While Discotheque music may be long dead, hopefully there’s plenty of life left in today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Land Rover Disco. It’s price might even have you shouting, let’s dance!
Ahem… affects nasally, Beastie Boys voice… Hey Ladies!
There was much discussion yesterday around whether our 2007 Volkswagen Eos candidate was in fact a ‘Chick Car.’ The stereotype of said ‘wheels for women’ is that they are sporty without being sporting, enjoy a sizable heaping of comfort and convenience features, and, most importantly, look cute.
Now first off, around here we don’t believe that there even is such a thing as a gender-specific car or truck, *squints at crowd * do we? Point of fact, the ladies and gents that like to hang here pretty much like their cars every which way but loose. With that being said, that VW was in fact pretty fetch. No matter if you’re a dude or dudette, you’d likely not feel bad paying its $5,200 price for it either, seeing as it earned a solid 63-percent Nice Price win.
One of the major concerns that came up in the comments on yesterday’s VW was its complexity, which along with VW’s unflattering reputation for mechanical melt-downs left some of you concerned for the long-term viability of both the car, and potentially your bank account.
Some of you even went so far as to say you’d never buy anything from VW after having been once burned by one of their products in the past. Well, let me tell you, when it comes to inscrutable failures, to utter lack of reliability, VW is in the amateur leagues. If you want to go pro with your tales of vehicular woe, then you’ve got to step up to what we around here like to call... Land Rover.
Here we have a 1998 Land Rover Discovery LE, or as made popular by people in a hurry, the Disco. Built on the old Range Rover’s platform and sharing that model’s midsection on the four-door edition, the Disco distinguished itself with a high roof sporting safari windows in back. It didn’t just share parts with the Range Rover, however. The Disco was every bit the hand-me-down queen with parts sourced from the Austin Maestro and Marina, and headlights from a Rover van. In fact, the Disco carried on a number of parts long past the donor brand’s demise.
You can see a few of those elements here on this Black on Bahama Beige Disco. The ad claims the 157K car to be in ‘great condition.’ Of course it also notes that the headliner is chicken littling, and that there’s a CEL that the seller says is due to a bad O2 sensor. Rrrriiiight.
He also says that it used to be a show car. It does sport an aftermarket front bumper which houses a winch, Hella lights and a bull bar. Up top there’s a stepped roof rack housing even more lights, while down below a skid plate is visible owing to the truck riding on a raised suspension.
The bodywork is okay on the right side, however on the left there’s a number of things going on. In the plus column there’s a Safari Snorkel that moves the intake high enough that you’ll drown before the engine does. On the negative side, there’s a huge metal-depressing scrape in the driver’s door. Back behind that is another paint-chipping scrape. The pièce de résistance is a missing end cap on the back bumper. I don’t know what this Disco sideswiped but it sure looks like it took its sweet time doing so.
War wound not withstanding, the car looks pretty decent over all. The handsome alloy wheels look free of curb rash and who among us doesn’t want to climb that tiny ladder in the back?
The interior seems to have faired pretty well. The leather on the front seats is about what you would expect. I think Land Rover used leather from Kleenex brand cows on their trucks as they never seem to hold up very well. The back seats are better off, likely form lesser use. The load area is clean and capacious.
Mechanicals include a 4-litre Rover V8, ZF-sourced four-speed automatic (yes, I know the ad says it’s a manual, a pox on the seller for being such a tease) and 4WD through a two-speed transfer case. The seller says it rides on Old Man Emu shocks and a three-inch lift. It seems free from mechanical maladies other than that OBDII issue, and comes with a clean title.
The price tag is $3,000 which puts it squarely in the ‘how would a Disco look in my driveway’ consideration set. Before anyone can start ruminating on that however, we’ll need to decide if this Disco’s a deal at that price, at least based on its presentation in the ad.
What do you think, could this old Land Rover claim that kind of cash? Or, is this Disco’s seller eventually going to discover that he’s going to get far less?
You decide!
Dallas, TX Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to postapollo for the hookup!
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