1984 Land Rover 110 3.5 V8
Summary:
20 years old and still going strong!
Faults:
At 175,000 km when I bought the vehicle, the V8 showed all the well-known characteristics of a worn Rover V8 - in particular a lack of power and poor fuel economy characteristic of worn camshaft, lifters timing chain and gears. I replaced these for approximately 700 Australian Dollars (say 300 pounds). This markedly improved performance and fuel economy. Subsequently I replaced the mechanical distributor with an electronic ignition with some performance improvement.
Apart from these fairly major maintenance items the vehicle has performed flawlessly.
General Comments:
For a true Land Rover (ie not a Discovery or a Freelander) this vehicle is very comfortable to drive, especially on long trips and on genuine 4WD tracks. It is an excellent family tourer as it carries large loads easily and the visibility for the children in the rear seats is good.
Fuel consumption is poor, but is less bad than before the camshaft, lifters and timing chain were replaced. On a recent 1500km trip I averaged 6km/l (17 mpg) over a combination of highway cruising (100km/h) and easy bush tracks. Fuel consumption was very high (6mpg) over a 80 km stretch of very rough track (Low Range 1 and 2 country). I use this vehicle as a second car and only for camping trips in the bush. Even at Australian fuel prices (85c/L = 35p/L) I would not want to use this as my primary source of transport due to fuel costs.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 3rd October, 2003
18th Jun 2004, 13:37
It's interesting how the author doesn't consider the Discovery as a true Land Rover. They were certainly good enough for the Camel Trophys and the D90 and the Disco share numerous parts so there aren't a lot of significant differences. I think if they were able to use the Discos for as many years as the the Camel Trophy was on, they're probably good enough to be considered "true" Land Rovers.
Aside from that comment, the rest of the review was fine.