Is the Land Rover Discovery a good buy?

I am after a good 4x4 for work, the vehicle will see a lot of hill-climbing but not too much bad off-roading. I am looking at a 2008 Land Rover Discovery. I have to say it is like new, but for the mileage I will do (i.e. 500+ per week), do you think it'll be reliable? If not what would you recommend?

Regards

Donal Haslam (Rhode, Offaly)

May 2013 Filed under: choosing used car

---

Expert answer

Hi Donal,

The Discovery is one of our very favourite cars, especially for the way it can carry seven full-sized adults in luxury-car comfort down the motorway. With big mileage like that though you will be rocking up the fuel bills, as a 2.7-litre V6 diesel Disco will only get about 29mpg in normal driving conditions. That said, you won't get any better from any of its rivals, so there you go.

As for reliability, Land Rover has come on in leaps and bounds in this respect recently, but there's no getting away from the fact that its vehicles tend to be more fragile than the Japanese competition. Small electrical niggles are the most likely problems but both the gearboxes and the air suspension can give problems too and those are rather more serious issues. The V6 diesel engine is pretty solid though.

It would be worth checking out both a Toyota Land Cruiser and Mitsubishi Pajero too, but while both of those would be more likely to have better reliability, neither can hold a candle to the Disco's on-road refinement and comfort.

Let us know which way you go

Neil Briscoe - Complete Car Adviser
@neilmbriscoe