At the $10K price point you'd really need to be patient to find a D2 td5 that was worth buying. You certainly won't find a 2003 or 2004 with low km for much less than $15K.
I don't really think the early D2's are particularly bad, after all at the time the UK motoring press thought they were a vast improvement over the D1. ;)
( See file attached to this post:
http://www.aulro.com/afvb/discovery-...ml#post1827663 for a road test of the 1998 D2 Td5)
I put together a introduction to D2 model years and key changes which can be found as a sticky in the D2 sub-forum:
http://www.aulro.com/afvb/discovery-...ates-vins.html
Up to about april 2001 the transfer case had the diff lock internals fitted but no lever. There are various aftermarket levers available but you'd have to factor $4-600 to retrofit.
There was a period of about 16 months (last few months of 2001MY and all of 2002MY) where the d2 didn't have the diff lock internals fitted to the transfer case. If you were planning on doing off road work and wanted to retro fit the most cost effective solution would be a diff lock kit at around $600 plus lever as above. For off-roading the late 2001MY are probably best avoided. 2002MY Td5 were fitted with the revised EU3 motor which gave 40nm more torque and came with a reprogramable ECU and larger intercooler which make it a good proposition despite the missing CDL.
cheers
Paul
