I hear you Militant, yea the vray way of loving your Disco and pampering it to get the most (not problems hopefully) out of it.
Vray, US$1,300 may be cheap, if only we have income in US$, nope it is $NZ at NZ$9.50/hour, ha!!
I personally prefer diesel as I have been driving a trouble-free diesel 4WD for the last 7 years. When I started looking at LR, diesel was my natural choice. Then again, to cut the long story short, I have choices based on economics, which are as follows:
1. 1998 Disco I 2.5-litre 300TDi $14,000.
Just a little under-power for my 5,000lb caravan and not much difference to my current intercooled turbo diesel Isuzu. Quite out of the question here.
2. Next up is the TD5 2.5-litre which may be a little better in power and torque but, for a 1999, be prepared to fork out $25,000 or more. Why???
3. Power and torque that could also be found at the expense of about 12 cents per km difference between diesel (cheaper in NZ) and regular petrol (calculated based on my situation) come in cheaper options as follows:
- 1996 Disco I V8, $9,000
- 1995 " " V8, $7,000
- 1994 " " V8, $5,000
4. To bear in mind the economic difference between the two different Discos (petrol V8 and TD5) that could do the same job of towing my caravan, the price differs by up to $20,000 or more, which translates into approx. 167,000km (based on the difference of 12 cents/km between the two fuel types in New Zealand), i.e. about 104,000 miles of EXTRA travel.
Considering that I am
unlikely to use more than
10,000km per year for this second vehicle, I have up to 16.7 years to make up for the price difference at my rate. Would this vehicle serve me this long?
Does it then make sense for me to pay as little as possible NOW for something that immediately does what I want, though at a higher daily expense but have a dollar buffer for several years, or do I put up front the dollars to get something (more expensive) that may do the same job, yet cost a lot more to repair? (Diesel mechanics here charge heaps more to do repairs than petrol ones.) My pragmatic and economic response pick the former option.
What would you do?
Don't get me wrong, I still like the idea of diesel, bio-diesel, vegie oil fuel and all, but I could also find things to do with the $20,000 not spent.
