Land Rover Repair: Dangerous disco, fuel purchases, water ingress

Question
Hi I bought a disco and had it for 8 weeks, I was driving it and put my foot on the clutch to change gear and the pedal went right to the floor, I got someone to look at it and he said that the whole master cylinder was gone and the car was so badly corroded underneath that it was very dangerous for me to drive, I am taking the man who sold it to me to court and his defence is that I had done 10,000 miles in the car in 8 weeks and basically driven it in to the ground, this is rubbish as I was away on holiday for 2 weeks, I can't get hold of the man who told me the car was in a dangerous condition,I think he mentioned that the brakes and clutch were all relative and it could easily have been my brakes that failed is this correct ?

Answer
Hi Dee,

I am not familiar with your consumer protection rights in your country but I do hope that there are some 'lemon laws' that exist to help you.  Here in N.America, each state and province has it's own variation of 'lemon' laws - laws to protect vehicle buyers from unsafe vehicle purchases.

10,000 miles in 8 weeks translates into 5,000 miles per month, 1250 miles per week, 178.5 miles per day.  Your fuel purchases would have been high for all that travelling. If you have your receipts, can prove you did not drive these distances, you can weaken the claim that you drove the Disco "to the ground".  What you have to do is determine that the previous owner sold you a
vehicle that had hidden problems that were not brought to your attention when you purchased it.

What year and model is this Discovery?  LR is well known for corrosion and the older they are, the more problems they will have due to corrosion. Many LR's have water ingress (leaks) problems that add to the breakdown.  Lifting up the carpets on older Disco's can reveal if the problem has affected the flooring. Look very closely around the transmission housing area beneath the carpet.

As for clutch failure, it does happen BUT it's rare.  On my 1995 Discovery (5 speed manual), my clutch failed after over 250,000kms (10 years old at the time) and the transmissions (ZF) are even more reliable.  The connectors, sensors and electrical looms, however, are prone to corroding.

You could go to a LR dealership and have them perform an evaluation.  Of course, the dealership will charge to for this.

Was this a private sale, used vehicle sale or dealership?  Are you aware of the laws you have to protect you?

Best of luck,
JohnMc