New to Landrover

I am looking to buy a short wheel base Defender. It will be used as a 3rd car and therefore will not do many miles but I will need to go off road on a fairly regular basis.

Can anyone help me through the minefield of which model to look for - 90 or 110, TDI or TD5? Also why do some have no rear windows and others do? What is CSW? I also notice quite a few ads mention discovery wheels - why is that?

I am looking to spend a max of £4k - Is this enough and what can I expect for this?

Richard

Well first of all welcome to landyzone
By the sounds of it £4k should be enough for what your looking for, providing your not looking for something to fly up and down the motorway at 90mph, and stay dry in the rain...

CSW stands for County Station Wagon. These are ussualy equiped with Headlining, rear seats (4 off and often in cloth trim) and any other optional extras that may have been spec'd when new. The CSW would explain the rear windows although beware, a true CSW will bring more money than a converted one so check that its marked on the log book.
I would guess that for the money your looking to spent you will probably get a 200tdi (from hreg untill about L i think) If your very lucky you may get a 300tdi. Both are very good engines in anycase.

If its just for a small amount of milage it may be better looking at the old tdi unit, a little less power but not a bad lump when all is considered.

As for the 90/110 thing, Watch for the number of seats with your insurance, you may find the 110 more expensive due to the large seating capacity.
Both are equally good offroad , although the 90 has a better ramp breakover angle , you really need to be in some serious possitiones for it to make a difference.

Hope this helps a little with your search!!!

Here goes,

CSW = County Station Wagon ie full of seats which usually have a cloth trim as opposed to vinyll

For Defenders 90 = short wheelbase, 110 = long wheel base, 130 = even longer!
any other wheel base mentioned would denote a one off or hybrid.

As for Disco wheels cause they are alloy some say they look better, don't buckle (just break), don't rust (corrode) and can be run tubeless (not recomended though).

For around the £4,000 mark you'll probably be looking at 300 TDI models (denotes engine type). TD5 (BMW) will probably on a model younger than your price range but you may be lucky. Look very carefully at any TD5's for £4,000 might be knackered, hot or just plain worn out through hard life.

Hope this is of help!!

Landnurse.

Thanks.

So narrowing things down a little it looks like I will be looking for a Defender 90 200TDI / 300 TDI.

Not sure I understand the windows / non windows thing yet. I have seen several ads that have the same description, but some have rear side windows and some look more like a van with metal sides. How does this work?

What are the top 5 things I should look our for to avoid buying a problem?

Richard

If it isn't CSW it wasn't made with windows.
But the thing with Land rovers is that everything is bolt on and interchangable, so there are a lot of different vehicles out there.
I have noticed Home made CSW's for sale, which don't get me wrong, i would do myself, but they are not worth as much as a genuine CSW.

Check the milage, baring in mind that with a good service history, these diesels will go to the moon and back!!
Rot on the bulk head and Chasis is bad news, a tell tale sign on the bulk head is below the window on each corner, if its rotten there chances are its shot lower down.
Personally i would pay more for an old tdi with a solid Chasis/bulkhead than risk it with a newer one that i wasn't sure about...
Always check that low box and center diff engage correctly.
Give the motor a good run, and listen for whinning (spelling) on the transmission.

I'm sure that these are but a few, i'm sure some of the other members can shed some more light on the subject..

have to agree completly with the comments above,personally i would try and find a county or good conversion as these tend to be looked after slightly better. Alot of the hard back(van) versions have had a hard life so get as much information on its past life as possible, service history is always a bonus as accywingy says the tdi engines are excerlent, 100.000miles is nothing as long as regular serviceing is carried out.Mine has 120,000 on the clock and still runs perfect.
also check the amount of smoke, the tdi is a very clean runner and should put out little to no smoke even when under load.

Thanks that's good advice. So I am now looking for a Defender 90 300TDI CSW. Will I be able to pick one up for £5k or will I need more budget that that?

Or should I go for a 200TDI, but I undertsnd that the engines are a lot noisier and that the LT77 gearbox is not as good a the one fitted to the 300TDI?

Richard

for about 5k you will have more chance of getting a decent 200tdi, a 300 csw will probably set you back around 7/8k for a good m or n reg. The 200 is a bit noisier but not a great deal, sound proofing is easy and not to expensive, also the problem with the lt77 is the mainshaft wears due to no oil way being there, this has now been modified on new or exchange boxes but they aren't cheep to replace so could make a good bargining point if it has not already been done!