I Sold My Unreliable Land Rover And Somehow Made A Profit

Folks, I did it. I finally sold my 2001 Land Rover Discovery. I already covered why I was selling it in a previous post,  but I left a key reason out: I’m having surgery. By the time you read this, I will have already had my heart surgery. Post-op, I cannot drive for at least two weeks, meaning my already-unreliable Disco would have sat even more if it were still floating around. So I sold it. For many other reasons as you are already aware. Shall we get into my selling story?

I Sold It For a Profit

That’s right. You read that correctly. Did someone profit from the sale of an old Land Rover? Yup. I bought my Discovery for $6,000 in early July 2022. Up until the day I sold it, May 2nd, I put on about 4,500 miles during my ownership. I also spent roughly $2000 total on maintenance/parts. Throw in a tow that AAA refused to cover, another $100, and then insurance costs/gas/tea/tissues, or whatever else Land Rover owners budget for. Figure that brings me to just about $8500-$8600 in total Disco costs. Guess how much I sold it for? $8750. I made a profit. Like, 100 bucks. Who would’ve thought? [Editor’s Note: How did you pull that off?! I’m genuinely impressed! -DT] A Discovery that stranded me four separate times, beaten up from NYC, and as crusty as a barnacle underneath ran me a profit! I can buy like, two Pontiac Aztek coolers with that extra dough! Maybe I should be a salesman instead of a teacher, eh? I’m just kidding. I’m an honest seller! I disclosed everything that needed attention in my advertisement. Of course, any buyer could have just looked up my name and found a collection of “Rob at The Autopian” articles detailing my horror stories with this truck…

Who Bought It?

I truly believe that my buyer’s occupation makes them perfect for owning an old Land Rover. For privacy reasons, I will not disclose any personal information, but I sold it to a flight attendant. I won’t be surprised if my Disco’s new owner will be 3,000 miles from home, 40,000 feet up in the air, while the Disco sits in a shop somewhere awaiting major service work. Plus, like, long-term parking? That’s perfect for letting an old Rover rest. Plenty of time to sit there, slowly leaking oil, coolant, and power steering fluid staining the pothole-ridden parking lot of Laguardia Airport…

Do I Miss It?

This is a tough question. Yes, I miss the strangeness of my Disco. It drove like an MTA bus, chugged gas like a Soviet T-28 tank, and ran like a three-legged centaur. I miss the attention it got, all the “cool Jeep” comments, and the joy of looking at it sit in my driveway, too afraid to drive it.

I feel a bit of relief that I am now back to owning one car, my Toyota 4Runner. Gone are the fears of my car blowing up. The 4Runner also gets the same fuel economy as a hyper-milled Honda Insight with a feather-pedal driver going downhill. Well, at least in comparison to my Disco. I’ll take 17MPG over 11MPG in mixed driving…

The Selling Process

Selling this thing was a hassle. This was the first time I have ever listed anything to sell online, let alone a car. A car, I should say, that should come with a built-in sleazy lawyer like Saul Goodman to pawn it off on some other sucker. Bring A Trailer and Cars and Bids rejected my Land Rover – an intelligent decision by them – so I was left to Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, and a “For Sale” sign in the window.

I kid you not, no one wanted it. I had it listed for a very fair price considering what these trucks are fetching, and right before an upcoming summer season of Hamptons and Nantucket beach trucks. It sat on Marketplace and Craigslist for a while. I was extremely thorough in my description, provided plenty of pictures of the undercarriage and imperfections, and even slightly dropped the price. I got a lot of texts and messages consisting of, “Hello, is this still available?” “Have you done head gaskets?” and “Does Jeep have warranty?” My answer to all of those? No, but you can find out!

I even tried negotiating my Discovery for a Rolls-Royce which was unsuccessful, as I’m sitting here, a Rolls-Royceless 20-year-old writing articles for The Autopian, sad. But writing articles for The Autopian under my Rolls Starlight Headliner would be a nice gig. David, can I have a raise?

Luckily, I finally found someone who was interested. The person who bought it previously owned a Hummer. This was relieving to hear: a Hummer owner must understand the life of poor fuel economy and the difficulties of parking a brick in New York.

My buyer found it off my Craigslist ad, took the train to see it, and came back the next week with a wad of cash for me. I signed off on the bill of sale, transferred the title, and took my “CREAKY” plates off my Disco. I watched it drive away for the last time, hearing its creaks and rattles shaking along the uneven asphalt.

What’s Next?

As I recover from surgery, I won’t be able to drive for a bit as previously mentioned. Therefore, a secondary car would just be foolish. Though I have thought about a second car but will probably wait until the end of summer. For now, my trusty 4Runner does what it needs to. It’ll remain my commuter, beach rig, and blast-Vampire Weekend-as-loud-as-possible car for the time being. I have been seeing a lot of Porsche 944 content on my social media pages… a contender there. In the meantime, I’ll have plenty of time to browse the web for weird cars for. LaForza, anyone? Perhaps another Discovery? I mean, I’m sure my Disco will reappear for sale soon or on Copart as my buyer comes to learn the truth about these old Rovers.