend1939but it is true some need much less I've owned many others including this disco. I've had Ford F-150s from the same year that you change the oil only pretty much during their entire life maybe a little thing here they're nothing nearly as much as the Disco with a not greasable front drive shaft for this lip liner is because the bad Machining or the head gasket problem because the thermostat makes the all aluminum engine run way too hot to match modern emissions. They really did go negligent a lot of things so you can't defend them just by saying everything needs a lot of Maintenance there's some Vehicles you can just drive and drive and drive for hundreds of thousands of miles if you haven't experienced that then maybe you have an experienced American trucks
i find it quite amusing that two companies that SPECIALISE i 4X4's have the worst reputation in the WORLD for lack of reliability. That being Jeep and Landrover/range rover.
These are a great work horse. I have one and it sadly failed its last MOT on a leaking axle! ☹ I and my wife loved driving it and it served us really well having covered over 200,000miles. I am very reluctant and sad to have to let her go as our needs have changed. These cars really have personality like no other car I have driven, in a good way! Thanks for sharing the video and keep up the good work! PS If anyone is interested in buy this from me it would make a great car for a little repair, just reply below and I will get in touch. Like a baby, i want it to get a great new home! Hope my comments are permitted.
I just inherited my brother's 2002 Discovery II here in the northest United States. It's in good condition except for the rear portion of the frame that needs repair. A few minor details need attention as well, but overall, it's a great machine. My Discovery has the 4.0 V8. For a future mod, I'm going to fit a transfer case with the center locker
I had a 2000 mk 2 diesel auto, great car . Nothing stops it, only sold it because the fuel economy was 14 to 17 miles per gallon. It did have engine modifications and a near straight through exhaust
My parents had one for 13 years (X304 OGE was the reg - sadly no longer on the road), and only one time did it leave them on the back of a breakdown truck when an air spring split. It was still driveable, but it was very bouncy. It had usual Discovery niggles, such as leaking sunroofs and windscreen, the fuel pressure regulator (it was a Td5), and needed its first clutch at 150,000 miles, but on the whole it was exceptionally reliable and trouble free. Sadly, the rear of the chassis rusted so spectacularly that in 2009 it already needed welding, and by the time they sold it in 2017 it was really beyond saving. The Discovery 3 they replaced it with, has been no end of trouble. I wouldn't miss that thing at all, but I do miss their old Disco.
Haha! My td5 was the least reliable car I've owned (30ish) but I loved it especially the 'active' air suspension (no roll). The D3 that followed and still have is the most reliable car I've owned ....!
@@cameronwood1994 exactly! Thank goodness there are so many enthusiasts contributing knowledge (eg lrtime on TH-cam) making self-help possible. As thode guys say
Tried to buy one four years ago, everyone I looked at had a crap chassis gave up. My P38's chassis is in excellent condition its used all year round love it.
He's wrong about the window switches not making sense they actually are in a perfect position because if you look at the switches from above as if the bezel was the top of the truck the switches are in the right position to match which stores they go to you if you look down at them from a driver's position so for me here in America the front left switch Powers my front left drivers window. He said it's reverse but he's wrong
Disco 1 & 2’s are proper trucks with a luxury interior that are amazing off road. Disco 3 & 4 were designed for a completely different purpose. Hauling the family around on road. The suspension was horrible, way too soft. Had a Disco 1 & 2 loved both. The 1 was 8 years old when I bought it and drove it for 8 years. Loved that car and had minimal issues. Parts were relatively cheap from online LR parts specialists. Test drove a used Disco 3 and was horrified at what it had become.
Bought a 13 year old, 10 owner wreck of a D2, did up everything that was broken or likely to break and ran it for 5 years and 50k miles. Parts were cheap which was handy as there was always something falling off. At least it was easy to work on.
Actually the layout of the window switches makes perfect sense if you look down at them from an above perspective like you're standing above the vehicle. That would make the top ones the rear and the bottom ones the front so it makes perfect sense actually you need to look at it from an above the vehicle perspective. So if you're looking down at four squares what represents the front the two forward squares and what represents the rear the two rear squares so it actually does make sense
Buddy of mine does Security and Farming. Hard to think of a better vehicle. Looks quite intimidating, and can make sure he gets up the muddy road home.
I have a TD 5 Disco 2,built in 2000. Has ACE,air suspension and all the trimmings. Had a re-chip and tune quite some years ago-made a very big improvement in low end torque and provided a bit more 'go' if I need it. It's passed the 300,000K mark and still the original engine which uses no oil between changes,which is every 6,000 miles. Only ever had one clutch which I replaced because of a screaming spigot bearing which grossly embarrassed the wife when carrying out parking! Plenty of material left on the actual driven plate. Never had any major hassle and the ACE and air suspension work a treat and never given any trouble. Air suspension beats coils any day! On a long run,and driven like the grand old lady she is,I get around 34mpg. Brilliant towing vehicle and I don't intend parting with it for anything,especially as it was my younger daughters first ever car until she sold it to me,so it's part of the family. She went on to hotter and faster things! A brilliant vehicle in my humble opinion and so much better than most of the modern crap filled with stupidly ridiculous,complex electronics costing a fortune to replace and about as much real use as a chocolate teapot 😂😂
I do remember the disco 1 came with R R on the brake and clutch pedals the front lights Sherpa back meastro van. The door frame and windscreen range rover. It was a real parts bin special but some how worked
I had a TD5 automatic for a while, absolutely loved it, both in fairly arduous off road conditions and on road. Pretty economical for the class of car and less lethargic than you might think. It was new at the time so no idea how it would be long term. Hill descent control was fantastic in some of the horrible conditions I used the car. On older ones beware of chequerplate, often horrors underneath.
I have a 97 Disco 1. I always hated SUVs, am more a sports car/vintage car person but I wanted something I could tow my other cars with. Plus it has a 3.9 V8 and I figure could chuck that in my MGB one day if needed! But I really like the thing. It's just a fun, nice vehicle and pretty capable not that I off road it. Sun roofs leak, of course. I covered them with PPF to stop that. The head liner was dead too but I replaced that with grey polar fleece which worked really well and looks great! Fuel economy was rubbish but that was a holed vacuum advance unit and me putting the wrong fuel in. Turns out to be the high compression V8 so it needs 95 octane not the 91 I was putting in. Fuel economy better but still dreadful! Anyone who has owned one seems to have loved them, despite all their issues! And yes, the power window switches are annoying! I always get them wrong.
I’m a performance car guy too and that’s why I lived my Disco 1 & 2’s. They handled surprisingly well. They were proper trucks so they had stiff suspension which was great for cornering. I surprised many much more capable cars by out cornering them. I couldn’t buy a disco 3 specifically because they softened up the suspension too much and it handled terribly.
On the throttle and brake spacing, on the manual D1 with left hand drive (which appears to use the exact same paddles except for the brake because it has to have space for the clutch) it's actually great, and i suspect the main problem with this is that it's right hand drive.
My dads had his 2000 TD5 ES manual since new, the only thing that’s needed replacing are the pump for the rear air suspension and recently, two rear callipers. It’s even on the same tyres from new!
