What Defender to buy

eilidhhan1 said:

Hi I am looking for some advice on what Defender to buy. I have decided that it will be a 110 with 2 rows of seats, what I am not sure is which model to buy Tdi200, Tdi300 or TD5. I am looking for something reliable comfortable and with some refinement as it will be my main vehicle. I will also be running it on Biodiesel.
Any advice gratefully received.

Regards: Mark

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jzcktv said:

Hi Mark,
Concensus is the 200 or 300 tdi s but these are getting quite old now and tend to have high mileage, so I would say it depends on your budget and how much time you want to spend working on it. The engine isn't the only thing to go wrong, and while a good diesel should last 250k miles it's unlikely the transmission will and corrosion starts to play a part as well.

I use my 2002 TD5 90 CSW 45,000 miles as my main vehicle and love it. I put in extra sound proofing from NoiseKiller, improved the stereo with extra speakers in the back and it's quite civilised. I've heard Ratty say that he'd rather have a 300TDi instead of his TD5 due to reliability issues, but I see many more posts on pre-TD5 models.

How much are you thinking of spending?
Cheers,
Graham

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ratty said:

Don't get me wrong, I love the power and refinement of the TD5 but if reliability is an issue then it's got to be a 200 or 300tdi. I also know through experience that it's not unknown for dodgy biodiesel to contain palm oil. This is often due to suppliers rather than the actual manufacturers but none the less it is happening.

I think the main reason for the posts focusing on older models is due to many peoples reluctance or innability to self maintain a vehicle with a management system.

I have no problem with tinkering with mine but then again I do use it to the max of it's abilities. I also have a diagnostic computer which I regularly have plugged in while driving around which the general TD5 owner doesn't have access to.

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jzcktv said:

Hi Mark,
Concensus is the 200 or 300 tdi s but these are getting quite old now and tend to have high mileage, so I would say it depends on your budget and how much time you want to spend working on it. The engine isn't the only thing to go wrong, and while a good diesel should last 250k miles it's unlikely the transmission will and corrosion starts to play a part as well.

I use my 2002 TD5 90 CSW 45,000 miles as my main vehicle and love it. I put in extra sound proofing from NoiseKiller, improved the stereo with extra speakers in the back and it's quite civilised. I've heard Ratty say that he'd rather have a 300TDi instead of his TD5 due to reliability issues, but I see many more posts on pre-TD5 models.

How much are you thinking of spending?
Cheers,

Graham

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jzcktv said:

A Nanocom I assume Ratty, I've been thinking of getting one of those. I've got to wait till the missus is looking the other way because she's starting to do a count of the boxes entering my garage and subsequent bits appearing on the 90. Where do you mount yours when using it, or do you just dangle it in a cup holder ;-)
Graham

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jzcktv said:

So how much is a Snap-On (spelt Friggin-Howmuch) Ethos then?!

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