A very comfortable ride

I’d never hankered after a big four-wheel drive before, but I have never been one for the small ‘ladies’ cars either, writes Helena from Ellesmere.

Several years ago my partner bought a non-runner H-reg Discovery. He sorted it out and I took it out on the road to get it MOT’d - I was scared stiff of it!

It was huge, I could barely see over the bonnet and it seemed to fill the whole of the road so you had to really steer it round corners. But it passed it’s MOT and I was hooked.

A year later my partner rang me at work to tell me he had bought another non-runner, a P-reg Land Rover Discovery TDi on Ebay from someone in Wrexham.

The car was duly picked up, transported home and the big mend was on. He virtually re-built the engine, spending many hours covered in grease and oil, freezing his bits off in his workshop.

The day dawned when he turned the key and the engine exploded into life. I then swapped the H-reg for the newer P-reg Disco and use it for work as well as leisure.

It tows the caravan without a murmur, and we have two dogs who love the high life in the back of this vehicle.

We walk both with The Ramblers and on our own and we also do a bit of canoeing so equipment is regularly on the roof or in the back.

We have a 10 year old daughter so it’s often used as a minibus for her and her friends. Then there are our two teenage boys who have things that need transporting, and we’re regularly called on by friends to move furniture or take things to the tip - so you can see this car really is a multi purpose vehicle.

I love driving it as you are high up enough to see when you are down country lanes. You don’t get intimidated by other drivers and I never feel scared of using it for what it is intended…off-road!

The paintwork is scratched anyway so going up very narrow lanes doesn’t phase me either, and during the summer floods I didn’t have a worry - I splashed around an otherwise deserted car park. That was fun!

I’ve even been on an army off-road course in Yorkshire - second gear, low diff and off you go, up and down steep, slippery hills, through big muddy puddles, over bumps enough to make your teeth quake in your mouth, brilliant. Just remember to go to the toilet before you start!

It is big but I get an average of 33 mpg out of it so I don’t think that’s bad at all. There’s plenty of room in all the main seating areas and the two extras in the back are very useful too.

It does have it’s faults (leaking sunroofs are a common problem on Discos and we have a slightly leaky front window due to rust, as we found out when we had the windscreen replaced recently).

If you don’t have the side steps it’s a big climb to get in the vehicle and we have one door that keeps locking so we have to manually pull the lock button on it to open it.

Having said that, they are a small price to pay for what is otherwise a very comfortable ride.

The iPod competition is now over, but we’d still love to hear about your car - Click here to send us your review, a picture of the car, your name and where you’re from.