Defender?

[bigegg]

Gave our old 300tdi 90 a bit of a revamp a few years ago, getting on for 300k on the original engine and still going well.Its taken some abuse and most of those miles have been with a heavy trailer. Had this truck nearly 20 years now and its still worth more than I paid for it.

Bob

I don't think 300K counts if its done on a trailer

 

[sako243]

2jz-GE for me. good combination of MPG: power:torque

Missing two cylinders

 

[Ton-up]

Do you like your vehicles to be noisy, have a uncomfortable driving position, have water leaks inside, be cold in winter, hot in summer, slowish, bit wallowy and rolly, questionable handling, leave oil all over your drive, etc? Do you like to work on your vehicles yourself to try to make them better, do the maintenance on them and spend a fortune?
If you can say yes to ALL the above, a 90 or 110 is for you Come and join us

Seriously, I recommend anyone thinking of buying one, drives as many as possible, for as long as possible before buying.
And yes, they are great fun.

 

[Tinbasherdan]

I’d say 300tdi, easy to work on, parts are cheap and you should have no issues with starship mileage if you look after it. Never been a fan of the td5 if I’m honest, unless they’re chipped every one I have driven was an absolute dog turd trying to set off with a trailer on; I’ve been reduced to low box to get away before today. Never had that trouble with the tdi....

 

[Morrisman]

With the price of petrol / diesel currently ?

Just noticed the price of both has gone up 2p a litre since yesterday. What the hell has caused this little scam?

 

[Wozzaaah]

I’d say 300tdi, easy to work on, parts are cheap and you should have no issues with starship mileage if you look after it. Never been a fan of the td5 if I’m honest, unless they’re chipped every one I have driven was an absolute dog turd trying to set off with a trailer on; I’ve been reduced to low box to get away before today. Never had that trouble with the tdi....

Wifey does occasionally have to rev the nuts off hers to avoid stalling if she’s towing the hoss trailer with him onboard. I know they can suffer from flat spots on the throttle pot so ours may have that issue.

 

[sako243]

Do you like your vehicles to be noisy, have a uncomfortable driving position, have water leaks inside, be cold in winter, hot in summer, slowish, bit wallowy and rolly, questionable handling, leave oil all over your drive, etc? Do you like to work on your vehicles yourself to try to make them better, do the maintenance on them and spend a fortune?
If you can say yes to ALL the above, a 90 or 110 is for you Come and join us

Seriously, I recommend anyone thinking of buying one, drives as many as possible, for as long as possible before buying.
And yes, they are great fun.

Don't have to be noisy - with enough soundproofing or earmuffs, or enough driving and you'll be deaf anyway. Managed to solve most of my waterleaks - for a brief period, then they reoccurred (oh wait that was when it was dry).

Comfortable - actually I find mine more comfortable to drive (in terms of seating position) than my 4.4TDV8 Range Rover - admittedly the rest of it such as power, quietness is lacking but actual seating position is nicer. But then it does have Range Rover seats in it...

I guess the key point about a Defender is that you can modify it to whatever you want.

 

[lotus_esprit_s1]

Half the problem with the Defender is most peoples experiences of them are in knackered old ones with discovery 200tdi’s dumped in them. A decent late one is actually quite nice to drive

 

[bricol]

Obviously popular somewhere . . . around here, local facebook seems to regularly get another post of "reward offered, no questions asked, for return of our Land Rover . . ."

 

[stuvy]

Would you want to buy it to just drive or play with?

Personally if I had to go for a smaller diesel it would be 200tdi seconded by the 300 then the 2.2/2.4 budget depending

I like the sound of the td5 but not for me

3.9 v8 rover

Diesels are for buses anyway

 

[CompoSimmonite]

I had a 200TDi Defender. Chassis and bulkhead totally rotten and alloy corrosion everywhere. My advice is don't even consider a Defender that is a few years old unless it already has had a brand new (not repaired) galvanised chassis or cheap enough for you to budget for a new chassis change. If a galvanised chassis then everything else repairable however if chassis is still the original then walk away. Forget what people might say like original "chassis full welded" etc as that means it is on the way to needing welding every year for MOT until you get to the point where a new chassis is needed anyway !

 

[willie.macleod]

Wifey does occasionally have to rev the nuts off hers to avoid stalling if she’s towing the hoss trailer with him onboard. I know they can suffer from flat spots on the throttle pot so ours may have that issue.

With the Td5 either no throttle input at all when starting off or give it beans. Halfway house is stall territory, but with no throttle input it should be able to start of with a decent load on the back without stalling, it does have a very different throttle response compared to Tdis and when I first drove mine I stalled it all the time despite having decades experience in driving different 110s.

 

[Wozzaaah]

Sorry, I should have said on hills.

 

[RonMig]

Had my 2001 D2 for 3 yrs & 20,000 miles, 2nd car / 2nd daily driver, 100% reliable, no mot problems, cruises lovely at 60-70 mph, purchase price plus servicing and parts total to-date less than £5k. No sunroof to leak, all electrics work, no oil or water leaks...
And I still would like to have a 90, too

 

[Bobupndown]

Sadly the prices asked for defenders are just crazy to the extent I'm never gonna have one. In 2006 I bought a 3 year old Td5 Discovery 2 for around £18k. I could have bought a similar age 110 for the same price. 11 years later the Disco was worth about £3k. Same defender would have increased in price.

 

[mtt.tr]

Wifey does occasionally have to rev the nuts off hers to avoid stalling if she’s towing the hoss trailer with him onboard. I know they can suffer from flat spots on the throttle pot so ours may have that issue.

Knock it in to low

 

[zzr1200]

Sadly the prices asked for defenders are just crazy to the extent I'm never gonna have one. In 2006 I bought a 3 year old Td5 Discovery 2 for around £18k. I could have bought a similar age 110 for the same price. 11 years later the Disco was worth about £3k. Same defender would have increased in price.

Totally agree years ago I owned a 110" V8 HT, it drunk fuel like an alcoholic, but was one of the best tow vehicles I've owned, now I drive a Disco 2 Tdi5 25mpg-ish overall with 214,000 miles on it, still reliable.

I'd love to own another 90/110/defender but the cost........ I could buy a new chassis, rebuild the drive train and overhaul the engine of the Disco, for the purchase price of a good/nice defender and still have cash.....

 

[blackolive (Ste)]

Go for it. We’re only here once. The TD5 can be made a quite sprightly motor with a few inexpensive tweaks, and all older cars need spending on, at least with a landy you can spanner it yourself and parts are cheap

 

[mtt.tr]

I've recently bought a 300tdi 90 drives really well despite being tatty, Mrs drives it most days and only occasionally gets into her BMW

Certainly nicer than my 109

 

[Tinbasherdan]

You could always fit a Cummins .......