Some Defender history before i buy plse?

Hi, have had a Landcruiser Amazon for a number of years, but am really interested in the Defender 90...so am about to sell the 4.2Amazon and buy a 90...

Trouble is i know next to nothing about Landys and was hoping someone has a potted history, things to avoid etc, that i can look at before buying...

I have about 6K to spend, and have seen a few for this price (y plate, 78K milles) but have no idea if this is a good buy or not...

Any repsonses, or pointers very welcome.

p.s. 110 is too long (like the Amazon) for my drive, I only want 3 seats in the front, and I like the alloys

Thanks

Tom

IF you buy the latest copy of LRO Land Rover Owner September Edition there is a buying guide free with this months and it highlights what to look for when buying various land rover models.

Look for chassis rust and bulkhead rust - anything else is easy to replace, it just unbolts!

Google Land Rover history, there is literally hundreds of short histories of them all, worth a read if you wanna know about your new car!

It would be better if you could test drive it before buy as they are a much more agricultural vehicle than your Landcruiser, might come as a bit of a culture shock !!

Took your advice and went test driving today chap at RCV in Staplehurst Kent was very knowledgeable...and gave me a complete history, and what to look for etc...

Seems like chassis rust on older models is the main issue, sounds like almost everything else can be replaced fairly easily..

went for a spin in a TD5..was certainly different to my Londcruiser, but it was also very nice...

So next step is to find a good value, TD5 with less that 100K on the miles and sell the AMazon of course....

thanks for the pointers..

Tom

Hmm... TD5 vs Tdi is a loooong story. TD5 might be more reliable (although migh not second hand) but WILL cost more to repair when it goes wrong.

The 'extra' power of the TD5 is virtaully negligible compared with a factory Tdi. If you buy a solid chassis and bulkhead with a good engine, whether it's a Tdi or a TD5 will make little difference. If you buy a TD5 because it's newer, but it has a shoddy chassis, bulkhead or engine then you'll have bought a moneypit