1996 Land Rover Discovery SE7

1996 Land Rover Discovery SE7

I bought this thing back in 2002 if I'm not mistaken. It was a curiosity purchase but I needed an SUV at the time. When I think of a 4X4 "safari" vehicle, the Discovery is what I picture. This one was actually quite nice as well.

This one had every option you could get at the time I believe, including dual sunroofs, dual AC, rear jump seats, etc. I liked the black and tan combo and it was just a really nice used truck.

I never noticed how many of these things there were in Houston until I bought one. I didn't like driving it at first to be honest. The seating position is very high, and there is about an eight inch drop from the roof to the top of the windshield which was great for headroom but meant that I had to bend down to see traffic lights unless they were far off in the distance. 

The engine was another problem. It had a V8, and it's not that it was underpowered really, but it just wasn't designed well for city driving. It was way too sluggish and really felt like it struggled to achieve any type of speed. It handled towing my SeaDoos fine, but you wouldn't want to tackle anything major with it.

The interior was very nice, but also had some odd design features. I won't get into specifics here, but British engineering makes me scratch my head sometimes.

So should you buy one? I think there's a reason to have one of these, and I've almost bought a newer one on many occasions. Here's the thing - the Discovery in general is a bit of an enigma. The people that tend to buy these things are the urban yuppie types, but the truck is really lacking when it comes to city life. Most of these probably never see extreme off-road conditions, which is most certainly what they were designed for and best at. As an SUV the Discovery is too limiting for my needs, but as a cool retro 4X4 I really like it. 

They don't cost much at all these days. You can buy one for less than $5000, but don't! Look at a well cared for and slightly newer example for closer to $10K. It's sort of a cheaper alternative to buying a classic Blazer or Bronco. That said, they can get expensive to own. Electrical problems are common...almost expected, and parts can be expensive as well. The headliners always sag and are complicated and pricey to replace. The list goes on. All that said, I would totally get another one but I'd probably look for a lower mileage example and probably around a 2004 model.