Thread: Thinking of buying a D3 - pro's and con's

I think you would be happy with a 2.7 D3, i jumped from a TDI D1 and couldnt be happier. If a D4 is in your budget then i would buy one .

Two of is drove around Australia. I have s D4, my son has s 2.7 D3. He had a larger van so used more fuel and did not climb some mountains as easily, still a very good vehicle.

You could also look out for a D4 with the 2.7. MIGHT be a little cheaper than a 3.0.

Hi,

I bought a 2005 D3 HSE TDV6 2.7L for my wife a few months ago.

She came out of a Honda MDX which really is quite a good car. She didnt want to loose any of the features the Honda had was her bottom line.

The idea behind the D3 purchase was mainly because we wanted to, while the kids are young, do a bit more overlanding, camping, 4wd'ing etc.

So finding something that ticked off most of the boxes on my wifes list as well as my little list was my objective. Looked at others cars in the 10-20k price range and really wasn't really overly please with them. Then I saw the D3 pop up in a car sales search. The rest is history.

I drive a 2016 Colorado pre MY17, as my company car and is my first diesel car. I missed the acceleration of the previous petrol car that I had so that took some getting used to.

After taking the D3 for a test spin I immediately noticed better perfromance and ease at which it accelerated. And that was a 230k D3 as opposed to a 2016 Colorado LTZ ute with 30k on it.

I looked at D4's but they are a big jump up in price. With the D5 coming out and the HSE spec being substantially higher D4 HSE are becoming more popular. I dont need to explain the theories of supply and demand here. There's even a bit of a jump from a 2005 to ate 2007 HSE D3. The interior updates are most significant as well as the sun roof. That stuff wasn't worth the extra 5-10k seeing as I was putting a full roof tray on and I can change the head unit pretty easily for $500 or so.

Having had the car now for about 4 months I can say it's a real pleasure to drive. With airbag susp it's literally like you are floating on air. From the research I did the D3 was a big step up for Land Rover so moving from a D2 to a D3 I have serious reason to believe you won't regret the change.

We have taken it off road a few times and hit the beach. It just keeps going, the terrain response system is really pretty good. Being able to go up a few inches in clearance with the press of a button is just awesome.

Real life fuel figures are pretty good. On a recent holiday trip 70/30 highway/city we got 716kms before filling up with a touch over 77L into the tank(82L) so about 10.8L/100. Not bad for a 2.7T car. We were towing a small box trailer with our camping stuff in it so maybe 300kg's.

Towed a 1.3T camper behind us and while it has no problem towing it it does so because it uses more juice. About 15-17L/100 is what the computer showed. I believe the D4's 3.0's are a bit more efficient in those regards.

PS There's plenty of place that offer parts to face lift your D3 into a D4 :-)

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Frank.

That's all really good advice, thanks.

Originally Posted by hello_disco3

Towed a 1.3T camper behind us and while it has no problem towing it it does so because it uses more juice. About 15-17L/100 is what the computer showed. I believe the D4's 3.0's are a bit more efficient in those regards.

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This is what I was thinking about the 3.0L D4 also, I wonder what the real life fuel consumption of the 3.0L would be under the same conditions?

TAHAIC

The D3 is an excellent vehicle. But I would look for as new as you can. A D4 2.7 would be a good vehicle. A 3.0 is even better.

Originally Posted by gofish

You could also look out for a D4 with the 2.7. MIGHT be a little cheaper than a 3.0.

I went from TD5 Disco 2a to 2.7 D4,absolutely no comparison,and my D2 was chipped.

The 2.7 is also easy to chip,so it will have around same torque and power as 3.0l TDV6,which is the lower output 3.0l,from MY13 onwards.

The D4 3.0 fuel consumption varies as per any vehicle. Depends on weight, wind and terrain but is in average around 13.5 L/100 km.