My dad has had a bunch of Disco's right from the 1st gen and tbh the were always pretty great family cars. He also bought me an off road day for my birthday years ago and we used these to go over some pretty ridiculous terrain. A pretty serious bit of kit for it's purpose. Those heavily modified, lifted, mega bull bar, black smoke pumping types ones do have a whiff of Mad Max about them though
Loved my Disco’s which I owned here in mid Wales for 14yrs. Go anywhere like a an old school Defender, yet take me up the M4 in comfort. Keep on top of the maintenance and they’re a reliable workhorse, treat them like a car and they’re not. Top tip! Buy a grease gun and spend more time under them than washing them. Lanoguard the hell out of it and it’ll last you a lifetime. When something does break, upgrade it and over time you’ll have a truck that’s totally dependable.
We own a 2000 Discovery 2, in the same champagne-ee colour as this one. It's a TD5 with almost half a million kilometres on the clock. Yes, it has let us down a couple of times, but so has my VW Passat, my son's Audi A3 (engine self-destructed), and my wife's Hyundai i30 (turbo self-destructed, taking the engine with it), all of which were well-maintained vehicles. The Discovery is easily the best vehicle for towing that I've ever used (up to 3.5 tonnes). The styling has aged well and the vehicle still looks handsome. It has become very fashionable to bag Land Rovers in Australia - "If you want to drive to Alice Springs, take a Land Rover. If you want to come back again, take a Toyota Land Cruiser". Well, I'm a long term Land Rover owner and if I had my way we would be replacing our current Disco 2 with another Disco 2. Although, it's now 23 years old and still going strong, so who knows when that will be. Despite the rhetoric, a surprisingly large number of Land Rover owners replace their vehicle with another Land Rover, so make of that what you will. Don't know about the current crop of Land Rovers, but the Discovery 2 is a good machine.
It’s an XS model. I had a 2000 V8 ES, amazing vehicle apart from the air suspension failed but a simple bag replacement. Own a L405 SDV8 Autobiography now & I can say it’s an amazing vehicle in comparison.
I’m on my second D2 and I love it. My first was a 2000 manual TD5 with 170k miles which hadn’t been looked after. The rear chassis needed patched several times and I believe it has now completely rotted away😮 My current one is a 2003 TD5 Auto with 76k miles and it is in great shape apart from the sagging headliner 🙄 They’re such a versatile car and have loads of room. Despite being fairly big back in the day they are actually not that big compared to modern cars- I did a video comparing mine to my Q4 E-Tron and they’re about the same size! 😮
I always find it funny when people say BMW bought LR for their tech when you could learn everything they knew by simply buying one. To take the propshaft off my year 2000 Disco still required a 9/16" spanner. Nice and easy to work on tho.
I remember the same feelings of concern when fuelling my brand new first time ever owning a land rover discovery immediately after picking the car up from the dealer. When the pump gauge got to 80ltrs I started looking for a pool of fuel under the car! It eventually stopped at 92ltrs. That dealer certainly wasn’t sharing any profit by putting more than the absolute minimum fuel in the car prior to me picking it up!
Hi Jay, great vid as always, just a couple of points. Firstly : The TD5 engine - in the Defender of the day it had 122 bhp and 300 n/mtrs; in the Discovery II version it had 135 bhp and 340 n/mtrs. Secondly : as you said the DII rust issues were predominantly chassis-based, but do you know where and how badly? The back quarter of the chassis in many, many DII's will have turned to lace by now !!! Not at all unusual to be able to see right through - if there's anything left at all. However nowadays a new replacement rear qtr. chassis is avail and easy/quick to fit. Cheers Dave.
I will add that the td5 is a very easily tuneable engine they were released in a very low state of tune so they could run on shoddy fuel in remote parts of the world. With a intercooler upgrade and a remap they can easily put out just shy of 200hp 450nm and they sound great when done.
135hp and 340Nm are both bettered by my 2015 Honda CR-V 1.6 litre diesel at 150hp and 340Nm with the torque at equally low revs to the LR. All of them beat my old factory 2.4 diesel 1988 Range Rover 2.4 which had 112hp and 185Nm torque with near zero torque under 2200 revs. Engines and vehicles generally have improved at a pace in recent years. While they have got heavier, the engines smaller with longer service intervals, they are more powerful, more economical and last better than ever before.
My parents have a farm with horses here in Switzerland. The car I grew up with. I have never had so many experiences with any car before or since. After the Disco 1 Tdi broke down at 300,000 km, my parents bought a second-hand Disco 2 TD5 in dark grey with beige leather. Family of 4, luggage and Great Dane in the boot, pulling horses, bringing home straw wagons, the Discovery was both a workhorse and a comfortable car for going out. There is no task that this incredible vehicle has not mastered. When it was eventually through, there was an XC90, but we cried for the Discovery for a long time. I later had 2 different Discovery 2 V8s and should I find a good one, I will buy a third and put it away…
Great vid, just about sums the Disco 2 up. I bought my 2004 TD5 about 18 months ago, I had a turbo blow up, a clutch cylinder crack and a fuel injection pipe come loose in the 17k miles I have done in it since then (which reminds me I have to do yet another oil change! Geeze I clock up some miles) It's done 186k miles now and apart from the three beakdowns with the turbo, clutch and injector pipe- I have enjoyed every inch of those miles. I often catch myself when I'm bowling down an A road with a few twists and turns saying "I really love driving this car"! Ok it is not a sports car and struggles to get pat 90mph but when can you really do that these days any way with practically every foot of motorway smothered in speeder catching devices, it sits very comfortably at 75-80 with a little to spare (unless going up a hill) which is enough, it will cruise allday at that, and then driving around A and B roads it has enough grunt to to stau in 5th most the time on A roads and 4th and 5th most the time on B roads with the ocasional visit to third on a tight bend or unexpexted, unprepared for incline, it is a joy to drive. FYI, if you own a 2004 TD5 and this doesn't sound like yours then either you are driving it too slow generally or if you haven't had it very long the previous owner did. These later models have an engine management system which over time learns your driving style and adapts the tune of the engine accordingly, it's subtle but it does make a difference over time and lots of owners have been led to believe that the TD5s are delicate engines and need to be coaxed along and not driven too hard for fear of breaking them, In fact the opposite is true, they need to be driven properly! Not necessarily thrashed but they don't like being driven on lots of short journeys to shops and back following old grannys on their family visits, they get all lazy plus of course the CATs get gummed up. So if yours is very sluggish I suggest you go and buy some snake venom (one of the fuel injector cleaning additives, but make sure it's a good one and buy two- it's a big tank) stick that in a full tank of fuel, then spend as much time as you can getting out on the motorway and accelerating moderately hard up to 70-80mph and cruise at that then blat down some dual carriageways and so on and generally, without actually thrashing it, drive it more like a sports car, use the gears, don't let it bog out and wait while it slowly picks up, change down and give it some beans! With mine if rev's drop below 1500 it;s time to drop a cog, if it's hovering around 1500 and I;m not in a hurry it will pull nicely from there and at about 2000 rpm is when it really starts pulling. I promise you after a few hundred miles you will notice the difference and you'll find it much more tractable and a very enjoyablke drive. I really don't know what I will replace mine with when either it finally wears out (hopefully another 100k left in her) or when Gov decides I'm not alowed to go anywhere I want to go in it anymore! But for the moment it is the best car I've ever owned in every respect, does everything I want it to from filling it up with daughter , wife and grandchildren to go on a picnic to towing a trailer or caravan (could do with more power there but to be honest it's afer as it naturally keeps me to towing legal speeds) to commuting 80 miles to work! It does it all wonderfully and I love it! Well done Landrover! Thanks again for your Vid helping to fly the flag for these great vehicles.
meant to say- the way I drive it I get just shy of 30 miles to the gallon. I'm happy with that as the trade off for performance. You can get a little more if you drive them like an old man but then as explained you start to lose peformance so I'd rather forego the possible extra 3-4 miles per gallon and enjoy driving it properly. On a tank full that equates to about 500 miles which is a pretty good range, but that is a lot of motorway work. I daresay if it was all A and B roads it would be different. ENJOY IT! ( ;-)
You mentioned self leveling which was basically rear air sus. You never mentioned the ACE system which was a big deal at the time, hyd anti roll bars so quite clever for the day. Made a big impact on fuel economy & was horific to fix but quite cool tech.
