Land Rover Discovery 2.5TDi 2003

Advantages: Built like a brick **** house
Disadvantages: Badly designed instrument layout

...I have owned a Discovery 2.5TDi from new since 2003 and consider now that I have enough experience to comment fairly on it. Good points 1. Excellent work horse. Can tow all day without noticing the load 2. Very comfortable and excellent seat movement 3. Makes you feel safe and secure Bad points 1. Very poorly designed dashboard layout. Most displays hidden by the steering wheel 2. Very badly positioned switches for electronic seat controls. You have to have needle thin hands and be a contortionist to use them 3. Poor electrics (especially the sun roof which has a mind of its own). and the worlds worst SAT Nav. You can buy a top of the range Garmin for less than the disc upgrade. Despite this we love it warts and all....

awb714 17.09.2007 · Read review
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Review of Land Rover Discovery 2.5 Td5

Land Rover Discovery 2.5 TD5 GS 5 seat

Advantages: Excellent traction, driving good, bullet-proof, good residual values
Disadvantages: Heavy in town, fuel consumption, minor niggles

...My Land Rover Discovery 2.5 TD5 GS is the 5-seat model, first registered in December 1999. It was bought in June 2000 for £20,000, having cost approximately £27,500 new. It had nearly 5000 miles on the clock. Bodywork was and is immaculate and the previous owner (a rural chemist) buys a new one quite frequently (every 6 months!). This car had also had lamp protectors and fog lamps fitted over the standard spec, with floor mats and mudflaps also fitted. The point at which bought it was just after the start of the drop in new and used prices and appeared to be priced to keep cash flow going as it has only depreciated by £2000 over 1 year. Main off-road use has been up rough tracks (to go hillwalking or visiting relatives). Otherwise its main off-road use has been up our gravel drive or mounting a pavement to turn or park. Needless to...

Elnoj 08.05.2001 · Read review
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Review of Land Rover Discovery 2.5 Td5

Discovery TD5 ES 7

Advantages: Goes and carries everything, everywhere.
Disadvantages: Not quickly....

...I've owned the Discovery for 2 years now. Yes it's had problems, a lot of these were down to previous owner and where he took it for repairs though. I rebuilt the head after gasket failure, only to find someone had already been in there and 'bodged' it. Radweld should be banned..... After getting it running like it should do, I can say that I will keep this car as long as it still runs. It does everything. It goes everywhere. It carries and pulls anything. We go skiing in the Pyrenees every year, the Disco does the job perfectly. Carries all the kit, no problems. Camping in the summer, not a problem. The Discovery will take you anywhere.... just not quickly. Off road, you will not find better (and yes mine does go off road, regularly). Fuel consumption is between 28-30 mpg. Mind you, I don't do stop start journeys, and it's very...

cbrpilot 10.03.2009 · Read review
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Review of Land Rover Discovery 2.5 Td5

Land rover Discovery TD5

Advantages: 4 wheel drive with lowering prices
Disadvantages: A little soft on cornering

...If you have the money to spare and are looking for a car that has Looks - Style - Comfort - Reliability and a real name that's had a good following over the years, I would highly recommend the Land rover Discovery. The biggest asset at the moment is that the price throughout the range has been reduced dramatically due to the recent changes in importation and dealership, and if you shop around you really can pick up an excellent deal, Even Secondhand. With the TD5 ( Turbo Diesel ), you get real quality even with the earlier models. The only drawback with the earlier ones is that the ride tends to be a bit bumpy, but having said that the early models are more economical to run in general averaging 30 - 35 MPG. The more recent models ( I.E 1997 Onward ) usually run at around 25 - 30 MPG, But obviously they are much more luxurious...

Trev1000 26.12.2000 · Read review
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Review of Land Rover Discovery 2.5 Td5

Landover Discovery - A Family Car?

Advantages: Excellent field of view, great in bad weather, comfy, easy to drive.
Disadvantages: Getting in and out for less able or elderly, short on luggage space when using all 7 seats.

...We have owned and driven our Dissy for 15 months. We bought it 2nd Hand, a year old with 24,000 miles on the clock. The driver's seat had a tear in the side, which was replaced under warranty. Aside from this the only other problem we had was when I inadvertently filled up with unleaded instead of diesel!! This was on a newly opened Tesco forecourt where the pump colours were different. I didn't feel too dumb as the pick-up guy said he'd personally taken 20+ drivers away, who'd done the same thing. DIESEL owners beware, it isn't cheap to drain and refill. The Dissy is a great utility vehicle. We live in the Highlands and weather patterns are extremely changeable, with snow, mud and rain to contend with on narrow single track roads. The Dissy copes brilliantly with them all. A month after we bought it, we travelled from Norfolk...

MrTamis 18.02.2005 · Read review
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Review of Land Rover Discovery 2.5 Td5

Who wouldn't you want a Land Rover Discovery?

