Hey djambalawa,
Thanks for posting this thread,,
I am in the situation of wanting to change from my 96 Disco, and have never been so lost on which way to go. I could spend a small fortune on fixing up the V8, or buy something different,,(have always been a fan of the Defer series),, with all the answers on here, and the fact that SWMBO spotted a new very nice blue-ish coloured 130 up in Albury a couple of weeks ago, and really loved the look of it,, I think I mght have to revisit looking at a new one.
50+K's is a lot of money, but I'm thinking I will get my monies worth out of it, it'd probably be the last car I'll ever need to buy,, I've had the Disco for about 12 or 13 years now, she's been good, but she's tired,,,,
Not sure about what it will cost for all the services etc, which are fairly cheap on the Disco, but I guess if one looks after them properly, it'll last a whole
lot longer overall.
So thank you all for your input and wisdom on this one :-)

Chops & SWMBO