Barn find 90 Defender pickup. Whats it worth....

Rummaging through the site of one of my clients, servicing their fire extinguishers, I came across this in one of their old barns. Company want it gone, as due to its age, the staff cant use it. 57k genuine miles, as its been an estate car all of its life. Every panel is bent, interior is toast. Chassis is in very good condition, as its not had much exposure to salted roads. Starts first time, last mot was at Halfords, in 2019, where they replaced all of the pads, calipers. Maintenance staff say it was just ragged round the estate in its last year by the manager, so thats why every panel, including the roof is dinged. Both door rotted out at the frames, and dont close...

Company wants me to put in an offer if I want it. What would you say its worth, so I dont embarass myself.

You may think the chassis is good but as the car is 28 years old, so i'd not count on it.
A reasonablke amount of work and cost to get it up and running, a lot of work/cost to make it look pretty.

Probably worth 2 of £3K at a guess.

Used and abused is how I would describe it. Still if you are happy with the condition of chassis and bulkhead make an offer of say 2k, they just want rid after all. Something to keep or something to tidy up some and move on?

£2000 was where I was at tbh. We already have a Rav4, TD5 90, and a TD5 Disco. Not sure the missus would like it, but she's ok with another Landy on the land. I was going to flip it, but the more I look at it, the more Im liking the 90 pick up look.

I’d say £2k is a good starting point. EBay shows the market for Defenders isn’t what it was and as the company wants rid, they’re not getting any costs by selling it direct to you. If you’re feeling cheeky, try less!

2k in that shape (if chassis/bulkhead are good) is worth it for spares/rebuild. Ask @dag019
Do you want the hassle?
Have you asked what sort of money they want/need, start low explain all the parts that need replacing (doors arent cheap, bumper).

They can write it off against tax, I am sure, so to them its only worth "numbers on a spreadsheet"

I wouldn't be surprised if you could get it for less, but just go in willing to go up from your initial offer , talk to whoever and feel him/her out test the water before you ask if the Estate would take xxx ( I will take it tomorrow), unless you really want it.

J

tilly2 said:

£2000 was where I was at tbh. We already have a Rav4, TD5 90, and a TD5 Disco. Not sure the missus would like it, but she's ok with another Landy on the land. I was going to flip it, but the more I look at it, the more Im liking the 90 pick up look.

Click to expand...

Even at 2k i do not think you would get much profit in flipping it. by the time you have got it road worth mechanically and an mot on it you are still left with a farm pick up truck without a straight panels so will not be worth top dollar, and if you spend on bod work you will never get you r money back. At that age I am assuming it is a 300tdi which even if abused should still be good.

I would second @miktdish comment regarding the chassis, even though not on the salt roads, being constant off-road will have taken a toll and it is nearly 30 years old.

I would agree 2-3k is a fairly reasonable price but I do not think there will be much margin for profit after the work required as prices seem to be returning to sensible levels. but if you want a rebuild project for yourself looks like a very good starting point.

I paid £2250 before Christmas for a 110 station wagon that had no v5, is a 19j and has very little chassis or bulklhead left. At the time I thought this was a bargain (still a good buy as far as I am concerned) as if gives me parts to convert my already rebuilt 110 to a station wagon and then can rebuild it in the future with my son who is the reason I now need a station wagon. However I started a thread recently on prices as have seen a few rebuilt tdi station wagons in the 12-14k bracket which at that price, unless you want the rebuild, it is not worth rebuilding one as it will cost you more than buying one already done. so the question of if this 90 is a good buy and the price depends on what you want to get out of it.
I would suggest If you want a pickup and the body work doesn't bother you, a good buy.
If you want to mot and flip for a profit I think you will roughly break even without factoring in your labour costs.
If you want full rebuild it is a very good starting point but will cost a lot of money to sort the body work and at the end of it you still have a pickup (although easy enough to change)

marjon said:

They can write it off against tax, I am sure, so to them its only worth "numbers on a spreadsheet"

Click to expand...

This is also a very good point as it is a business vehicle. I would expect with its age form an accounting point of view on the spreadsheet it will be valued at zero as the accounting calculation for depreciation over 30 years will have taken it to zero. therefore anything they can get for it is "profit". Currently I would expect it to be worth scrap value (from company perspective) as it is not road legal.

Well, I've emailed an offer of £1750 so lets see. Luckily we do have some 90 body panels from my lads 90, including bonnet and doors, in the same colour. I do my own spanner work, and welding, so its economically viable.

Im one of a few people interested in the vehicle, including the maintenance supervisor, who knows what work has been previously done.

Good luck.

No reply yet...... still waiting.

I wouldn’t have offered any more than £1k for it…..if that !! It’s worth nothing to them, and they probably even forgot it was there.

Ask again.

Treat it as a Dutch auction and reduce your offer to £1500 - that should speed things up!!