Absolutely - it's a real shame James reviewed a V8 and with conventional suspension. The ACE made the car lean into corners rather than rolling 'out'. With a tweaked td5 and this suspension I used to hustle it up the 59 hairpins to our usual ski resort in record time (no-one else aboard of course!). Much better than the current rolly D3 for corners (but in no other way). 30 mpg too.
Ive been dailying a 2004 D2 since senior year of college. Drove it coast to coast hauling my entire life from virginia to southern california after i graduated. Taken it up and down both coasts into canada and back. Absolutely love the thing. Have done a lot of preventative mods to it (distances, weather and conditions tend to be harsher and longer here in the us vs europe) so hoping it lasts until i can afford to do a full blown restoration. Love the thing. Just hate the freaking thirsty ass engine
Proudly owned a Disco 2 TD5 in 2012, and was the family wagon until 2016. Yes, it had some quirks, the 3 Amigos is a notorious fault, so is the XY sensor. However, these cars are so long on the road that most of these faults are generally known and fixes are relatively easy. Even though I've a Disco 4 now, the Disco 2 never fel like it was really uncomfortable, problematic etc. In fact, against most cheap cars these days, the D2 was an absolute gem. I woud have till kept her had we not a had massive rollover one evening in 2016, trying to avoid an oncoming motorbike at night driving on the road side of the road, a common problem here in Malaysia. Yet, my wife and daughter walked out of that unscathed, despite rolling over at 100km/h and ended up on a ditch on the side of the highway. A tribute to the strong and sturdy platform that Land Rover made, and of course seatbelts and baby seats!!
I’ve had a few of these discovery 2’s. Absolutely love them and have been more reliable than the Toyotas I’ve had. My last one went to 254k miles with ZERO issues. Only reason I got rid of it was because I ripped the side of the truck off off roading lmao
from an off roading perspective an older disco 2 with a diff lock transfer box will match a defender 110 all day (if you get shot of the front bumper) the big difference is like for like the 110 will cost you about 3k more
Only sold my 2004 run-out Pursuit model last year after 16 years ownership and 80,000 miles. Like an old smelly dog it became part of the family. 7 seater with air suspension. A genuine “Chelsea Tractor” the 1st owner lived in central London and pampered it but we used as described … family outings, learner driver x 2 sons and then mobile builders skip (dead easy to remove back seats). Air suspension was cheap to fix, service cost “reasonable” and 30 odd mpg with derv. Minor chassis rot patched easily and interior brushed up nicely. Still providing great service and should do so for another 10 years…. It’s obvious to see why these have become the de facto 4x4 for green laners and off-road dirt monkey’s as can be fixed on the fly with spanner’s and socket set. 😊
7:50 lift kit of 4 or 2 inches; it looks like 4 on the front and 2 on the rear. Had a Cherokee with a 4" lift kit, when a front spring broke we found out that they could only be bought as part of the complete lift kit for both axles, so it ended up getting a 2" kit fitted to the front, which were available for each axle separately. Has this had that, but the other way around?
The disco certainly does not have the range rover chassis ,,,, I make a very very healthy living welding land rovers for three local garages , and I have done so for twenty years , you will never be out of work if you work on land rovers ,,,, as of yet I have still never actually welded a range rover chassis ,,, disco chassis I can walk up to most of them and know exactly where I can poke a screwdriver through them ,,,, they are junk. although to be fair the disco 4 Ive not welded either ,,, most of them have packed up long before they need the chassis sorting.
I had one of these pre facelift, top of the range leather, twin air con fully loaded as the Americans say and I loved it BUT with a 60k warranty and the fact that LR had replaced just about everything including the rear axel by then I decided it had to go, when at 59985 miles the only major component not yet replaced, the engine let go, leading to the LR assist technician who attended me ( I had them on speed dial ) to call me a lucky lucky ba**ard! One new engine later I ran it for another 60k got tired of visiting the dealer every 2 months for small annoying repairs and finally let it go, and bought a Volvo xc70 which I ran for 270k and replaced ONE shock absorber and tyres in all that time bliss. Still love the disco 2 though. We are strange creatures aren’t we?
The Range Rover borrowed a lot from a Jeep Wagoneer, which had been around for a few years before the Range Rover and then Discovery. Full Size Jeeps were body on frame with live solid axles both ends, a simple formulae that gives great off roading and tolerable road manners. But the fSJ are simpler and cheaper to work on. I only have one FSJ and it is great
We loved our 300Tdi, it was a bit slow, thirsty AF, and rotten as a pear - but it just kept going, was easy to work on, and the command of the road is unrivalled!
Pioneer is good kit, well it has the edge of goodmans but would cost an extra tenner, good kit is stretching things a bit, When I had my BL "classics" in the 90s I fitted Pioneer speakers which came with the back widow sticker
The 2.0 MPi model in the original Discovery is a rare beast indeed. With the Rover K-series engine. Must of been very underpowered but a bit of a unicorn.
The window switches have been messed up by a PO, the front ones should do the front windows. The air suspension gives a better ride than the coil conversion.
Very nice Jay. Its becoming apparent your review qualities are just getting better and better. Cars are good, if they achieve what they set out to achieve, aren't they? You mostly call out cars, that make claims which they most certainly don't live up to, in similar company. There's some very terrible automobiles out there and,veven then, they're bound to be very "Ronseal" to someone. Excellent vid 👍
i do like the D2 but i do love my 3door 300tdi, lifted, mud tyres, snorkel, winch. love it. A little worse condition of this though 😅. Also mine costs 120 fill up
Loved my D2 took us all over Europe towing our caravan never gave us any problems it was however in my opinion under powered. I have a D4 now more than enough power but we have had reliability problems.
*S1 was a very successful parts bin special:* Sherpa headlamps Allegro door handles Maestro van rear lamp cluster Defender skylights Range Rover chassis. Add more!....
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Just out of interest, do you read the comments from your subscribers after you've posted a video?
@@FunLovingCriminal_JB always
Absolutely love our 2001 disco… my father bought it at 5 months old and it’s now my wife’s daily car. It collected both my boys from hospital when they were born, took me and the wife to our honeymoon, been all over Europe from southern Spain to the artic circle and many more family road trips!
My eldest passed his driving test in it and my other so will be doing the same next year.
I can honestly say that it’s been a very reliable vehicle with the biggest problem being a new engine fitted by myself around 83k after the oil pump bolt came loose!
Axles never been touched, main gearbox never needed anything and the transfer box had a seal fitted a few years back to stop a leak!
It’s still the same as it was when it left the factory apart from the engine now puts out around 170hp which makes it a better drive.. we will never get rid of the old girl now.. it’s literally one of the family!
