Thread: Convinced myself to buy 03/04 TD5 Disco

HSE Td5's are hard to find. I got one but it took me a while. Anyone who could afford a new HSE 03/04 (i think close to 90K) did not care about fuel cost so went for the V8

Yeh, I suppose that is probably true! With the price of diesel going up, is there really much difference now between the two? Especially when you factor in the purchase price premium for the td5 over v8. Td5 HDA 18-20k and v8 HSE 12-15k...

Say a v8 will use 50% more fuel, average an extra $50 per week is only $2100 per year and presumably serciving will be cheaper. So is the difference really that much?

Where I live there is not much difference in price between petrol and distillate. In my case I reckon that I would be saving $40 to $50 per week on fuel with Td5 over V8.

At $40 saving this would be the difference in purchase price over around two and a half to three years. After that I am ahead. Plus the resale later will be better.

Also I intend to go out back where I will need the diesel range as well as the unavailability of petrol

Mr Whippy,

Thanks for confirming those figures, I wasn't too far off on my estimate.

It is the diesel range that is the biggest benefit with the TD5 over V8 IMO. In regards to sale price, if you buy it cheaper (V8) then you can also sell it for cheaper, so that should cancel out.

The last 2 years (assuming I hold it for 5, then by a D3) will be where I loose out.

Originally Posted by striking

Mr Whippy,

Thanks for confirming those figures, I wasn't too far off on my estimate.

It is the diesel range that is the biggest benefit with the TD5 over V8 IMO. In regards to sale price, if you buy it cheaper (V8) then you can also sell it for cheaper, so that should cancel out.

The last 2 years (assuming I hold it for 5, then by a D3) will be where I loose out.

The way I see it, the depreciation whether you buy a diesel or petrol will work out roughly the same if you're planning to offload after 5 years. Possibly may work in favour of the diesel. So like you say it cancels out.

So in that regard the effect of fuel economy starts from day 1. Then the added benefit is the fuel range.

The only savings that offset the dearer fuel economy that I can see are:

fuel may be cheaper/L
servicing cost may be cheaper (but reliability may not be as good)
investment potential of the extra $5k you save for getting the petrol (placed on the mortgage, saving you interest etc)

Hope that makes sense to everybody. Feel free to pick my thinking to bits and shut me down for babbling on.

Matt.

If you had the option of a young v8 HSE with say 150k on the clock for less than 15k, a 200k TD5 HSE that has had the auto rebuilt for less than 15k, or TD5 7 seater bad model (no ace) which would you choose and why?

Those are my current options...

The 200k one.
200k is not much for a Td5, having the auto rebuilt is a big plus as past 200k is considered lucky, it's an HSE and it's under 15k. Take it and run

Firstly questions only you can answer and my personal comments.

1. How long do you envisage keeping the car? In my case I tend to keep them for 7 years plus.
2. How many Kms do you usually do in a year. For me it is in the range of 7-12k a year.
3. What sort of range do you want on a fuel tank?. Petrol will always be less than a diesel. After my soft dash classic it's great being able to tow and not having to fiill up every 300km or so.
4. How important is it to have an HSE? Fruit is nice but more to go wrong.

So if you are planning low Kms per year, don't plan on keeping it past 5 yrs and don't need to cross the Simpson desert go the v8. Otherwise a Td5. Which one though depends on condition and an expert inspection, but all things being equal I'd be inclined to agree with muppet, a transmission rebuilt is not cheap.

As for me economically there was no reason to change from the soft dash classic Rangie, once I bought a caravan, despite the horrific fuel consumption. But 2 months after reaching that conclusion he was written off in a fire, so now I'm driving a D2a td5 and loving the range and economy, despite being $10k out of pocket on the change over after the payout.

Cheers

Steve