Land Rover Problems

For maximum space and tow rating you should definitely be going for the Touareg V6 TDI. It will do both your jobs with a 3500kg tow rating and 280kg ball weight.

The Freelander is well past its use-by date and both the CX-3 and XV could be too small in the back for his needs. He should try to stretch to a Mazda CX-5, which is still best in class.

Land Rover spokesman James Scrimshaw has your answer: "If Mr Walford took his 2011 Range Rover Sport to an authorised Land Rover dealer, they have access to the special tools that are required to remove and replace the rear camshaft seal. The suggested time allocated for this work is approximately 3.5 hours and the body would not need to be removed from the vehicle".

The only reason to go European with that budget is to buy a badge, as the Asian cars do the job and are surprisingly classy with great warranty. Once again, I'd send you first to Kia to check out the Sportage.

You need to know the all-up weight of the trailer with the three horses all your gear aboard. The horses alone weight 1500 kg, and the float is going to be 1500 to 2000 kg, so you need a vehicle capable of towing 3500 kg. There are a number on the market rated to tow that load, vehicles like the Holden Colorado, Mazda BT-50, Ford Ranger, Land Rover Discovery etc. You also need to be mindful of the Gross Combination Mass of the vehicle when you're going to tow at or near its maximum rating to ensure you don't exceed it.

You could go for a Mercedes-Benz GLC with similar features and save money. My choice — perhaps surprisingly — is the Jeep. Just make sure you find a good dealer.

Range Rover does not have a great reputation for reliability or resale but the Sport is a great drive. So the X5 is the safe choice but the Range Rover is likely to give you more enjoyment.

The Discovery 3 was hailed as a great car when it was introduced and it has largely lived up to the hype. The fundamentals like engine, gearbox and diffs are sound, but you have to be prepared for irritating things like electrics, driveshafts, compressor on the airbag models to give trouble. It’s that when the Disco becomes expensive. On average a 2007 model will be showing 180,000 to 240,000 km on the odo, and I would be going for a newer model with fewer kays on the clock. Same goes for the Range Rover.

There was a time when you wouldn’t touch a British brand with a barge pole, they were badly built, poorly engineered, under-developed, and, well … rubbish. But that was then and this is now, and we should put our prejudices to one side. Early Discoverys do tend to look untidy with things like you mention, but they do keep going pretty well over the long term. You would like to think that the issues that have been a problem in the past, like the trim etc., have been fixed. We get little feedback from Disco owners, suggesting they’re a happy bunch. Recent research for an upcoming used-car story paints a positive picture of the reliability of the Disco. The only downside we can see is the cost of servicing and repairs, the same can be said for any European brand.

There’s no reason to believe that the Range Rover won’t be reliable over the long term, but it will almost certainly be more expensive to own and run. Servicing will be more expensive than a lesser model from an Asian carmaker for instance.