Love the variety of cars on this channel... Not many channels that do this well...
Agreed. Must say this is one of the nastier end of vehicles though 😅. Some of the later models were a slight improvement
My Auntie and Uncle bought a brand-new 200 tdi Disco 1 in 1990,it was certainly revolutionary for the time .I absolutely loved it,thanks fella 👍
The fact your so impressed with a 50 year old design shows how totally mine blowing the RRC must have been back in 1970.
Why this channel doesn’t have at least another 1 million subscribers confuses me, no others does this kind of variety or can pull off these ‘it’s just one of your mates telling you about a car’ videos you always seem to do.
Very kind Kevin
I still have my 2003. Bought it for $8000 ten years ago and put an engine in soon after. Other than that unexpected expense and faded paint, it still takes me to work everyday. As stated, the good ones are still going and the bad ones have all been recycled. I love mine, 130,000 miles and going strong. I just wish the 4.6 was not so thirsty.
Nice to see a review of the Disco 2. I have also a V8 4.0 Auto 2002 model here in Australia - was imported from the UK by a previous owner and was full leather, 7 seat, ACE, even has rear air conditioning! Rare though, it does NOT have any sunroofs, but they are notorious for leaking so not too upset! It now has almost 400,000km on it, and apart from service items, I have had to replace an auto gearbox (my fault, I filled it with muddy water one time) a power steering pump and an alternator. I did replace the transfer box, not because it was faulty, but the 2002 model has the version without a centre diff lock, so I got that rectified :-) It truly is a great long-distance cruiser, and very capable off-road of course.
Greetings from Central Europe. I have my rusty(not that bad) 1997 D1 3.9 V8 imported from Saudi Arabia(what a traveller) and it's a beast capable of running on 7 maybe 6 cylinders and I just love it. Seriously got degenerated by LR. Even thinking about getting L322 4.2SC😂... it's a diagnosis, i geuss...
The original Disco 1 was designed in a month using entirely already existing parts. It was the fastest selling new LR product ever!
The D2 with the TD5 was a huge improvement and by the time the facelift version came out was very reliable, indeed.
The HP was 135, (not 120) and my 2003 facelift version was the most reliable LR vehicle I have ever had.
Though the D3 was nicer to drive and surprisingly not that unreliable.
I had a base spec 03 D2 facelift TD5 for 13 years. Cloth,manual,5 seats, brilliant workhorse, loved it to bits.
At 7:50 you sum up the main problem with most Rover owners: you say you know nothing about off-roading. That is THE reason to buy something like this; it's a proper 4wd with body on frame and solid axels at both ends. As all Rovers before it, it's off-road ability was paramount and on-road performance was secondary. Too often people look at a Rover as just another up-market SUV, cross shopping against BMW, Merc, Lexus, etc. That's just wrong and leads to many people's poor experiences. They simply bought the wrong car, expecting a soft road-only luxury car when they bought a real 4WD off-road capable truck. Yes, truck - look at those underpinnings again and you'll realize it's got more in common with an F150 than something from BMW or Lexus. And of course that's the beauty of the vehicle - it's easy to modify to suite your specific needs. I would argue the Discovery 1 is actually better as it doesn't have the long overhang of the D2 and actually shares more (full float axles for example) with the RRC and Defender but there were other upgrades that the D2 received in suspension design that were superior. (front link joints for example). Sadly, this was the last solid axle Discovery and marked the start of the end for them with each generation getting progressively less easy to modify and "build to suite" ...now they really ARE trying to sell luxury on-road vehicles to compete with the Germans and Japanese at the mall instead of proper, easily modified four wheel drives.
I’m in total agreement with you.
How this comment doesn’t have more 👍’s is beyond me.
The good thing about Land Rovers this can also be said for Jeeps is you can keep them running for ever as all of the parts are available from a new chassis to a light bulb.
My family has a 1999 Discovery with the 4.0 V8 in it and it is one of my all time favorite cars. It was the car my mom drove through my entire childhood and I have so many good memories in the car. It's so much fun to drive too, the V8 isn't very fast but the torque is so low down that in traffic it actually has good power for quick little get up and gos. Unfortunately it has a crack in the engine block because it got very hot in Los Angeles and broke down when it overheated. We still have it, but it needs a new engine. Besides that and the headliner its such an amazing vehicle, I love the way it looks feels and sounds.
I had a mk 1 disco....the 3 door version. Slow, rolled like a fishing boat and as rusty as the titanic when i eventually sold it ...and i loved it. The td5 engine was so good and sounded brilliant. I could carry 7 people and tow a boat. Long journeys were comfy, thanks to a lovely commanding driving position. It had so much character. Maybe ive got my rose glasses on....
If they had only galvanised the chassis it could have been great.
Zinc covered steel needs breathing equipment for the welders. I doubt they had the cash for the smart option.
@@grievuspwn4g3 I think the galvanised replacement chassis available today are galvanised after welding together.
The Discovery 2 suffered from a chassis made from low grade steel due to the owners at the time(BMW) penny pinching.
Galvanized*
@@Khloya69 Unless you’re American It is “galvanised”. “Galvanized”is the way our American cousins spell it. The British spell it with an s, though both can be used.
Had one new in 2002. Also the 4 liter. 20 mpg? Not even if you measured that pushing it off a cliff. The best I ever got was 17.7 mpg - with 12 being my average. That being said in a year of ownership (it was actually a company car and I left so gave it back) I never had a single problem. The self leveling suspension was amazing in corners and sports setting. Didn’t go off-road too much but you always felt there were 3❤ options when faced with a Greek mountain - over it, round it or throw a rope around it and pull it out of the way.
You're not wrong.
My local garage claimed to provide courtesy cars while servicing vehicles and, when I took my D2 in and asked for a courtesy car, they gave me a V8 P38.
I think they were punishing me for daring to ask for the courtesy car.
When I started off, the trip computer was showing 12.2mpg.
I figured it'd probably improve during my daily commute of 20-odd miles.
It did improve.
By 1.2mg, to 13.4mpg.
I had the P38 for 3 days.
I put in £30 on the first day, £20 on the 2nd day and £50 on the last day to put the gauge back where it was when I got it.
My daily commute is 24 miles each way, plus a bit of running around, for a grand total of around 200 miles and 15 gallons of petrol.
Never been so glad to get my D2 back, stick £120 of diesel in it and know it was going to get me around for at least a couple of weeks.
A lot of credit needs to go to those Cooper discovery týres - truly excellent on and off road
My RangeRover classic cost me a bloody fortune in the 9 years of ownership !
Please drive one with active cornering enhancement (ACE) and one that’s got standard suspension on it I.e not lifted for comparison. The steering geometry changes when they’re lifted and the ACE is unbelievably good at getting rid of body roll, seeing really is believing.
I second that. Owned a 2001 and the winding on and off ramps in WA state seemed to have changed overnight driving it for the first time after a Kia Sorento …seating and drive quality are Nec Plus Ultra…
The US TH-cam channel TFL bought a Disco 2 as a fun, cheap off-roader and, despite their misgivings, ended up loving it and using it as a rescue vehicle on their off-road shoots. Yeah, it leaked oil but it never failed them. Reminds me of James May taking the Lotus Esprit off-road and the car surprisingly not failing.
