Disco 1 Series - Thing´s to look out for

[rbno]

Hi all,
new to this so please bear with me. I´m in southern Spain and have fancied a Disco for some time. One has come up it´s a series one model TDI200. I´ve yet to take a detailed look but when I do I need to be prepaired as to what to look out for, so please feel free to advise as to what to look out for. I´ve seen the car out in the street and I must say she looks in excellent standard condition, the alloys are totally original so I guess it´s spent a life on the road and parked in a garage.

thanks up front,

Richard

Cadiz

[redhand]

Hi all,
new to this so please bear with me. I´m in southern Spain and have fancied a Disco for some time. One has come up it´s a series one model TDI200. I´ve yet to take a detailed look but when I do I need to be prepaired as to what to look out for, so please feel free to advise as to what to look out for. I´ve seen the car out in the street and I must say she looks in excellent standard condition, the alloys are totally original so I guess it´s spent a life on the road and parked in a garage.

thanks up front,

Richard

Cadiz

Make sure you lift the carpet in the rear load area and check the floor and rear cross member also corners of the rear body where the door closes. and under rear seats.

If it's a 5 door rear wheel arches round the door.

power steering box leaking. Check gears select ok. check hi-lo and diff lock all work. Take it for a long test drive minimum 10km. preferably longer.

Oh and make sure it's not dark and raining like it was when I brought mine.:eek:

[bilge rat]

inner wings under the bonnet, and check round the inner sills round front body mounts. alan....

[streaky]

If it has air conditioning then you may want to peel back the front carpets too.
My 98 is in for a new floor caused by the condensor pipe dripping water inderneath the front carpet.....big expense to get it fixed.

Regards.

S.

[tonywitney]

Is it an original Spanish car, or an import? If original, then I doubt corrosion would be an issue.

Check for excessive smoke, although smoke on start up is OK. Check the rubber around the windows, esp. the alpine windows and the front screen. I know it doesnt rain much in Spain - mainly on the plains :D, but its worth checking.

Service history? If its been regularly serviced, great, if not, be careful. What mileage has it got?

[rbno]

The car´s an original Spanish model, it´s had two owners since new with the second owner owning it for the past year only, think it´s a ´93 model will find out when I get down to see it. It´s currently awaiting a small part for the transmission. It´s got lots of service history, it´s got aprox 144,000 kms which is about 85,000 miles. It´s nice and original with no visible scuffs, alloy´s are pristine, although we´re in southern Spain I´m not far from Gib where you do get quite a lot of rain, should´ve seen it yesterday, incredible! Rust issues although not a big an issue in the UK are still prevalent here as well as the sun baking and shrinking the paint off cars! Anyway, awaiting for this part to be fitted then will go down and test drive. I´m a little suspitious as the cars advertised for 4,000 euros which is cheap by Spanish standards, second hand cars tend to be quite expensive compaired to the UK market. So if I really do like the car I´ll take a mechanic to give it the once over again.

thanks,

Richard

[tonywitney]

Well, you know the Spanish market, but wouldn't pay 4000 Euro's for it. You can get a '93 200tdi in the UK for less than 1000 Euro's, and although it might have a bit of rust, you might be able to get a good one for less than 2000 Euro's. And the paint would probably be in better condition. And it might have been well serviced.

You could always look on Ebay and pick one out, that's if you would be OK with a r/h driver car. I've had no problems with driving r/h drive cars in other countries, although overtaking would be a problem on anyhting but motorways, overtaking in a Landrover is not common! ;)

But, if 4000 Euro's is cheap for a car in great condition (as it sounds like) then you might as well snap it up. Give it a good going over though!

[Foxdog01]

Make sure it dosen't fall over!!!! :D :D :D :D :D