First Gen Discovery, too soon to be a "Classic" Land Rover?

[Matt H]

Just thinking about this today as I was driving my 97 DI. Is it too soon to call the original Discovery a "Classic" Land Rover?

There are caertainly a lot less on the streets lately as rust and general wear and tear see them to the crusher. The youngest is sweet sixteen this year with very early examples being twenty six years old already!

They were an important vehicle for Land Rover and is credited with saving the company in the late 80's.

Very popular in its day and instantly recognizable with unique styling.

Very practical with great off road and on road performance.

Came with landmark 200/300TDI and Rover V8 engines.

Easy to modify and repair.

Right now they are probably at the bottom of pile in terms of value but I think within the next five years prices for really nice examples will start to creep up.

What do you guys think?

[Trevor]

Interesting question Matt.

Until you mentioned this I really had not thought much about what makes a classic or not. But thinking about it I do know that I am, or have been, locked into a specific era when it comes to defining classic or not. Pre-mid 70's was the cutof for me. If it was newer than that, it wasn't a classic. I guess part of that is due to the fact that in NA at least everything from about '75 to the late '90's was complete, utter, crap. Or maybe not complete crap, but certainly not unique at all.

Could a late 80's Land Rover be a classic? I dunno, still seems too new to me. But then that's just me. I think I'm too tied to that old muscle car era when it comes to defining what is classic and what isn't. The Range Rover I get, but then it fits into my timeline too. And it was very revolutionary in how it changed the SUV market. The Disco I have a harder time with.

[B-Red]

Classic for me is 25 years old...more like the Oldies on the music channels. Disco 1 was a game changer. Targeted the youth and the comfy side of offroading. Range Rover was also a game changer.
I posted a link for the National Geographic channel show on another thread. It showed the various milestones for the company and its products. I like the Disco 2, mind you, I don't think it was a game changer.

[Red90]

Interesting.  The Disco 1 was simply a re-bodied Range Rover, allowing them to keep selling the old Range Rover (with a different body) so that they could make a newer fancier version.  I never did understand why such a fuss was made out of it, when it came out.  It was certainly a fantastic marketing ploy, but there was zero engineering in it.  It is easier to see if you look over a true series 1 (1990 to 1993) model.  The ones that were sold here should really have been called the 1A.

To answer the original question.  When something starts to appreciate then you can start calling it a classic.

[Matt H]

Not too long ago the lowly Series III was the low price entry level Land Rover that was deemed devoid of any classic status. With its plastic grill and padded dash that somehow made all the diffence between it and the accepted classic II and IIA. Original two door Rangies were once thrown away as useless. Series I were stupid cheap and never thought to be collectible in any way.

These days a nice Series III will fetch some quite serious money. Most two door Rangies are being restored and the value of of a good SI has gone through the roof.

I think this will happen with the DI (especially with its Camel Trophy pedigree) as modern SUV's become ever more complex, expensive and ever more useless off road and ever more alike.

It is true that standards vary when defining what is or is not a "classic".  Perhaps it will be remembered more as a 'cult' vehicle rather than a true classic?

I think the DI will be considered a classic soon......but then again I think a 78 Lincoln Continental is classic so what do I know?

[Trevor]

.....but then again I think a 78 Lincoln Continental is classic so what do I know?

I'd agree with you there as those were still the big boats. They were even better with fuzzy dice, dingle balls around the roof liner, and velure seats :). I had my cutoff a bit early. Early 80's would be better as I was thinking of the time frame when the K-cars came in. Things just went downhill for a long time then.