Considering a D2

Air suspension, you will probably get different answers from different people.

My take : Mine has air ( It's rear end only btw.) Great for self levelling trailers etc, handles well - more comfortable.

When I did a long remote trip I was concerned about the air bags. ( Not sure why now, as most road trains run air bags ;) ) ...anyway, I bought rear springs - easy job to disable the compressor - pull out the air bags and bolt in the springs.
I am no wizard with a spanner it's easy and took me less than 2 hours to swap.

On return - I switched back to air, because it was simply more comfortable.

I've used mine in nearly all types of off-road situations with no air suspension dramas at all. I did have to replace 1 air-bag recently as it started to leak - the vehicle is 11 years old.

Others may not have had such an easy ride..... but it is a cheap simple thing to swap later, so I wouldn't be too concerned.

Cheers, Mark

There is not much in it year wise save for CDL. I retrofitted it in mine. Some don't have internals to make that easy but just search on this site for the years and vin nos. My 02 d2 has been very reliable and my mates d2a 2003 has been not so good. His is in no way better to drive...both v8 manuals. My other mates d2a 2004 v8 auto is in no way better to drive...don't believe the LR press on these supposed better break feel etc. CDL is the only thing...a big thing but MANY have retro fitted CDL to pre facelift models. Personal opinion is that the facelift isn't so facelift ;)

is that an extra "e" in there?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by INter674

I can do basic repairs myself and have access to the LR national guru Justine if all else fails:)

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Thanks a lot. I won't stress too much about the air then. I do love how Land Rover have a habit of making brilliant cars that can go extraordinary places in such comfort.

Once finance is sorted it'll be test drive time... I hope that sickening feeling of an inevitable break down isn't there (unlike in my RR Classic, or in my previous L322 RR... OR in a few RR P38's we test drove) If that feeling isn't there... then they will definitely considered. You guys have no idea how much I don't want a patrol, they are more expensive to purchase anyway, so I feel that spending a bit less on a nice disco and having some extra aside for any issues is better than being afraid that something could STILL go wrong with the jap...

Don't do it:)

I reckon you would be better off spending the coin on your current car.

The biggest thing is the car you buy might be a dog in disguise.

Case in point, my car was cheaper and looked rougher than my mates td5, however although the last owner didn't worry too much about the looks he was really good on the maintenance side of things (nil history to show though)
Mates car looked good, very clean through out but has cost him a bonzer to get it into a reliable car to drive daily. He ended up spending another 8k on top of the purchase cost.

Last year spent 2.5k on servicing and maintenance (no tyres) and then the gearbox crapped itself so 2 weeks before xmas another 4.5k goes to the gbox shop.

Got my bill today another 2k in service and parts. In the last 2 years I have spent more on maintenance and services than I did for the car.

They are not a cheap car to own and unless you can keep it off the road to repair at your own leisure and it is not a daily driver then you might be able to drop the cost of parts.

Also these are the normal costs per year,

Would I buy another? Funnily YES.

Hope this helps, hopefully you will find a good one

Any truck with 250k odd is going to have components that fail...radiator, alternator, synros in the manual boxes etc.

Cheers

Compared to the 4.7L Cherokee, the V8 D2 will feel slow by comparison (wait for the reaction - for Landy owners the diesel versus petrol debate is as passionate as Ford versus Holden). A few cheap mods and the Td5 will give you comparable performance to a 4L V8 and the money you save on fuel can go towards more mods. (-;

If getting a D2 get the latest year built with the lowest kms and if it has been well maintained you can expect good reliability up to 250k followed by mostly predictable issues over the next 100+k that are easy to fix as parts do start to fail as o-rings start to crack, rubber deteriorates and "sealed for life bearings" reach end of life.

My next Disco will either be a 2004 D2 with half the km's of my current 2002 D2 or I will be waiting for the D4 to get into some bargain pricing levels (suspect I will be waiting for some time yet).

David
'02 Td5 Disco

i have just been through this my self
i ended up with a 2004 d2a td5 and i love it its comfy as to drive and very good on fuel.
now as the old sating goes landrover turning owners into A grade mechanics since 1948.
if your not going to swing the spanners and fix most things your self they will be very expensive to fix and keep running as most places have the landrover tax cause they dont want to work on anything britsh.
if you are going to your self then you will need a nanocom or something simerlar no ifs maybes or butts you will need it.
i also reconmend buying a td5 no its not very fast but load it up and it doesent get slower and barely uses more fuel, case in point i normaly get 850-900km to 80L of fuel on the same trip towing a tandam trailer empty 400km then coming back with an au falcon on it did 750-800km to 83L and it dident get below 85km/h and sat on 95 km/h all i did was when the hill was big enough that it would drop out of converter lock up in 4th preselect 3rd and it held converter lock up in 3rd .
i have towed with f100's with 351's RRC with a retrofitted 4L bf xr8 ute hino 6ton trucks and i would take the td5 over all them.

but if your not going to swing spanners ya self i wouldent reconmend buying one as even with the few drama and one major i had what i have done very cheaply would of been very very expensive

Mate you just have to know where to take them for very reasonable service prices. I do a number of things myself though for fun.

Cheers

Would agree with almost all the posts. I've owned both jeep and d2a v8 and the d2 strength would be comfort, room and command style driving position and the jeeps would be more grunt.
These are now 10+ years old now and even the most immaculate will need $$ spent on it. Cooling systems are a week point, if it looks even remotely deteriorated just replace it! Check when head gaskets were done and if it was a long time ago or they don't know be prepared to do them again.
You should be able to bargain hard for a V8, look for a caring owner with lots of service history would be best start you can make.
Good luck.
Craig