Thread: Thinking of buying a disco - bargain or risk?

Hey guys so I've found a disco advertised on here that I'm really interested but wanted some opinions from disco owners.

Basically there's a disco advertised on here for sale in the Gold Coast, it's a 2002 td5, auto, base model and has 150,000kms. The seller is asking $5000 for it. The problem is that I live in Newcastle, NSW and the car is on the Gold Coast so obviously i can't just pop around to view it.

I've spoken to the owner on the phone and he seems to be pretty honest and has emailed me a stack of pictures. The interior looks to be in excellent condition but the clear coat is coming off on the bonnet and roof(no big deal) and the rear bumper is broken. My main worry is mechanical issues and reliability. It doesn't have power mirrors or cruise control, oh well. No Air suspension either.

He's told me they've owned it for six years and it's never given them trouble. Recently had the the rod ends and some bushes replaced. The bloke said he does the services himself and does an oil change every 10,000kms. He said it's got a few small oil leaks, not sure where from but he said they don't drip on the driveway and the oil doesn't seem to lose any volume between changes. Said it drives ok for a 14 year old car. Also said he's never had the three amigos appear. He also said that it has the EU3 compliant engine but not sure what's different about that to earlier models.

So, is it worth taking a punt? Compared to discos of the same year, it's allot cheaper then any here in Newcastle. I would have to fly to the Gold Coast to view it, and hopefully buy it and drive home.

Opinions?


Edit: I haven't owned a disco before(my father had a d1 v8 though, never had any problems), and my family is expanding with my second child on the way and we need a larger family car. We want something that my wife can drive the kids to school and back through the week and then we can have some fun off-road family trips on the weekend. We have both test drove a couple and my wife and I love the way they drive and pretty much everything about them so that's what we really want. I just don't want to buy a nightmare! I'm not on big wages so if I had to do massive mechanical repairs, such as an engine of head gasket, it would hurt my pocket allot! If I buy one, my plan is to immediately take it for a service and have the sump dropped to check the oil pump bolt.

call RACQ and get them to go check it out they are the QLD equivalent to your NRMA in NSW and only charge around the $90 mark for inspections and they are thorough i have used them on most of the cars i have owned over the years and they have never missed a single thing.