Defender or Discovery

Cran

Need to buy a 4x4 and looking for some guidance, my Cherokee is constantly letting me down recently and getting parts is a nightmare. It would be used for some towing of 12*6 Ifor Williams, some off roading and bit of farm work. It wouldnt be used every day as have a car as daily drive, and might keep Cherokee for rough work on farm.
Considering a TD5 Defender or Discovery, but seems a good TD5 Discovery are difficult to get - would this fair comment? Also I'm used to a Cherokee which is probably in between a Defender/Discovery, which would best choice?? I'm leaning towards the Defender at the moment.

Guess the main question is how uncomfortable are the Defenders and are they easy to maintain to a good standard?
Also a Defender 300TDI in really good shape for sale near here, would a 300tdi be able for towing 12*6 trailer with 2ton load?

Sorry for all the questions, just mulling over it a the moment.....:(

kay 9

From those two the defender all day. The older discos were ok but the newer throw up alot of £££ problems. The defender is hard to beat off road as standard.

Silvera

Discovery's appear to be troublesome alright, a friend had a '07 Discovery for a few months and was glad to see the back of it (even though it looked very fresh) ...he went for a Pajero LWB instead.

Then again if you read this forum you might never buy any Land Rover vehicle?! :eek:

http://landroverhell.com/

101sean

Nothing wrong with Discoverys but they don't get maintained here which is where the problems arise.

Older Discovery 2s can be got cheap but the back end of the chassis rot.

300tdi Defender is more than capable than towing 3.5t and you can up the power quite easily, it's by far the best for the job. 300Tdi are sought after by those allergic to the Td5s electronics, just make sure it's rubber band has been changed. If looked after it won't lose any value either.

visual

Fix your Jeep parts can be got from UK or ebay , parts in US are cheap but watch the postage and customs charge.

emaherx

Like 101 Sean says, 300 tdi should be fine, I would buy one over the td5 for its simpler engine. Although Td5 has a timming chain.

I've been driving a td5 for 11 years and the only issues I've had are all fuel system related, some of which were very expensive on parts a few years back but are available much cheaper today. (before I put you off, 2 issues in 11 years is probably not too bad, but fuel system is a bit more complicated than previous models)

The only other issues were inflicted on the machine by me .

The machine in general is very easy to work on and everything is accessible and there is not much need for specialist tools.

Personally I would only go for discovery if you were going to use it as your daily car (assuming you don't have a long commute)

101sean

Try and get a long drive of a Defender, not everyone can live with the driving experience although I love it.

Cran

visual wrote: »

Fix your Jeep parts can be got from UK or ebay , parts in US are cheap but watch the postage and customs charge.

Have every contact going in UK, some parts are still very difficult to get unfort

Cran

emaherx wrote: »

Personally I would only go for discovery if you were going to use it as your daily car (assuming you don't have a long commute)

This would be my thinking as well more I look into it

emaherx

Cran wrote: »

This would be my thinking as well more I look into it

I have driven the length and breath of the country in th td5 Defender and can say it's not the best driving experience on the road, but I've never found my self crippled from it either (which I have from some cars).

Biggest issues.
1. it's not for very tall people, seat dose not go back very far. I'm 5'10" and have seat back as far as it goes.
2. Heater is useless, it won't heat up when stationary unless you have an electric fan conversion.
3. Driver position is very close to door, most comfortable way to drive is with window open and arm hanging out.
4. It is capable of motorway speed limit of 120km/h but I can't recommend it
5. Road noise, especially in commercial with mud terrain tyres.

On the plus side it will go anywhere. And I just can't help liking it.

masseyman86

have 300tdi defender pulls a 14ft cow box and other things for me. its a great work horse and i drive it more that my car. parts are very cheap and easy to get.. just be careful of the chasse do rot but are a easy fix most of the time