Advantages: Good driving position, reliability, capacity
Disadvantages: MPG, rust, gearbox

...I recently bought a 1990 (G) 2.5TDI Land Rover Discovery and have been really impressed with the overall package so far. First of all the driving position is fantastic, you cannot get any better than being up high and being able to see everywhere, the 360 degree visiblity is also very good. The only part that is difficult is getting used to how they steer, the linkages are different to most cars so you can't make frequent, tiny adjustments or you can get a small wobble on. However drive one for an hour and you will master this. Don't go on a motorway straight away like me and then learn there! My Disco has done 140, 000 miles, the inside of the car isn't fantastic but it is still clean and once I'd polished it up it looks suprisingly good. The outside has minor marks such as paint bubbles on the rear arches but this is...

ccundall 06.03.2004 · Read review
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Review of Land Rover Discovery 2.5 Td5

A Voyage Of Discovery

Advantages: Interesting exhibits
Disadvantages: lack of disabled access

...I've passed by the RSS Discovery many times without visiting and when I had some Tesco days out vouchers to use up I decided to visit as it is next door to the Olympia leisure centre which the kids love visiting. The Royal Research Ship Discovery is the ship which Captain Scott used for his groundbreaking Antarctic expedition in 1901 and it has now been lovingly restored and sits in a custom built dock on the Firth of Tay near to the famous Tay road bridge. The first part of the exhibition is in the Discovery dome which is split into nine separate areas which tell the story of how Discovery was built, the Antarctic expedition and the men aboard the ship. The first exhibit you come to is a cinema which tells the story of the men involved in the expedition; most will have heard of Captain Scott but there were 45 men in total...

wigglylittleworm 03.08.2009 (06.08.2009) · Read review
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Review of Discovery, Dundee

great for towing but nothing else

Advantages: great for towing, excellent driving position
Disadvantages: bumpy when not towing

...I'm only writing this opinion based on the fact that I hired one at the weekend for towing - unfortunately like most people out there I couldn't afford one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (unless I write about 2000 reviews for ciao a day!!!!!) I have my own horse trailer, 2 horses and a mondeo - now as most of you will know - the mondeo will tow 1 horse but to tow 2 it would - but illegally of course - but wanting to go a far distance and wanting to take 2 horses I needed a vehicle that could do the job properly!!! As I was letting a friend ride one of my horses we decided to hire a vehicle and share the cost. After ringing around a few places I found a garage locally that hired Discovery's for the day for £35. The vehicle in question was a Landrover Discovery TDI 2.5 this was on a P Reg and apparently would be valued at around...

SecretFormula 26.09.2001 · Read review
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Review of Land Rover Discovery 2.5 Td5

Off-roading made classy

Advantages: Enormously powerful off-roader, quite comfortable and relatively easy to fix and maintain
Disadvantages: Hungry and noisy, needs ECU upgrade to fully exploit its capabilities

...can take a lot of damage and still get you home. Not the easiest to repair in the field, but it's possible, and most of you will never do it anyway;-) Of course its age shows - inside it's nowhere near as classy as its younger siblings, but quite comfortable and ergonomic. Aircon is surprisingly effective. Road handling is what you expect from a (reasonably) modern car. Standard version TD5 is not quick though - consider Autologic power upgrade, which will add another £400 to the final bill. The diesel itself is very elastic - it pulls equally well at 1800 and 4500 RPM, although gets quite noisy at high revs. Overall, if you're considering buying a 4x4, Discovery 2 should be near the top of your list. It has the pedigree, it's still (mostly) mechanical car - if your active cornering system fails, you'll still make it to base without it...

CrocodileFarm 06.11.2008 · Read review
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Review of Land Rover Discovery 2.5 Td5

A Land Rover with the manners of an executive car.

Advantages: Exceptional towing vehicle, comfortable & reliable
Disadvantages: Quite sluggish

...I have owned many large, spacious and comfortable vehicles; both 4x4s and cars (Mitsibishi Shoguns, Mercedes...). However, now on my second Discovery (a '52 Reg' TD5 GS) I can safely say that the Land Rover has blitzed the others. It offers a unique blend of ruggedness and comfort without sacrificing luxury. When I bought my first Discovery, again a TD5 back in 2000, friends of mine were sceptical of my choice of Diesel over the V8 petrol. However, when they experienced the smoothness and adequacy of the Turbocharged 5-cylinder unit they quickly congratulated me on my choice. Also in terms of MPG the TD5 offers around 25-30 compared to the horrific consumption of the V8. Indeed it is the coupling of the engine and drivetrain which ultimately makes the Disco TD5, the abundance of torque is after all fundamental to any 4x4 especially...

vorner 07.02.2004 · Read review
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Review of Land Rover Discovery 2.5 Td5