Hi all,
Seems appropriate to say hello, Ive recently bought a 1998 300TDi Defender 90 County Commercial after hankering after one for a long time but finally having an excuse to add another vehicle to the driveway.
Had a look about on here and other places when looking for the Landy but there seems to be A LOT of opinion on LR forums!!! Some of it may be warranted but as an occasional frequenter of VW and Mini forums this seems to be a more 'passionate' environment....So here is not a very short bit of a cheeky opening rant when I should really be putting a decent stereo in the Defender!
Based in Lincs and surprisingly picked up my 90 from a main dealer for a very good price as a trade in clearance. Right place, right time. Its been put to work from the off and done all the local green lanes in the snow to boot as I've had a bit off time off and its been a bit dicey for the bikes. It has however been bought as a work vehicle and poor weather transport for my partner, who is on call/works in the medical sector and must be able to get into work.
I've registered primarily as most new reg's seem to be asking whether they should be buying one thing or another (Freelander being a common question and one I was toying with also) I'd like to suggest that a Freelander has a place and are just as capable off road and in snow as any other soft roader, but LR forums tend to be populated with 'proper' Landrover owners. The petrols obviously have huge issues wrt head gasket problems which can be searched online and stacks will come up, but this is probably as significant a problem as the common problem of rotting discoveries which doesn't often seem to be mentioned and could be VASTLY more expensive to the unwary....The diesel Freelanders are cheap and as reliable as many other vehicles at the same price point. The TD4's are very good value for money as they've been tarred by the association with the petrol ones and dont have the enthusiast following of the Defender or caravan pulling crowd that like the Discovery. Same advice goes for this as any other second hand car, if you dont know what you're looking at buy from a dealer or take a knowledgable friend/forum member/AA man. Not everyone on a forum is looking for a cheap car, and I'd not begrudge a dealer £500 profit on a £3k car. Especially as you'll get a 3 month warranty for that!
My biggest surprise and the reason for posting was that my very slight, fussy and non butch other half LOVES our Defender. Its properly agricultural, even compared to some of the 20+ yr old VW vehicles I have (which she refuses to drive) but has bags of charm and will go anywhere, with five mins of 'practice' they're not the manly beast to be tamed that they're sometimes perceived to be. My heaters aren't as good as in our modern stuff but buy a good one (or budget to have somebody look at the heaters if they dont seem to be working, they're pretty simple) and they'll be fine. We drove ours in temps of -15, it wasn't tropical, but it was fine. No ABS. No elec windows. S L O W and noisy but its a great car that if you're not doing loads of motorway work will be a cracking everyday car. As long as you're happy to loose some of your cupholders, elec toys etc and accept its pretty big but with exceptional visibility when driving (of both the surroundings and the vehicle itself) I've done 1500 miles in mine over the christmas break, but I've plenty of experience of driving Defenders previously in a professional capacity so knew what to expect. For my other half, in our other cars a simple slide into an icy or snowy verge or a foray thru a muddy field could induce a HUGE bill for just a bumper and paint (not to mention have to put up with a grumpy me) The Defender will more often than not just back up and carry on. If it does get a bit of a scuff, you could argue its character AND it'll not be worth a great deal less if you sell it on with the cosmetic 'damage'. With this attitude its refreshing for both of us to drive, not to mention park!
Incidentally, I bought from a main dealer after wondering in, telling them I wanted a sub 7k Defender which I knew they didnt stock/ever have in and blatantly asking if my other half could have a drive of their demonstrator to see if she could get on with it. I cant say this was a tactic all dealers would like, but it worked a treat for me as I got cracking service, a brilliant Defender and they gained a customer when I look to change my 'proper' car (audi quattro) next year for a no doubt girly, over priced, mugs, not proper offroad RR Sport. And it'll never do more than field work either. Got a Defender for that!
There its is, the experience of recent buyer who couldn't find anything similar on the forums. Have to say though I did find out a lot of good info on here, I just had to circumnavigate all the 'best' and 'rubbish' vehicles postings. I could have just joined and said I'd bought a Defender, been hugged by my Defender brothers and derided by the Disco and RR drivers ;-)
Hope that helped. Cheers.