Many many dealings with these over the years……. In my opinion the best (in concept if not execution) Land Rover ever made. One common thread is that the core ownership, faced with a Disco, Landcruiser, Trooper etc etc, used, abused and ignored them as a rule……… the Disco being the least able to cope with this treatment……..
The 200 and 300tdi seem to be the sweet spot……. enough and no more.
Then came the Disco 3 and 4 with the grenade style Ford TDV6……… built with a monocoque body that alarmingly cracked - a lot ! So, ended up stuck on the same old ladder frame……. so, two chassis’s for the price of one…… and 2600kg 😳 Good God !
Ditto the Range Rover (not) Sport (anything but)
In my opinion, the new Defender (hateful name 😡) is the logical Disco 5 - style, size, price
The Disco 5 is a Ssangyong rebadged and jacked up a bit.
JLR should make a stripped out, hose down buggy style utility……. like a John Deere Gator or Kawasaki Mule, for the real farmers, at a decent price and call it a “Landrover” perhaps 🤔……… like an original short short wheelbase series one 80” only, with room for an adult human with both legs to sit and drive.
Trouble is, six months later JLR would launch an URBAN version with 24” wheels, neoprene lined with 1000bhp hybrid drive, for £180k…….. destined for the Chelsea TossPot market…….. ruining it.
The Belgian tomatoes are easily explained. British market gardeners are closing down because they can’t afford the massive prgoce hike in gas to heat their greenhouses. An Essex grower has closed and that’s 300 jobs gone, because his annual gas bill went from 900 k to 14 million So we have to rely on imported tomatoes from the EU.
Hate to say it but a lot of Land Rover products are bought by people who can’t really afford them. They then run them cheaply, rag them around and are then the most vocal when it comes to reliability!!
Loved my ES TD5 which was really fuel efficient. Bought another 10 years later and drove it from Russia to the UK umpteen times. It was brilliant too. Just bought a Jaguar EPace 240D to replace our 2017 Evoque 150D. Surprisingly the 240D is better on fuel than the D150. It's like any car, look after it and it'll look after you!
I've owned 3 of them. You get a lot of car for your money, however they're very heavy on their maintainence. The TD5 is a good motor, but they require a lot of maintainence to keep them running. They are still excellent cars
Whilst the Discovery 1 did indeed have a Range Rover chassis, the Disco 2 had a completely different and newly designed chassis. The "body on frame" construction is still being used today in most 4x4 and large SUV's.
Also, the pre 2002 headlights are essentially the same units as the 300tdi Disco 1 , they're just blacked out on the inside . A cheap upgrade for your Discovery 1 as they are a straight swap - no messing with bodywork or electrics, just plug in and play . I fitted a pair to my 1995 ES and it really transformed the front end.
As for reliability, one only has to look at the mileages of vehicles for sale to gauge that. Most are 150,000 - 200K plus. How unreliable is a vehicle if it regularly achieves these kinds of mileages ? But they will most often be tired,looking forward to retirement as a cheap off road play thing with lift kits and winches being fitted. Really low mile examples will have been cosseted and will command north of £10K .
Air suspension on the rear, on most models. Coils on some export vehicles. I only get 22mpg with a TD5. Yes, they can be troublesome, usually through lack of care. That looked a very tidy example.
The D2's require constant maintenance and some basic flaws addressed, but they are terrific off-road vehicles. I've had 4, and only one left me stranded when I lost an oil pump on a trail. That said, it did get me off the trail even with the bad engine! My current 04 has always gotten me home no matter how badly it's been abused on a trail (rotted frame and all). Terrific video!
I had a early 2002 SE7 with the 4.6L. I did love that car, but without any locking differentials and 2002 Land Rover traction control it was useless off road. I do regret selling that car.
There is no car that doesn't need constant maintenance, it's what you sign up for when you buy a car.
@@enjoyingend1939but it is true some need much less I've owned many others including this disco. I've had Ford F-150s from the same year that you change the oil only pretty much during their entire life maybe a little thing here they're nothing nearly as much as the Disco with a not greasable front drive shaft for this lip liner is because the bad Machining or the head gasket problem because the thermostat makes the all aluminum engine run way too hot to match modern emissions. They really did go negligent a lot of things so you can't defend them just by saying everything needs a lot of Maintenance there's some Vehicles you can just drive and drive and drive for hundreds of thousands of miles if you haven't experienced that then maybe you have an experienced American trucks
i find it quite amusing that two companies that SPECIALISE i 4X4's have the worst reputation in the WORLD for lack of reliability. That being Jeep and Landrover/range rover.
My 97 D1 has not let me down since I bought it in 2014
These are a great work horse. I have one and it sadly failed its last MOT on a leaking axle! ☹ I and my wife loved driving it and it served us really well having covered over 200,000miles. I am very reluctant and sad to have to let her go as our needs have changed. These cars really have personality like no other car I have driven, in a good way! Thanks for sharing the video and keep up the good work! PS If anyone is interested in buy this from me it would make a great car for a little repair, just reply below and I will get in touch. Like a baby, i want it to get a great new home! Hope my comments are permitted.
1. You want hot, dry summer weather? Y’all come to Texas! 34 - 35 degrees every day last 3 weeks and next 5 weeks.
2. Nice Carrol Shelby shirt!
1. It's on my list
2. Thankyou!
I just inherited my brother's 2002 Discovery II here in the northest United States. It's in good condition except for the rear portion of the frame that needs repair. A few minor details need attention as well, but overall, it's a great machine.
My Discovery has the 4.0 V8. For a future mod, I'm going to fit a transfer case with the center locker
I had a 2000 mk 2 diesel auto, great car . Nothing stops it, only sold it because the fuel economy
was 14 to 17 miles per gallon. It did have engine modifications and a near straight through exhaust
I have a late 2003 TD5 which I bought new. Absolutely love it and maintain it properly. I expect it to last me another 20 years
My parents had one for 13 years (X304 OGE was the reg - sadly no longer on the road), and only one time did it leave them on the back of a breakdown truck when an air spring split. It was still driveable, but it was very bouncy. It had usual Discovery niggles, such as leaking sunroofs and windscreen, the fuel pressure regulator (it was a Td5), and needed its first clutch at 150,000 miles, but on the whole it was exceptionally reliable and trouble free. Sadly, the rear of the chassis rusted so spectacularly that in 2009 it already needed welding, and by the time they sold it in 2017 it was really beyond saving. The Discovery 3 they replaced it with, has been no end of trouble. I wouldn't miss that thing at all, but I do miss their old Disco.
Haha! My td5 was the least reliable car I've owned (30ish) but I loved it especially the 'active' air suspension (no roll). The D3 that followed and still have is the most reliable car I've owned ....!
@@hughjanus3347 I think you either end up with a good one or a bad one!
@@cameronwood1994 exactly! Thank goodness there are so many enthusiasts contributing knowledge (eg lrtime on TH-cam) making self-help possible. As thode guys say
As those guys say, don't buy an LR if you don't expect trouble and you have no idea how to fix your vehicle (or organise the fix)
Tried to buy one four years ago, everyone I looked at had a crap chassis gave up. My P38's chassis is in excellent condition its used all year round love it.
I still run a 2000 Disco 2 V8 bought new. Has been very reliable with only a few repairs. 197,000 miles now. Love it.
