How to identify model?

I'm looking to buy a 110 300tdi Station Wagon. One problem is that when I look online, quite often the seller doesn't mention the actual model - and in some cases don't actually seem to know (usually garages).

To save me firing off loads of e-mails about machines I'm not going to be intersted in, is there any reasonably reliable way, from photos mainly, of spotting a 200, 300, or TD5? (I know the TD5 has it written on the wing - but it is often missing on a respray).

Age is usually an indicator, get yourself a copy of lro magazine as this lists the years of production in the back for various models. Air box or snorkel positioning can help as td5s and 300s have the air intake on the drivers side as opposed to passenger side for earlier models but unfortunately due to the meccano nature of defenders you will find just about any engine being put in.

Not all TD5s had it written on the outside. Generally, after around 1999 they'd have a TD5 10p engine and after around 2002 have a TD5 15p one. However, some very early TD5s came out in 1998. 2006 is generally the year they stopped making TD5s and went over the the Puma engine, but occasionally you find a TD5 dated 2007.
Working backwards, you tend to find the 300TDi in machines made after 1994 and the 200TDi in those from 1990. Obviously it's not as clear cut as that, because other engine options were available too. For example, military vehicles persisted with earlier engines for a while because of the desire to maintain a 24 volt electrical system.

Thanks guys. The air intake trick is v useful as a first cut. A problem with dates is that quite a few machines were used on estates or similar, and not road registered for much of their life.

Hi Oldfogey,

If I was buying from a garage and they did not know the engine fitted to the vehicle , then I would have serious doubts that they are capable of checking the rest of the vehicle and knowing its state.

In which case it is either go and check it yourself with a friend who knows about LR's or stay well away.

Cheers

The Puma is a 2.4, the others are 2.5, surely the dealer is bright enough to read the V5?

With a defender a few photos from the seller will tell you very little about it as they are so easy to put things on from earlier or newer models.

When buying any vehicle but especially a Land Rover you've got to put the leg work in and ask about it and go and look at it whilst knowing important areas to look. The best question to ask if you want to know about the vehicle is what's the vin number. It's easy to find and see and very few get swapped and changed and then just look at the vin decoders on the Internet.

I have a 110 station wagon from 1984 but it's got a 200tdi in it. Now if I put push button doors on it instead of the lift up handle doors It would look like any current 110 station wagon up to 2007. But trying to identify a vehicle, especially a defender from its body panels, will never be accurate because they are so easy to change an upgrade. To buy a reliable car that is exactly what you want you have to go and look at it in person. Or put some time in emailing sellers.

Now I hadn't thought of asking for the VIN, that's a good idea. The problem with a lot of small garages is that they may have taken a Landy in as a part exchange, know nothing about them (except perhaps that they are going for Big Money), so descriptions are often wrong, eg misusing "Defender" and "Station Wagon".

I haven't seen a single possibility in my area, and expect to have to travel 150 miles just to look at a vehicle. Now the weather is getting better this gets more practical!

Thanks for the help guys. I will keep looking, and may come back for more advice/opinions.

Yes, it is well worth expanding your circle. It's a lot better than just going down the local car dealers and seeing if they've got anything cheap. I ended up getting one from a couple of hundred miles away. The local ones when I wanted to buy seemed to have holes in their crossmembers. With the benefit of Ebay, Autotrader and the like you can see what's available easily, often with loads of pictures. So you can at least sort out what you like the look of. Then you can go and look at them and do all the usual things like check for rust in the crossmember and outriggers, rust in the bulkhead and footwells, transmission noise, mayonnaise under the rocker cover and the like. But at least you're likely to have productive journey.