Hostility towards Defender owners?

Hi all,

I am returning to the UK after 10 years in the US. My family and I have been driving Jeep Wranglers here and absolutely loved it.

Now that we are coming back to the UK we are planning to buy a Land Rover Defender 110, we love the space and its off road capabilities.

We want to transport our kids and our large dog, travel throughout Europe and do some mild offroading.

One of our family members in the UK said that we should be careful considering this vehicle since a lot of people are becoming more and more hostile towards defenders owners because of the high emissions.

Have you had similar experiences?

We were also told that it is an absolute nightmare in parking lots etc. We are planning to relocate to rural Oxfordshire...

We would appreciate any insight before we make the decision to purchase a Defender.

Many thanks!

Steve

Buy one...fook what other people think...most of its bolox anyway.

what he says

Hostile? Who's becoming hostile? Someone's been talking bollocks to you, almost everyone in the UK love Defenders, they're a great British icon. They're also completely classless vehicles - a Defender driver could be a prince or a common farmer, it matters not.

defenderusa said:

Hi all,

I am returning to the UK after 10 years in the US. My family and I have been driving Jeep Wranglers here and absolutely loved it.

Now that we are coming back to the UK we are planning to buy a Land Rover Defender 110, we love the space and its off road capabilities.

We want to transport our kids and our large dog, travel throughout Europe and do some mild offroading.

One of our family members in the UK said that we should be careful considering this vehicle since a lot of people are becoming more and more hostile towards defenders owners because of the high emissions.

Have you had similar experiences?

We were also told that it is an absolute nightmare in parking lots etc. We are planning to relocate to rural Oxfordshire...

We would appreciate any insight before we make the decision to purchase a Defender.

Many thanks!

Steve

Click to expand...

Ah take it yer 'family member' has had experience of ownin' a 110? Nothin' wrong with them and parkin' isn't that much of an issue.
Oh, and welcome BTW... nice tae see ye made yer furst post in the 'Introduce Yourself' section!

I've never experienced hostility because i own a defender.
They are big emitters of co2, but so are lots of other cars on the road. I think people would be more ****ed off with people driving bmw x5's to scholl, when they dont actually need one...
I'd say most other defender owners will give a wave when they pass, i quite enjoy owning one...
They are a bit awkward to park, because of their size and tight turning circle, but they are cool cars, and arent impossible to park!



BUY ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My mondeo estate was as big as me 110. (almost )

Just don't park a Landy anywhere near Ratty's drum!

Mike_B said:

I've never experienced hostility because i own a defender.
They are big emitters of co2,

Click to expand...

Utter bollix. the v8's might be but the diesels int speshully if ya run em on Veggy oil.

hey are a bit awkward to park, because of their size and tight turning circle,

Click to expand...

Must be me then cause I never had any problems parking mine. easier to park than a transit van. or a big estate car.



BUY ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!![/quote]

Grippa said:

Just don't park a Landy anywhere near Ratty's drum!

Click to expand...

I dunno it has its perks. I don't need to commit insurance fraud. All I gotta do is leave the steering lock off for a night and it'll vanish.


They can't be that bad to park. My missus can do it.

I totally agree with Langers..... whether its a brand new 2010 defender, or a battered old series II, they are THE great British Icon.

People love them....

Buy one. The only hostility is towards, as someone pointed out, X5's (and Jeep drivers lol) taking little Timmy to school in in the Chelsea suburbs or something. Who needs a 4x4 in London?
Oops I am in for it now

BUY ONE

Everyone loves a defender, well landrover, apart from the landrover phone, dont buy one of them

i love my defender im learning atm and with L plates on i get no end of waves from other landrovers cant be faulted

200tdi ayre said:

i love my defender im learning atm and with L plates on i get no end of waves from other landrovers cant be faulted

Click to expand...

what sort of defender are ya learning in?

yeah, no hostility towards it at all. my neighbour asked me to stop parking it outside his house as it 'looked scruffy'

parked it on his drive for 5 days and he hasn't mentioned it since!

not hard to park at all. much easier in fact, people get the hell out the way for you and you don't need to worry about kurbs, dogs, children, small bushes etc just drive over em....

Thank you everyone! This has been extremely helpful. It is always a bit difficult to judge the situation when you are that far away!

when you do get one , if any tree huggers give you grief put a post on here and i'm sure some local landy owners will pop round to them and point out the error of their ways

steve bain said:

yeah, no hostility towards it at all. my neighbour asked me to stop parking it outside his house as it 'looked scruffy'

parked it on his drive for 5 days and he hasn't mentioned it since!

not hard to park at all. much easier in fact, people get the hell out the way for you and you don't need to worry about kurbs, dogs, children, small bushes etc just drive over em....

Click to expand...

When someone attempted to nick and then burn my last landy nobody in the block of flats I park in front of heard a thing. The day I brought it back home I had an old biddy hanging out the window shouting at me for parking it on the road when it was dirty cos it spoiled her view.

6 months back some old biddy tried to get my landy towed cos apparently the alarm had being going off for half an hour and was driving them nuts. (I'd gone to work 5 mins earlier and I hadn't heard it go once).

Sat night the window gets put through and the alarm goes off. It could be heard for feckin miles. Not a single curtain twitched, even though I was fighting with a hammer wielding knob end who was screaming about smashing my skull in while I'm shouting that he's a ****er. 2 days on the landy's still at work awaiting a window and still nobody has approached me or yelled out the window that they heard the alarm sounding on sat night.

Funny old world int it.

Ratty..if you become the 'bingo-bus' once a week for a pound a head, i bet you will have the best watched landy in the town.

gay bar car...do i need to say anymore ?