He's wrong about the window switches not making sense they actually are in a perfect position because if you look at the switches from above as if the bezel was the top of the truck the switches are in the right position to match which stores they go to you if you look down at them from a driver's position so for me here in America the front left switch Powers my front left drivers window. He said it's reverse but he's wrong
I have an 04 D2 td5 and I love it. I use it for off roading holidays in South Africa and it is a beast on the 4x4 trails
TY J, glad to see a LR holding up well & beating your expectations! 🙏🙏
Disco 1 & 2’s are proper trucks with a luxury interior that are amazing off road. Disco 3 & 4 were designed for a completely different purpose. Hauling the family around on road. The suspension was horrible, way too soft.
Had a Disco 1 & 2 loved both. The 1 was 8 years old when I bought it and drove it for 8 years. Loved that car and had minimal issues. Parts were relatively cheap from online LR parts specialists. Test drove a used Disco 3 and was horrified at what it had become.
Bought a 13 year old, 10 owner wreck of a D2, did up everything that was broken or likely to break and ran it for 5 years and 50k miles. Parts were cheap which was handy as there was always something falling off. At least it was easy to work on.
Brilliant video as always I had to comment as I own a 2003 Land Rover discovery 2 had it over a year and still luv driving it , mine is the td5
Actually the layout of the window switches makes perfect sense if you look down at them from an above perspective like you're standing above the vehicle. That would make the top ones the rear and the bottom ones the front so it makes perfect sense actually you need to look at it from an above the vehicle perspective. So if you're looking down at four squares what represents the front the two forward squares and what represents the rear the two rear squares so it actually does make sense
Buddy of mine does Security and Farming.
Hard to think of a better vehicle. Looks quite intimidating, and can make sure he gets up the muddy road home.
Could be fave automotive channel for variety. Click ever time. Mostly on the cars I’d never own. Thanks James.
Thanks for watching!
It is great if you go mildly offroad, that is if it works at all. But its a looker.
I have a TD 5 Disco 2,built in 2000. Has ACE,air suspension and all the trimmings. Had a re-chip and tune quite some years ago-made a very big improvement in low end torque and provided a bit more 'go' if I need it. It's passed the 300,000K mark and still the original engine which uses no oil between changes,which is every 6,000 miles. Only ever had one clutch which I replaced because of a screaming spigot bearing which grossly embarrassed the wife when carrying out parking! Plenty of material left on the actual driven plate. Never had any major hassle and the ACE and air suspension work a treat and never given any trouble. Air suspension beats coils any day! On a long run,and driven like the grand old lady she is,I get around 34mpg. Brilliant towing vehicle and I don't intend parting with it for anything,especially as it was my younger daughters first ever car until she sold it to me,so it's part of the family. She went on to hotter and faster things!
A brilliant vehicle in my humble opinion and so much better than most of the modern crap filled with stupidly ridiculous,complex electronics costing a fortune to replace and about as much real use as a chocolate teapot 😂😂
I;ve got one as a farm truck/run about and its still going with 257k miles on it. Self leveling still works as well!
Glad to deliver Belgian tomatos! We have a lot more of that but sadly no cars! Great review! Think this car still has a lot of character.
Gotta love Jay's natural selection of the Discovery theory.
I do remember the disco 1 came with R R on the brake and clutch pedals the front lights Sherpa back meastro van. The door frame and windscreen range rover. It was a real parts bin special but some how worked
I had a TD5 automatic for a while, absolutely loved it, both in fairly arduous off road conditions and on road. Pretty economical for the class of car and less lethargic than you might think. It was new at the time so no idea how it would be long term. Hill descent control was fantastic in some of the horrible conditions I used the car. On older ones beware of chequerplate, often horrors underneath.
Can't wait for you to review a Discovery 1
I have a 97 Disco 1. I always hated SUVs, am more a sports car/vintage car person but I wanted something I could tow my other cars with. Plus it has a 3.9 V8 and I figure could chuck that in my MGB one day if needed! But I really like the thing. It's just a fun, nice vehicle and pretty capable not that I off road it. Sun roofs leak, of course. I covered them with PPF to stop that. The head liner was dead too but I replaced that with grey polar fleece which worked really well and looks great! Fuel economy was rubbish but that was a holed vacuum advance unit and me putting the wrong fuel in. Turns out to be the high compression V8 so it needs 95 octane not the 91 I was putting in. Fuel economy better but still dreadful! Anyone who has owned one seems to have loved them, despite all their issues! And yes, the power window switches are annoying! I always get them wrong.
I’m a performance car guy too and that’s why I lived my Disco 1 & 2’s. They handled surprisingly well. They were proper trucks so they had stiff suspension which was great for cornering. I surprised many much more capable cars by out cornering them. I couldn’t buy a disco 3 specifically because they softened up the suspension too much and it handled terribly.
On the throttle and brake spacing, on the manual D1 with left hand drive (which appears to use the exact same paddles except for the brake because it has to have space for the clutch) it's actually great, and i suspect the main problem with this is that it's right hand drive.
My dads had his 2000 TD5 ES manual since new, the only thing that’s needed replacing are the pump for the rear air suspension and recently, two rear callipers. It’s even on the same tyres from new!
Surprised it’s passed it’s MoT on 20yr old tyres!!
23 yr old tyres! 😱
@@peterbest5938 Amazingly the original Good Year's haven't lost much tread and haven't cracked at all!
My dad has had a bunch of Disco's right from the 1st gen and tbh the were always pretty great family cars. He also bought me an off road day for my birthday years ago and we used these to go over some pretty ridiculous terrain. A pretty serious bit of kit for it's purpose. Those heavily modified, lifted, mega bull bar, black smoke pumping types ones do have a whiff of Mad Max about them though
Loved my Disco’s which I owned here in mid Wales for 14yrs. Go anywhere like a an old school Defender, yet take me up the M4 in comfort. Keep on top of the maintenance and they’re a reliable workhorse, treat them like a car and they’re not.
Top tip! Buy a grease gun and spend more time under them than washing them. Lanoguard the hell out of it and it’ll last you a lifetime. When something does break, upgrade it and over time you’ll have a truck that’s totally dependable.
We own a 2000 Discovery 2, in the same champagne-ee colour as this one. It's a TD5 with almost half a million kilometres on the clock. Yes, it has let us down a couple of times, but so has my VW Passat, my son's Audi A3 (engine self-destructed), and my wife's Hyundai i30 (turbo self-destructed, taking the engine with it), all of which were well-maintained vehicles. The Discovery is easily the best vehicle for towing that I've ever used (up to 3.5 tonnes). The styling has aged well and the vehicle still looks handsome. It has become very fashionable to bag Land Rovers in Australia - "If you want to drive to Alice Springs, take a Land Rover. If you want to come back again, take a Toyota Land Cruiser". Well, I'm a long term Land Rover owner and if I had my way we would be replacing our current Disco 2 with another Disco 2. Although, it's now 23 years old and still going strong, so who knows when that will be. Despite the rhetoric, a surprisingly large number of Land Rover owners replace their vehicle with another Land Rover, so make of that what you will. Don't know about the current crop of Land Rovers, but the Discovery 2 is a good machine.
It’s an XS model. I had a 2000 V8 ES, amazing vehicle apart from the air suspension failed but a simple bag replacement. Own a L405 SDV8 Autobiography now & I can say it’s an amazing vehicle in comparison.
