I know there are a lot of good rovers out there, almost all of the older than the mid 90's. One of Bill Burke's guide Defenders has/had 149,000 and he still trusted it completely. If you put a lot of time and effort into a Rover made before 98 or so, you can get 150,000 out of them without much trouble. However, growing up on British cars AND having significant experience with toyota's, I have to say there isn't much comparision - in my experience.
Between my father and I, we have owned;
not sure of the year MG TD
1967 MG B (short ownership due to tin worm)
1974 MG B (owned for 25 years)
not sure of the year Jag mark II (hardly ever moved since it hardly ever ran)
1967 Triumph GT-6 (completely rebuilt)
2004 Land Rover Disco. I bought it new with 7 miles on it and sold it with 72,000
In addition, we were both heavily active in British Car clubs (Windsor-Detroit, Mad Dog's and Englishmen, Speckled Hen, etc) since I was 4 years old. I have been around and under a lot of British cars.
I have also owned a 1994 Toyota pick up, 1991 MR2 (never should have sold that thing) and a Prius. I also started the Midwest MR2 Driver's Association in the late 90's (ill-fated, but fun little group). All of the cars were kept up perfectly - except the pick up. The Disco in particular got every single dealer service on time except for oil changes and air filter replacements. I did those twice as often as the factory called for and after every trip off road. The cars all lived up the their reputations fairly well. The 1974 B was pretty good, but certainly nothing compared to the toyotas. I sold it with 147,000 miles on it, but had replaced pretty much everything that moved in the car at least once over the years. Much of the work done by the well-respected John Twist of University Motors. That car, the most reliable one of the British cars, got $10,000 worth of work in the last 12,000 miles - the Disco was even worse.
My Toyota pick up was actually the most neglected car I have ever owned (except my first car - Camaro. It deserved to be neglected). I sold it with 187,000 miles on it and never did a thing to it except oil changes. I sold it to a friend that, last I checked, had over 200,000 on it with no additional work. The MR2 sold for the same price I bought it for after I put an additional 150,000 miles on it (sold it with 274,000 on the clock). The only repairs it ever needed were brakes, shocks, tires, coil and alternator and I used it hard at the race track regularly. The Prius barely counts because I only had it for about 30,000 miles.
Maintenance plays a big role, that is for sure. You can ruin a great car in no time if it is heavily abused or you can make a piece of junk run forever if you take enough time and money. But, I have too much experience to believe that reliability is just good maintenance. No offense, but it is hard not to pick up a few things in 28 years playing with cars.
I believe that strongly enough to sell a 2004 Disco with 72,000 obsessively maintained miles on it for a LC with 150,000 miles and a fairly unknown history - and I feel much better about my vehicle situation for doing it.
Admittedly I have owned only the 1997 LC - from TEXAS no less - and have not owned a Disco. I got ahold of a bad LC. I am a Rover Freak! If you really want to know what a TRUE LR owner will go through once infected with the LR bug pm me about my 88" and I will give you the complete story. It is my belief, from a ridiculous amount of reading, that the only thing that matters is good timely maintenance regardless of make! I do own a Taco for comfort - although it has manual windows and locks - less to go wrong.
