I stick by my comment and will even extend it to say that many people I have personally known who bought D1s should not have. Of the 8 families I know who bought their Landies in the early to mid 1990s, we are the only family who still owns a Land Rover, drives it and ENJOYS it. These people all should have bought something else. They never took the vehicle off-road but used it exclusively for daily city duty. They all bought automatics (which several really disliked in the end because of poor acceleration); they all bought the top models with the stupid little leaky sunroofs. Those families traded their Discos in for Mercedes SUVs (one of these SUVs was a disaster, Jason ended up abandoning the vehicle on the dealer lot), Land Cruisers, Volvos, Touregs. Not one bought another LR. I don't think I would buy another new LR either.
The influence of BMW and Ford may have pushed the newer models toward greater public acceptance but the D1 (I don't know enough about the D2 to comment) had characteristics that still remind one of the old Series vehicles - which were excellent. Our 1996 bare bones 5 spd D1 was bought new, has only 30k miles on it and is thoroughly enjoyed by my wife and the two kids. We have been over some amazing terrain in the vehicle but never used it as our main daily driver. It has never let us down but I did have to replace a broken exhaust valve.
Yes, jmeyert4a, Toyotas are better in many (most?) ways just like a fresh salad is better than a steak, but I have found Toyotas to be bland to drive and not to my personal taste. My son and I test drove the new FJCruiser and really disliked the engine, transmission and huge blind spot; but I'll put money on it the vehicle will be virually trouble free for 200k miles... still it is not for us.
So, "will the Real Land Rover stand up?" yes,very much so but it will stand up beautifully being used for what it was primarily designed; in mud or deep snow or serious off-roading! That being said, it will need a helping hand from time to time when it is younger and plenty of TLC (and money) as it ages.
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