I’m on my second D2 and I love it. My first was a 2000 manual TD5 with 170k miles which hadn’t been looked after. The rear chassis needed patched several times and I believe it has now completely rotted away😮 My current one is a 2003 TD5 Auto with 76k miles and it is in great shape apart from the sagging headliner 🙄 They’re such a versatile car and have loads of room. Despite being fairly big back in the day they are actually not that big compared to modern cars- I did a video comparing mine to my Q4 E-Tron and they’re about the same size! 😮
I always find it funny when people say BMW bought LR for their tech when you could learn everything they knew by simply buying one. To take the propshaft off my year 2000 Disco still required a 9/16" spanner.
Nice and easy to work on tho.
I remember the same feelings of concern when fuelling my brand new first time ever owning a land rover discovery immediately after picking the car up from the dealer. When the pump gauge got to 80ltrs I started looking for a pool of fuel under the car! It eventually stopped at 92ltrs. That dealer certainly wasn’t sharing any profit by putting more than the absolute minimum fuel in the car prior to me picking it up!
I have the 2004 v8 version of this. ULEZ compliant. 2 years ownership. Never had an issue.
What does ULEZ mean?
Hi Jay, great vid as always, just a couple of points.
Firstly : The TD5 engine - in the Defender of the day it had 122 bhp and 300 n/mtrs; in the Discovery II version it had 135 bhp and 340 n/mtrs.
Secondly : as you said the DII rust issues were predominantly chassis-based, but do you know where and how badly? The back quarter of the chassis in many, many DII's will have turned to lace by now !!! Not at all unusual to be able to see right through - if there's anything left at all. However nowadays a new replacement rear qtr. chassis is avail and easy/quick to fit. Cheers Dave.
I will add that the td5 is a very easily tuneable engine they were released in a very low state of tune so they could run on shoddy fuel in remote parts of the world. With a intercooler upgrade and a remap they can easily put out just shy of 200hp 450nm and they sound great when done.
@@pinkpotato1 yep centre pipe delete, stage 2 remap, and that 5 pot really can sing.
135hp and 340Nm are both bettered by my 2015 Honda CR-V 1.6 litre diesel at 150hp and 340Nm with the torque at equally low revs to the LR. All of them beat my old factory 2.4 diesel 1988 Range Rover 2.4 which had 112hp and 185Nm torque with near zero torque under 2200 revs. Engines and vehicles generally have improved at a pace in recent years. While they have got heavier, the engines smaller with longer service intervals, they are more powerful, more economical and last better than ever before.
@@hedydd2 the 1.9pd put most of land rovers engines of this era to shame, but that's progression for you
@@markburton8303
I've got one with 200k on it.... 50mpg
My parents have a farm with horses here in Switzerland. The car I grew up with. I have never had so many experiences with any car before or since.
After the Disco 1 Tdi broke down at 300,000 km, my parents bought a second-hand Disco 2 TD5 in dark grey with beige leather. Family of 4, luggage and Great Dane in the boot, pulling horses, bringing home straw wagons, the Discovery was both a workhorse and a comfortable car for going out. There is no task that this incredible vehicle has not mastered.
When it was eventually through, there was an XC90, but we cried for the Discovery for a long time. I later had 2 different Discovery 2 V8s and should I find a good one, I will buy a third and put it away…
Hi Adrian, I have a question. What you recommend for pulling horses td5, or v8 gas Discovery. Thanks from Serbian brother.
Great vid, just about sums the Disco 2 up. I bought my 2004 TD5 about 18 months ago, I had a turbo blow up, a clutch cylinder crack and a fuel injection pipe come loose in the 17k miles I have done in it since then (which reminds me I have to do yet another oil change! Geeze I clock up some miles) It's done 186k miles now and apart from the three beakdowns with the turbo, clutch and injector pipe- I have enjoyed every inch of those miles.
I often catch myself when I'm bowling down an A road with a few twists and turns saying "I really love driving this car"! Ok it is not a sports car and struggles to get pat 90mph but when can you really do that these days any way with practically every foot of motorway smothered in speeder catching devices, it sits very comfortably at 75-80 with a little to spare (unless going up a hill) which is enough, it will cruise allday at that, and then driving around A and B roads it has enough grunt to to stau in 5th most the time on A roads and 4th and 5th most the time on B roads with the ocasional visit to third on a tight bend or unexpexted, unprepared for incline, it is a joy to drive.
FYI, if you own a 2004 TD5 and this doesn't sound like yours then either you are driving it too slow generally or if you haven't had it very long the previous owner did. These later models have an engine management system which over time learns your driving style and adapts the tune of the engine accordingly, it's subtle but it does make a difference over time and lots of owners have been led to believe that the TD5s are delicate engines and need to be coaxed along and not driven too hard for fear of breaking them, In fact the opposite is true, they need to be driven properly! Not necessarily thrashed but they don't like being driven on lots of short journeys to shops and back following old grannys on their family visits, they get all lazy plus of course the CATs get gummed up.
So if yours is very sluggish I suggest you go and buy some snake venom (one of the fuel injector cleaning additives, but make sure it's a good one and buy two- it's a big tank) stick that in a full tank of fuel, then spend as much time as you can getting out on the motorway and accelerating moderately hard up to 70-80mph and cruise at that then blat down some dual carriageways and so on and generally, without actually thrashing it, drive it more like a sports car, use the gears, don't let it bog out and wait while it slowly picks up, change down and give it some beans! With mine if rev's drop below 1500 it;s time to drop a cog, if it's hovering around 1500 and I;m not in a hurry it will pull nicely from there and at about 2000 rpm is when it really starts pulling. I promise you after a few hundred miles you will notice the difference and you'll find it much more tractable and a very enjoyablke drive.
I really don't know what I will replace mine with when either it finally wears out (hopefully another 100k left in her) or when Gov decides I'm not alowed to go anywhere I want to go in it anymore! But for the moment it is the best car I've ever owned in every respect, does everything I want it to from filling it up with daughter , wife and grandchildren to go on a picnic to towing a trailer or caravan (could do with more power there but to be honest it's afer as it naturally keeps me to towing legal speeds) to commuting 80 miles to work! It does it all wonderfully and I love it! Well done Landrover!
Thanks again for your Vid helping to fly the flag for these great vehicles.
meant to say- the way I drive it I get just shy of 30 miles to the gallon. I'm happy with that as the trade off for performance. You can get a little more if you drive them like an old man but then as explained you start to lose peformance so I'd rather forego the possible extra 3-4 miles per gallon and enjoy driving it properly. On a tank full that equates to about 500 miles which is a pretty good range, but that is a lot of motorway work. I daresay if it was all A and B roads it would be different. ENJOY IT! ( ;-)
Off to auto trader I go again then! Great video ❤
You mentioned self leveling which was basically rear air sus. You never mentioned the ACE system which was a big deal at the time, hyd anti roll bars so quite clever for the day. Made a big impact on fuel economy & was horific to fix but quite cool tech.
Absolutely - it's a real shame James reviewed a V8 and with conventional suspension. The ACE made the car lean into corners rather than rolling 'out'. With a tweaked td5 and this suspension I used to hustle it up the 59 hairpins to our usual ski resort in record time (no-one else aboard of course!). Much better than the current rolly D3 for corners (but in no other way). 30 mpg too.
