Hello.
Let me start off by saying that i've been a long time Land Rover fan. The Discovery was the first car that I ever wanted to buy but other considerations made me settle on a Mercedes diesel. That was many years ago and once again I'm in the market for a Discovery. I've done quite of bit of research over the years including internet research, 1 general Land Rover book, two dedicated to the Discovery and just talking to any owners that i've run across. I subscribed to the Atlantic British parts catalog so I could familiarize myself with the cost of parts. All of that research almost paid off when I landed a sales job at a local LR dealer....it would have panned out but their insurance didn't cover me at the time so the Human Resources department canned me before I even had the chance to start. I remember times when I would be out on the road and I would see a random Range Rover for sale and I would go for a test drive with the salesmen....it would turn into me selling the car because they had no idea how to work any of the controls
Oddly enough over the years I ended up falling for the Mercedes GWagen. For a time I was allowed to drive an 04 model through my current company. Its a great truck but the steering on the newer models is very heavy and the ride comfort has decreased considerably. I found that out when I was given the opportunity to drive a two door gray market 280GE Cabrio. (Its still for sale in CT if anyone is interested in overpaying for it
) One day I would love to also buy a gray market standard wheel base model but they are extremely hard to come by and much more expensive so recently I decided to dust off my old Discovery knowledge for the time being.
Over the years I've driven every model of the Discovery and I am currently looking at a well cared for 1999 Series 1 Discovery with 157k. I like the Series 1 because it is still a relatively simple vehicle that I can work on myself....even my 1991 diesel looks more complex then a Series 1.
Everything on it appears to be in correct working order and it has no sunroofs (Two less things to break.....) Now I know that a Discovery is no Mercedes when it comes to build and material quality but i've known that since day one. If a piece of plastic trim breaks I'm not going to be shocked and go crying to Consumer Reports..... I'm just looking for a nice simple fun/winter/camping/Home Depot runner truck that CAN be run reliably. Reading around I settled on the 99 because it seems to be the best Series 1....most importantly knowing that the Series 1 quality was effected by productions volumes that were simply too high too keep up with quality control. Therefore when production was scaled back in 99 to make way for the series II, more time was spent building each car (Good thing) Finding information on the 99 series 1 tends to be tricky as most searches will bring up Disco II's.
Is there anything specific to the model year that I should know about?
New Connecticut member.
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