USED Land Rover Discovery 4x4 (04 - )

My car

I Own an 08 Disco, and to put it frankly, it's the best 4x4 I have ever owned. With the type of business I run. I need a 4x4 for both normal driving and off road. I have had a few other 4x4 from other manufacturers and non can come close to the all day comfort. This car has transported me throughout the UK and Ireland and never skipped a beat. I have a big family. My wife and four kids and my two dogs have been up north with me into the highlands and at no point did any complain of discomfort (Anyone with kids will know exactly what I am talking about). Only one small niggle was the fact the rear discs had a "High spot" causing the automatic handbrake not to disengage but after one phone call to Taggarts Land Rover in Motherwell, the team had my car collected and returned to me after only a couple of hours, fixed. Now thats what i call service!! I will be buying another one of these next year to replace this one.

My car

Hopefully, this will enlighten customers about our bad experiences, and also let other Land Rover Discover owners list there problems and grievances, so that prospective purchases of Land Rover products can see what they could be letting themselves in for, and subsequently that Land Rover realise the discontent of its customers and thus improve the reliability of the cars they manufacture and the after-car they provide for their customers, without whom, they would be out of business.

We feel that the product is fantastic in theory, but the practicalities of owning the car make the purchase of a Land Rover Discover a really bad and costly mistake.

My car

This has to be one of the best 4x4's out there, and I test drove them all before settling on the Disco. It's not PC from an environment perspective but it's British built!

SAFETY - Disappointing not to get 5 euroncap stars, but it feels solid and there is a lot of metal between you and the road. Accident avoidance is excellent with a great view of the road ahead, and lots of safety gizmos. With the All Terrain Response I feel confident that bad weather risk will be reduced in the Disco.

COMFORT - Superb electric memory seats with lumbar. Everybody is comfy including the rear seat passengers. Steering wheel is poorly shaped and a little uncomfortable to use.

DRIVING- Slow, but you never feel the urge to drive fast in a car like this anyway. MPG is poor but acceptable on balance with what the car does. Cruise control is disappointing - Adaptive Cruise as an option would be nice LR??!

PRACTICALITY - Exceptional. 7 proper seats, and masses of space. Other than a ford transit van, it doesnt get more practical than this.

TECHNOLOGY - It comes with satnav, bi-directional xenons, heated seats front and back, digi TV, harmon kardon sound system, BT phone, and sunroof. All work well but would work a LOT better if everything was controlled from a single point like in BMW and Audi brand cars.

OVERALL - A superb luxury workhorse that deserves all the awards and glowing reviews it has received. Unless your unlucky enough to buy a lemon of course!

My car

I hired a discovery 3 for a day; my company carry out work for the MoD and we took it "proper" off road on the Army training ground "Salisbury Plain".

Well on road the car was nice; no real complaints. But if you want a proper off roader this is not for you. The center diff will not permanently lock therefore it is not a 4x4as all 4 wheels do not get drive. The fancy electronics were inept, the car got stuck twice purely due to the electronics not begin up to the job - just needs a button so the driver can manually lock the diff - the electronic brain just could not stand the pace!

If all you do is drive ON ROAD this car is good but it is a CAR and not a 4x4.

PS compared to my BMW the cabin is very cheap plastic. Next time we will be hiring a Toyota Hilux.