Ive been dailying a 2004 D2 since senior year of college. Drove it coast to coast hauling my entire life from virginia to southern california after i graduated. Taken it up and down both coasts into canada and back. Absolutely love the thing. Have done a lot of preventative mods to it (distances, weather and conditions tend to be harsher and longer here in the us vs europe) so hoping it lasts until i can afford to do a full blown restoration. Love the thing. Just hate the freaking thirsty ass engine
Proudly owned a Disco 2 TD5 in 2012, and was the family wagon until 2016. Yes, it had some quirks, the 3 Amigos is a notorious fault, so is the XY sensor. However, these cars are so long on the road that most of these faults are generally known and fixes are relatively easy. Even though I've a Disco 4 now, the Disco 2 never fel like it was really uncomfortable, problematic etc. In fact, against most cheap cars these days, the D2 was an absolute gem. I woud have till kept her had we not a had massive rollover one evening in 2016, trying to avoid an oncoming motorbike at night driving on the road side of the road, a common problem here in Malaysia. Yet, my wife and daughter walked out of that unscathed, despite rolling over at 100km/h and ended up on a ditch on the side of the highway. A tribute to the strong and sturdy platform that Land Rover made, and of course seatbelts and baby seats!!
Had a D4 , ditched it for a re - chassis D2 ! No regrets whatsoever
I love the idea of getting one as a second car for my outdoorsy pursuits. But they are no bargain here. Rusty high mileage examples are well over $10k
I'd sell you mine for 10k!
I’ve had a few of these discovery 2’s. Absolutely love them and have been more reliable than the Toyotas I’ve had. My last one went to 254k miles with ZERO issues. Only reason I got rid of it was because I ripped the side of the truck off off roading lmao
D1 owner here. The only panel shared with the D2 is the BACK door, I.e. the tailgate.
from an off roading perspective an older disco 2 with a diff lock transfer box will match a defender 110 all day (if you get shot of the front bumper) the big difference is like for like the 110 will cost you about 3k more
Only sold my 2004 run-out Pursuit model last year after 16 years ownership and 80,000 miles. Like an old smelly dog it became part of the family. 7 seater with air suspension. A genuine “Chelsea Tractor” the 1st owner lived in central London and pampered it but we used as described … family outings, learner driver x 2 sons and then mobile builders skip (dead easy to remove back seats). Air suspension was cheap to fix, service cost “reasonable” and 30 odd mpg with derv. Minor chassis rot patched easily and interior brushed up nicely. Still providing great service and should do so for another 10 years…. It’s obvious to see why these have become the de facto 4x4 for green laners and off-road dirt monkey’s as can be fixed on the fly with spanner’s and socket set. 😊
SHALOM BROTHER. I'VE GOT TWO DISCOVERY 2 TD5's. LOVE LOVE LOVE THEM.
Great video mate!
Can someone tell me why land-rover made the disco 5 nothing like a discovery?
7:50 lift kit of 4 or 2 inches; it looks like 4 on the front and 2 on the rear.
Had a Cherokee with a 4" lift kit, when a front spring broke we found out that they could only be bought as part of the complete lift kit for both axles, so it ended up getting a 2" kit fitted to the front, which were available for each axle separately. Has this had that, but the other way around?
The disco certainly does not have the range rover chassis ,,,, I make a very very healthy living welding land rovers for three local garages , and I have done so for twenty years , you will never be out of work if you work on land rovers ,,,, as of yet I have still never actually welded a range rover chassis ,,, disco chassis I can walk up to most of them and know exactly where I can poke a screwdriver through them ,,,, they are junk. although to be fair the disco 4 Ive not welded either ,,, most of them have packed up long before they need the chassis sorting.
Where did you hear that it’s an awful unreliable car?! I’ve had a Disco for going on 15 years and never heard it described in such a way.
Our D2 has been incredibly reliable over our 10+ years , ours is a navy blue TD5 with around 100,000 miles , we still end up using our V8 P38 more !
I had one of these pre facelift, top of the range leather, twin air con fully loaded as the Americans say and I loved it BUT with a 60k warranty and the fact that LR had replaced just about everything including the rear axel by then I decided it had to go, when at 59985 miles the only major component not yet replaced, the engine let go, leading to the LR assist technician who attended me ( I had them on speed dial ) to call me a lucky lucky ba**ard! One new engine later I ran it for another 60k got tired of visiting the dealer every 2 months for small annoying repairs and finally let it go, and bought a Volvo xc70 which I ran for 270k and replaced ONE shock absorber and tyres in all that time bliss. Still love the disco 2 though. We are strange creatures aren’t we?
It is very popular in Ireland to put an series two discovery body on an old 30 plus yearl old range rover chassis for vintage tax and MOT exemption.
The Range Rover borrowed a lot from a Jeep Wagoneer, which had been around for a few years before the Range Rover and then Discovery. Full Size Jeeps were body on frame with live solid axles both ends, a simple formulae that gives great off roading and tolerable road manners. But the fSJ are simpler and cheaper to work on. I only have one FSJ and it is great
We loved our 300Tdi, it was a bit slow, thirsty AF, and rotten as a pear - but it just kept going, was easy to work on, and the command of the road is unrivalled!
Yep, best cars I ever had, one for me and one for the wife . Average solo mpg 27, towing a 6 berth caravan - 25mpg!
The Discovery two rear door is actually the rear door from the Maestro Van!
Pioneer is good kit, well it has the edge of goodmans but would cost an extra tenner, good kit is stretching things a bit, When I had my BL "classics" in the 90s I fitted Pioneer speakers which came with the back widow sticker
The 2.0 MPi model in the original Discovery is a rare beast indeed. With the Rover K-series engine. Must of been very underpowered but a bit of a unicorn.
I thought that the 2.0 litre engine was a version of the M or T series used in the Rover 800.
@@christopherpearce7368 yeah might of been
@@christopherpearce7368 yes it's a T series engine
I have a P38 4.6 (largely the same vehicle). A modern 2.0T engine would have equal power to the V8. Would be cool.
I have an mpi. It’s ok, it does the job I need and never get less than 25mpg.
The window switches have been messed up by a PO, the front ones should do the front windows. The air suspension gives a better ride than the coil conversion.
I suspected as much...
I think he means the top 2 switches should do the front windows, but it's actually the bottom 2 as per all disco 2s but opposite to disco 1
@@nadennis77- So LR was doing something right and then switched to doing it wrong? I hate it when they do that!
Wow, beautiful countryside you're driving though, but your roads looks so narrow!
Very nice Jay. Its becoming apparent your review qualities are just getting better and better.
Cars are good, if they achieve what they set out to achieve, aren't they?
You mostly call out cars, that make claims which they most certainly don't live up to, in similar company.
There's some very terrible automobiles out there and,veven then, they're bound to be very "Ronseal" to someone. Excellent vid 👍
It's exactly that - to succeed in my opinion the car needs to meet its own expectations
That’s why they’re great because …great heritage
What a good looking car, been loving the videos lately
i do like the D2 but i do love my 3door 300tdi, lifted, mud tyres, snorkel, winch. love it. A little worse condition of this though 😅. Also mine costs 120 fill up
Loved my D2 took us all over Europe towing our caravan never gave us any problems it was however in my opinion under powered. I have a D4 now more than enough power but we have had reliability problems.
*S1 was a very successful parts bin special:*
Sherpa headlamps
Allegro door handles
Maestro van rear lamp cluster
Defender skylights
Range Rover chassis.
Add more!....