Land Rover Discovery views

Bukshot

Well-Known Member
Hi All,

Time for a change for the car. Thinking of taking the plunge for a Land Discovery 5 round about 2020-2021 age. Would like to hear from owners please. The good and bad and engines to avoid. With the Land Rovers reliability record, I can't seem to decide.

Thanks
 
there is only one way to own a land rover and that is new with a full warranty ! (and even then it will break your heart and wallet)

just do a google for reliability surveys or customer satisfaction with the dealers aftersales care.

such a shame because they are good looking and great to drive plus capable , just shockingly unreliable

having owned a few over the years from an early 110 V8 defender to a later V8 rangey both new and S/H , i will now not entertain the green oval one bit , ever again!

someone will come along and claim theirs has been reliable but they are either lying or do about 2000 miles a year and don't rely on their vehicle !

interesting fact for you here , every single land rover i have owned either new or s/h has required recovery in the first month of ownership , twice the brand new loan cars they lent me broke down on me while they were trying to fix my car (again!)

in contrast the landcruisers i owned and did many more miles in never needed anything more than routine servicing....................
 
Have google, there are reportedly some serious issues with the engines.
Yep. The Ingenium range, I believe? Oil dilution can lead to turbo failure and camchain stretch apparently? My brother-in-law's Jaguar suffered catastrophic failure at less than 50k miles a few weeks ago. Halving Landrover recommended oil change intervals apparently helps.
 
Isn't the D5 the TDV6 engine? I had 3 got rid of the last as you couldn't get a decent warranty on them. I feel that the cars are great, the dealers are crap; the final straw was LR making Guava at Peasmarsh sell to Hunters who were by far the worst I dealt with.
 
The 3 litre v6:has inherent design issues that cause the crank to snap.
To see how big the issue is, google the price of a new engine, or a used engine. They are difficult to get.
Go to you tube and look up LR Time. He is a German bloke who runs 2 of them and goes into great detail about why he thinks they fail. Aside from 20,000 mile service intervals and the wrong oil.
 
Yep. The Ingenium range, I believe? Oil dilution can lead to turbo failure and camchain stretch apparently? My brother-in-law's Jaguar suffered catastrophic failure at less than 50k miles a few weeks ago. Halving Landrover recommended oil change intervals apparently helps.
A friend has a LR Sport with the 3l diesel engine on 2017 plate. Last year they had to replace the DPF and this year they have been hit with an £8k bill. This seems to stem from driving short journeys where the engine never heats up properly so the DPF and other essential parts never reach a high enough temp to work properly so block up and cause the engine oil to thin out leading to more major issues.

I read an article last week that focused more on the higher spec Range Rover models that are uninsurable due to the high levels of theft which has then led to plummeting prices secondhand. Some going from £90k to £60k in a matter of months meaning you can't drive it because no insurer will cover you, but can't sell it because you'd be in too much debt.
 
I have looked at the Discovery 5. There are some cheaper ones about but you either risk the snapped crankshaft or the stretchy timing chain on the smaller engine.
 
Had a demo D5 for a week in late 2019 - lovely car, but that’s it, a car! Doesn’t have the boot space or durability of my D4.

As others have said, buy new for the warranty as you’ll need it.

I bought my D4 as a LR Approved Used vehicle so dealer had to replace a load of bits on it before it reached the required standard. However, between putting down deposit & paying balance to collect the thing it lunched the engine… I was very happy about this as I got a used car with a brand new engine 👍

I understand now that LR Approved Used warranty no longer covers the V6 diesel engine due to chance of catastrophic failure. There were/are two main causes of said failure - spun bearings blocking the oil journals to the crank shaft & mechanical failure of the crankshaft due to stress fracturing. The former, I believe but don’t quote me, was rectified. The latter, in my opinion, is down to engineers removing as much material as possible from the crank to improve efficiency & then using an engine map that produces a shed load of low end torque which then over stresses the crank.

