Land Rover Discovery 4 3.0 SD V6 Landmark auto 4WD Euro 6

Landmark was a late special edition of the Discovery 4. The SDV6 is the 3.0-litre six-cylinder diesel, a different engine family from the four-cylinder Ingenium units that replaced it, and the Euro 6 rating puts this one on the compliant side of the London ULEZ line for diesels.

What to check on this specification

The particulate filter

Every diesel of this era leaves the factory with a diesel particulate filter. Two things follow from that. First, a filter that was fitted when the vehicle was built and is missing at test time is an MOT failure, and removing one will normally put the vehicle outside the emissions standard it was type-approved to — which makes it unlawful to use on the road. Second, a filter only clears itself properly on a run long and hot enough to complete a regeneration; a car used for short cold journeys accumulates soot and, worse, fuel in the sump from interrupted regenerations.

On a viewing this shows up in the paperwork rather than the metal. Look for oil changes at or before the stated interval, and be wary of a car whose recorded mileage is made up of very short annual totals.

Air suspension

Where the vehicle has air suspension, it is a wear item rather than a fit-and-forget system. The common failure is a leak from an air spring, and a compressor that later fails is often doing so because it has been working against that leak for months. The practical test is simple: leave the vehicle parked and unattended for as long as the seller will allow, then come back and look at it from a distance. A corner that has settled, or a vehicle that is noticeably lower than it was, is telling you something. A suspension warning message on start-up is telling you the same thing more loudly.

Electrics

Owner surveys of Land Rover models from this period report electrical faults as the leading complaint — engine and emissions warning lights, infotainment, keyless entry, air conditioning. Work through every function on the viewing. Individually these are small; in combination they are the reason these vehicles have the reliability reputation they do.

The automatic gearbox

Drive it from cold and then again warm. What you are looking for is a clean pull away in first, a clean engagement of reverse, and shifts that are firm rather than jerky, slurred or accompanied by a thump. Torque-converter and dual-clutch boxes both have scheduled oil and filter changes; those services are frequently skipped because nothing obviously breaks when they are, and the bill when something does break is one of the largest in used-car ownership.

Ownership notes

A Discovery of this generation is a heavy, body-on-frame-derived vehicle with a genuine towing and off-road brief. If it has done either, that is not a fault, but look for the evidence: a towbar with a worn ball, underbody scrapes, and suspension bushes that have had a harder life than the mileage suggests.

Euro 6 means it meets the diesel standard for the London ULEZ and the charging clean air zones.

About this page

The address you are on was part of a used-car dealer site that no longer exists. The individual vehicle it once described was sold years ago; there is no stock here, nothing is for offer, and no enquiry goes anywhere. What has been kept is the specification the address itself encodes, written up as a reference for anyone looking at the same combination of model, engine, transmission and emissions standard on the used market today.

Nothing here is advice about a particular vehicle. Every point above is a thing to check on the car in front of you, and the official services linked below answer against a registration number rather than a model name.