Defender mileage

top drive · Dec 25, 2014

Milage wouldnt bother me.

Condition is the key.

Id rather have something with average milage than something with 30k on the clock ...

At least id be inclined to believe the average milage speedo.... Its incredibly easy to disconect the speedo on a land rover.

Cars dont like sitting idle either - the car used for 10years to go to church on sunday showing 15000 miles is imo a worse buy than the car thats done the daily commute of 30miles each way on the motorway provided its looked after imo.

Your milage may vary.

As with any old car it will need work , your not buying a new car and you need to remember that.

aaronmorris · Dec 25, 2014

lightning said:
We are going to view it at the weekend.

The missus wants a CSW and that seems to add £2,000 unless it's a converted hard top, which l would be fine with, except l cannot find a good one of those for under £8k either.

One of the larger outfits near here is North West Defenders, and they have a few in the £5-10k range, but they are all solid but scruffy.
They offer rebuilt ones "done to your specification for £10k" but it ends up at £12k when you start talking.

Ah, fair enough, I saw your post about the rebuilt ones at £10k.
But why do they end up at £12k? and what's the spec?

lightning · Dec 26, 2014

For 10k you get a new chassis and repaired/resprayed bodywork in your choice of colour.

They did have one in stock that they had just done, and very nice it looked too.
But by the time they had converted it to a SW from a hardtop, and sorted the interior, the price had gone up to 12k.

But if you just wanted a hardtop and did not mind too much about the headlining etc then you could have driven it away for £10k.

I think an original CSW in good condition might be a better bet at that money.....if l can find one.

bigvinnie · Dec 26, 2014

Mate I bought my 98 300tdi 2 year ago wea 112k on the clock. The rest of the vehicle is tidy and the engine has been fine . It's my daily drive. Only engine issue was rear crank seal was gone. I change my oil every 6 months and the engine has never missed a beat. I change something every month and if I have the cash I'm gonna get a turners rebuild fur it. Around 2500 service exchange. As long as it's been serviced it should be fine. But be prepared to get dirty looking after her !

lightning · Dec 26, 2014

l've had a series of "Classic" cars (1946 Morris 8 Series E, 1932 Standard Little Nine, Porsche 928 S4, Ferrari Mondial T, Lotus Elise, BMW Z3 3.0, Defender 90, Defender 110)

So am used to getting my hands dirty lol

bigvinnie · Dec 26, 2014

You'll be laughing then. I dont do many motorway miles in mine but prefer back roads. As I say mines been a good runner but suffers from all defender issues. But I change oil every 6 months. I only use halfords cheap stuff and not had any issues. To be fair I've changed just about everything bolted to the block. Just on the look out for a new fuel pump. They come up time to time.

aaronmorris · Dec 27, 2014

lightning said:
For 10k you get a new chassis and repaired/resprayed bodywork in your choice of colour.

They did have one in stock that they had just done, and very nice it looked too.
But by the time they had converted it to a SW from a hardtop, and sorted the interior, the price had gone up to 12k.

But if you just wanted a hardtop and did not mind too much about the headlining etc then you could have driven it away for £10k.

I think an original CSW in good condition might be a better bet at that money.....if l can find one.

Ah, understood.
I can't make my mind up what's a better deal.
£9k for something that will probably need welding in a few years.
Or £12k for something you can forget about other than general maintenance.
The £2k seems high to convert to a county seen as it's already in bits, suppose it depends on how good of parts they're using, new/second hand.

To be honest neither is a better deal to me because I'd build something myself to the same spec for much less.
But I understand it's business and if you're paying someone for the work it's going to be more, labour soon adds up.
Plus not everyone has the time to build their own so have to buy the best they can in the first place.

fergusonforestry · Dec 27, 2014

high mileage isn't as big a thing as it was years ago, had a corsa van with 275,000 and know a guy with one of them toyoto things

with over 400,000 on the clock! long as its looked after should go on and on and on and on....

lightning · Dec 27, 2014

Well, we are still going with the Heritage one, subject to it being as described.

Looked at four more for sale locally today. None were great tbh but prices were all in the £5-8k range.

Defender mileage

top drive

Well-Known Member

aaronmorris

Head's a shed

lightning

Well-Known Member

bigvinnie

Active Member

lightning

Well-Known Member

bigvinnie

Active Member

aaronmorris

Head's a shed

fergusonforestry

Active Member

lightning

Well-Known Member

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