Aside from such catastrophic engine failures most of the problems with D4s & other expensive LR models is down to people skimping on the maintenance. I’ve had my D4 for nearly 9 years now & nothing unexpected has happened to it. It’s needed parts replaced but they are consumables that suffer wear & tear, so have been budgeted for. It’s my everyday car & certainly does more than 2k miles a year.

The one thing I am truly pleased about is that it’s a TDV6 D4 not an SDV6… the difference? - it was one of the early models made in the first 6 months of D4 production that had the twin turbo V6 but didn’t have a dpf!

As already said, the Ingenium diesel engines are shite - they need to be used for good long runs to get the dog to regen & also need to be driven in ‘manual’ mode so the engine revs & exhaust gets hot enough - the auto box doesn’t really allow this to happen, especially on school runs. They also need oil & filter changes annually or 12k miles, or less if doing short stop/start trips!

A bit out of touch with the current model line up but rather than a diesel if it were me I’d actually be looking at a petrol hybrid version… shock horror, never ever thought I’d write that 😳 Will have to take the V8 out after work for some therapy I think!
 
The used car warranty never covered the engine as the insurance company said it was a design fault so LR had to put their hand in their pocket which they didn’t always do if you hadn’t had main dealer servicing. The bearings were tabbed and untabbed both had issues with slipping and cutting off oil supply. Interestingly in Korea there was a recall for it. I jumped ship and bought a Cayenne V8 diesel, if I was going to have to have a car I thought I’d have a fun one. It has been no more expensive to service than the Discos but I can buy the equivalent warranty of a new car for total peace of mind. It’s more comfortable, more economical and goes without saying faster, it does go off-road but on 21” wheels I don’t do it but it gives you one hell of a grin even after 6 years of ownership.
 
Hi All,

Time for a change for the car. Thinking of taking the plunge for a Land Discovery 5 round about 2020-2021 age. Would like to hear from owners please. The good and bad and engines to avoid. With the Land Rovers reliability record, I can't seem to decide.

Thanks
The decision is don't buy any LandRover product - buy a LandCruiser instead and sleep easy in your bed every night knowing that it won't break down
Yes, a LandCruiser will cost more than a Disco, but it will last longer, cost you less in repairs and be worth a lot more when you do come to change (for another LandCruiser) :)

Cheers

Bruce
 
Isn't the D5 the TDV6 engine? I had 3 got rid of the last as you couldn't get a decent warranty on them. I feel that the cars are great, the dealers are crap; the final straw was LR making Guava at Peasmarsh sell to Hunters who were by far the worst I dealt with.
Have to agree with your sentiments, including the demise of Guava.

A
 
I have had a 2021 discovery from new and have overall been pleased with it. It is the d300 engine. Have covered 35,000 miles and engine wise it has not missed a beat. Towed a large caravan for its first couple of years and as suspected no problems at all. Had a few issues with electric seats and recently a windscreen that delaminated shortly after warranty expiration. Main dealer got land rover to cover the cost without too much hassle (i had outright refused to pay).

Looking to replace in a few months time and have no concerns over ordering another one.
 
I got my second landrover discovery from new in April, so far new injectors have been replaced. As much as I like the comfort and ride quality of them they are so unreliable that when this one gets to three years old I’m seriously thinking about the new Toyota Land Cruiser
 
Another point is that dealerships are swamped with warranty work, our local Land Rover dealer has over 60 courtesy cars out on long term use whilst people wait for their vehicles to be fixed. I was told that the workshop was fully booked until February.

So even if you are covered by the warranty you will be in a crap courtesy car potentially for months should something go wrong
 
School runs are causing engine failure? serves them right for clogging up the 130 year old road structure with Chelsea tractors. Now where's my aluminium foil hat?
 
I’m seriously thinking about the new Toyota Land Cruiser

Was looking (only looking!) at the Toyota Land Cruiser site last night.

They had none in stock, and no date when they would.

Just as well really, as I can't afford to buy the damn thing.
 
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