Seems appropriate to say hello, Ive recently bought a 1998 300TDi Defender 90 County Commercial after hankering after one for a long time but finally having an excuse to add another vehicle to the driveway.
Had a look about on here and other places when looking for the Landy but there seems to be A LOT of opinion on LR forums!!! Some of it may be warranted but as an occasional frequenter of VW and Mini forums this seems to be a more 'passionate' environment....So here is not a very short bit of a cheeky opening rant when I should really be putting a decent stereo in the Defender!
Based in Lincs and surprisingly picked up my 90 from a main dealer for a very good price as a trade in clearance. Right place, right time. Its been put to work from the off and done all the local green lanes in the snow to boot as I've had a bit off time off and its been a bit dicey for the bikes. It has however been bought as a work vehicle and poor weather transport for my partner, who is on call/works in the medical sector and must be able to get into work.
I've registered primarily as most new reg's seem to be asking whether they should be buying one thing or another (Freelander being a common question and one I was toying with also) I'd like to suggest that a Freelander has a place and are just as capable off road and in snow as any other soft roader, but LR forums tend to be populated with 'proper' Landrover owners. The petrols obviously have huge issues wrt head gasket problems which can be searched online and stacks will come up, but this is probably as significant a problem as the common problem of rotting discoveries which doesn't often seem to be mentioned and could be VASTLY more expensive to the unwary....The diesel Freelanders are cheap and as reliable as many other vehicles at the same price point. The TD4's are very good value for money as they've been tarred by the association with the petrol ones and dont have the enthusiast following of the Defender or caravan pulling crowd that like the Discovery. Same advice goes for this as any other second hand car, if you dont know what you're looking at buy from a dealer or take a knowledgable friend/forum member/AA man. Not everyone on a forum is looking for a cheap car, and I'd not begrudge a dealer £500 profit on a £3k car. Especially as you'll get a 3 month warranty for that!
My biggest surprise and the reason for posting was that my very slight, fussy and non butch other half LOVES our Defender. Its properly agricultural, even compared to some of the 20+ yr old VW vehicles I have (which she refuses to drive) but has bags of charm and will go anywhere, with five mins of 'practice' they're not the manly beast to be tamed that they're sometimes perceived to be. My heaters aren't as good as in our modern stuff but buy a good one (or budget to have somebody look at the heaters if they dont seem to be working, they're pretty simple) and they'll be fine. We drove ours in temps of -15, it wasn't tropical, but it was fine. No ABS. No elec windows. S L O W and noisy but its a great car that if you're not doing loads of motorway work will be a cracking everyday car. As long as you're happy to loose some of your cupholders, elec toys etc and accept its pretty big but with exceptional visibility when driving (of both the surroundings and the vehicle itself) I've done 1500 miles in mine over the christmas break, but I've plenty of experience of driving Defenders previously in a professional capacity so knew what to expect. For my other half, in our other cars a simple slide into an icy or snowy verge or a foray thru a muddy field could induce a HUGE bill for just a bumper and paint (not to mention have to put up with a grumpy me) The Defender will more often than not just back up and carry on. If it does get a bit of a scuff, you could argue its character AND it'll not be worth a great deal less if you sell it on with the cosmetic 'damage'. With this attitude its refreshing for both of us to drive, not to mention park!
Incidentally, I bought from a main dealer after wondering in, telling them I wanted a sub 7k Defender which I knew they didnt stock/ever have in and blatantly asking if my other half could have a drive of their demonstrator to see if she could get on with it. I cant say this was a tactic all dealers would like, but it worked a treat for me as I got cracking service, a brilliant Defender and they gained a customer when I look to change my 'proper' car (audi quattro) next year for a no doubt girly, over priced, mugs, not proper offroad RR Sport. And it'll never do more than field work either. Got a Defender for that!
There its is, the experience of recent buyer who couldn't find anything similar on the forums. Have to say though I did find out a lot of good info on here, I just had to circumnavigate all the 'best' and 'rubbish' vehicles postings. I could have just joined and said I'd bought a Defender, been hugged by my Defender brothers and derided by the Disco and RR drivers ;-)
Hope that helped. Cheers.
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