I'm thinking of buying a defender...but

Hi
I'm thinking of buying a Defender, a couple of my freinds have one, and it would be handy going across fields and getting kit from a to b, but I live a city and have a city drive to work.
I would like your views on city driving in a Defender, and things like on street parking etc.

Thanks
Simesy

Hi Simesy,

Presuming your friends live in the same area, how do they find it? You're going to find us all a bit biased in here I'd guess.

I've an 84' Series III & find her well behaved in traffic & frankly find any excuse to drive her, town or Country. My other car is a "proper" Mini & yes, I do have to give a little more thought to parking the Landy than I do the Mini, but only a little more.

The great advantage is once you are parked there ain't nobody going to thump your Landy on the way out of their space! I was forever coming back to my Mini to find some idiot had stoved my spotlights in or dented a bumper.......they ain't going to do it with a a Landy.........& hell, if they do, they'll be the ones limping off with expensive dents, I doubt you'll even notice any damage.

No, I'm not an arrogant 4X4 driver, but I have to confess that my new found invulnerability to bullying by BMW owners & the like in traffic around town a bloody liberating experience!

I believe the defender has a (slightly) better turning circle than a series machine too, so parking shouldn't be too much of a pain. I soon got used to my SIII, can't think of a better machine for going to the office/Tesco/on holiday etc

I have to agree with Marcus!

Im not an arrogant 4X4 driver either, but as i have a defender as my everyday vehicle I think it is fantastic for city driving! For once you can put 'Barry the rep' into his rightful place.

I live in a very rural location, do lots of towing, frequently commute into busy towns and I cant think of a vehicle that would be better suited for what I use it for.

I feel a defender is a vehicle you can drive to pretty much any occasion and you wont look out of place.

Once you have a defender, you wont look back!

jim

I found the biggest pitfall of multi-vehicle ownership yesterday. I was in the works Kangoo van going through Chelsea and Mr White Van man decided that he owned the road. I was indicating to change lanes and he closed the gap quite purpousfully so I changed lanes anyway .... If i was in the Landy, he would have braked (they always do) I wasn't in the landy so now I need the side of the Kangoo re-sprayed!

You can also go for the Porsche Chyyennee things and the X5s!! They get REALLY scared!!

I find the defender a doddle to park! i live on a terraced street where most houses have 2 cars so its total chaos! I can put the defender in places they wouldn't try to put there fiestas... Good visability is the key i think, and with those HGV style mirrors you can see whats going on all the way round!

I agree with king of the road bit too, i'm not agressive, but with the 90 being just slightly tweeked its nice blowing away reps when they don't expect it and diving into the places they inteded to push into...

Thanks for your views and advice, you have put my mind at rest.
Now all I got to do is start looking.

Take your time with that. Drive as many as you can, and take along your defender owning friends when viewing too...

Simsey,

I am sure if there is a "LandyZone" member that lives near you, they would be willing to help you viewing?

Maybe have a shufty at November's Land Rover World(it is out now - Why do they do that, it ISN'T NOVEMBER, I can tell, I haven't seen a single Easter egg!) . It's the one with "G4 challenge" across the front.

They've just bought a 90 to rebuild on the "fairly" cheap & there's some good pictures taken of the horror stories lurking under the body work once it was removed.

Or for free (I buy FAR too many magazines - you just can't read websites on the khazi & no, a "craptop" is NOT an option!) - Put "buying a defender" into a search engine - With the speech marks. I just did & got a load of really good sites for guidance........won't list them as some are other forums!

May be of help?

Aww pants, that keeps happening to me, send a post & the site goes down for a few minutes! Anyway, what I said was................nope, ignore this post, the site just re-appeared & the post is on it. DOH!

Hiya Simsey

Wha dont you just get yourself a cheep weekend run-a-bout a series III ideally over 25 yrs old (save on the road-tax) SWB Diesel Or petrol not a thing for the motorway but what the heck its cheep

happy trails

Abe

Abe said:

Hiya Simsey

Wha dont you just get yourself a cheep weekend run-a-bout a series III ideally over 25 yrs old (save on the road-tax) SWB Diesel Or petrol not a thing for the motorway but what the heck its cheep

happy trails

Abe

Click to expand...

Come on....that would put any potential LR owner off for life!!

Jim

Defenders are not to bad for evryday driving...the city run should be ok as well...if you can find one with power steering.....that always helps etc im also after another 90 csw from the late 80's so happy hunting......if i dont get there first lol

i used to have a 1988 90 td and it was great for round town...better than my 73 s3 swb, had better turning circle, brakes and lighter clutch that lasted longer haha.

Hippy

POWER STEERING? Pah! Youngsters these days! I remember when all this was fields...

Don't forget to get your left leg's muscles built up !