When people say "no issues" I am a little doubtful, I like landrovers but would not own another (and before people start banging on about how people who complain about them can't afford them) I have owned 7 of them, everything from a Series IIA, Range Rover Classic 3.5 manual, a 2.5tdi Discovery SII, a 1.8L Freelander 1, a 2.2Tdi freelander 2 and a Discovery 3, if you count my father and my brother we have owned every landrover except a Series I, a 101FC a Disco 4 and the current rangerover, and I have driven all of them except for the most current line up. (including the 101 based city cab and the FC llama!)
Landrovers are great and have character but they are in no way "up there" in reliability, and I used to work for a main dealership as a mech, no car is without fault and all will have niggley common faults but the most expensive car to repair and run I have ever owned was my Discovery 3, it was a constant cycle of Wheel bearings, which leads to disks and calipers, the electric handbrakes are a pain, the power steering pump seal went, and the main front to back break pipe is made of steel - anyone who owns one should go in and ask a dealer how much they want to change this one pipe - they will get a quote of around £1200 as most dealers will take the body off to change this pipe! I also had the air compressor housing corrode (another known fault due to poor drain points in the housing) what I will say is when they are going they drive very well considering their weight - and they are great offroad with the right boots.
My Freelander 1 was pretty good for 52k other than viscous coupling, my discovery II had the usual wheel bearings and corrosion on the rear quarter, my Freelander 2 had a slipping clutch at 68k and the intercooler hose cracked.
I used to fully support landrover as a brand but they really just aren't building a product worthy of the price anymore - and they are about to kill off the product that has the last bit of heritage when they sell off the last defender.
The issue with the older ones was inconsistency, some defenders and discos are excellent and if you get a good one then hold onto it - but far more have dodgy reliability.
Go and look at the wheel arches and just in front of the spare wheel on a disco 3 or 4 - count the exposed wires and tell me that's acceptable for a vehicle that was supposed to be designed for offroad use!
When I worked there it was mostly gearbox mainshaft replacements on Discovery I & II's and camshaft float on the 3.9 V8's that was the issue. (along with Range rover p38 wheels falling off - which was down to using copper slip on the hub face)
Now go look at an Audi, VW or BMW and look at all the sealed covered connectors - that speaks volumes!
I am currently in the USA and ok the cars don't get the same extreme weather where I am and are not to the same quality build standard - but I have done 22,000 miles in the last 4 1/2 months in my truck and it has not skipped a beat - ok, the 16 spark plugs on a Hemi are a pain to change but it has purred away without a problem.
A friend has a TD5 110 Defender and its a great truck to hoon around in - but he has had to change the cylinder head due to them cracking and leading to the engine oil being contaminated by diesel - not a cheap fix!, he has also changed out half shafts and his door bottoms are giving in to tin worm, all on a 2003 vehicle.
When I get back I hope VW have come out with a 3.0TD version of the Amorak as I will be looking at that or the Ford Ranger for me and most likely another German car (her last was an ultra reliable 330D BMW and it was pretty much faultless) for the Mrs.
Landrover unfortunately wont get a look in for either of my choices as they traded robust build for fashion in my opinion.
Regards,
Gixer