Is there such a thing as a "comfortable" Defender?

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im 6ft 4 and 15 stone and its never bothered me, apart from my ridiculous bucket seats that hurt my ass after about 30 seconds!

If you feel to close to the door open the window and hang out of it! problem solved

O and if you move your seat to far back you cant get to the window which will ruin the comfort
 
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Thanks again everybody.. I need to decided whether to buy something relatively new and use it as a daily drive, (about 45 miles per day) or whether get something older and just reserve it as a second vehicle for shooting and green laning.

If i went for say a 200 or 300TDi, I am just concerned I'd be buying possibly a 20 year old vehicle with probably 150,000 + miles on the clock, and that wouldn't be the most reliable vehicle for longer trips up to Scotland or Norfolk?

While I don't mind doing "normal" maintenance, I am not really looking for a project vehicle that is going to take a lot of spanner turning just to keep it on the road..
 
That's a how long is a piece of string question if ever there was one.
20 years old and 150k and not touched will be falling to bits. If its been cosseted and/or rebuilt then it should be good for thousands of miles more with only routine maintenance.
Ok for long journeys if you're not in a hurry and own earplugs. But it's not really what they're best at.
 
PeteE said:
Thanks again everybody.. I need to decided whether to buy something relatively new and use it as a daily drive, (about 45 miles per day) or whether get something older and just reserve it as a second vehicle for shooting and green laning.

If i went for say a 200 or 300TDi, I am just concerned I'd be buying possibly a 20 year old vehicle with probably 150,000 + miles on the clock, and that wouldn't be the most reliable vehicle for longer trips up to Scotland or Norfolk?

While I don't mind doing "normal" maintenance, I am not really looking for a project vehicle that is going to take a lot of spanner turning just to keep it on the road..
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Even with a newer one you'll probably still have a bit of spanner turning to do, that's just land rovers for you. Td5's are good engines but you've got the electrics to deal with and potentially go wrong, something I've never been keen on and am glad I don't have on my 200tdi.

I'm quite happy doing long journeys in mine, I've got a fair bit of sound proofing, road biased tyres and the engine is looked after and its quite quiet (relatively) when at motorway speeds. I'm getting between 30-34mpg too
 
Im now in a Tdci from a 300 tdi. I must say its smoother and quicker. However all the old issues are still there,, no foot room, no elbow room, wind noise etc etc some things just dont change.
 
the_wolf said:
Even with a newer one you'll probably still have a bit of spanner turning to do, that's just land rovers for you. Td5's are good engines but you've got the electrics to deal with and potentially go wrong, something I've never been keen on and am glad I don't have on my 200tdi.

I'm quite happy doing long journeys in mine, I've got a fair bit of sound proofing, road biased tyres and the engine is looked after and its quite quiet (relatively) when at motorway speeds. I'm getting between 30-34mpg too
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I'm not keen on so much electronics in a 4x4, but I will put up with them if it means a younger, more reliable vehicle mechanically..

All other things being equal, can I expect a TD5 to deliver a similar mpg?
 
SpringDon said:
That's a how long is a piece of string question if ever there was one.
20 years old and 150k and not touched will be falling to bits. If its been cosseted and/or rebuilt then it should be good for thousands of miles more with only routine maintenance.
Ok for long journeys if you're not in a hurry and own earplugs. But it's not really what they're best at.
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I once drove from Warminster to Dundee in a Series 3, so I do appreciate what you mean! :)
 
PeteE said:
I'm not keen on so much electronics in a 4x4, but I will put up with them if it means a younger, more reliable vehicle mechanically..

All other things being equal, can I expect a TD5 to deliver a similar mpg?
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Thing is for the cost of a td5 you can get a very well looked after 200tdi. Mechanically and in my opinion these engines are much more reliable, mine has never broken down yet. You're more likely to experience problems with the actual running gear which is almost no different on a td5 from that of an older fender. Someone may correct me though
 
Wasn't there a known gearbox issue with the 200TDi that caused a lot of them to fail at around the 60,000 mile mark? IIRC, it was something to do with the gearboxes being slightly misaligned and thus suffering from early excessive wear?
 
My gearbox is 26 years old and whilst its not perfect its still going. Plus good luck finding a 200tdi that hasn't done 60,000 miles yet ;). The LT77 that was in the 200tdi and earlier and the later R380 are good gearboxes and more than robust enough if they're looked after and the oil is changed often. James Martin can advise much better on gearboxes
 
I believe that a layshaft bearing was put into a lot of teh early R380s wrong way round.

Land Rover managed to dodge the recall bullet but replaced many of the boxes under warranty if the customers requested.

That said I personally have had poor luck with my R380s and have been waiting 3 months for LR warranty to source a third box for my 110!

But other folk I know have run the same boxes well into th 100ks without any issues.

In general they are prtty robust, mine must just be lemons.
 
goonarmy said:
Why rule out a disco?
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Drove one up to Scotland last year, and it just felt a bit "barge" like..I used to have a LWB Trooper and the Disco even elt a bit more unwieldy than that..

Plus, I actually like the look of the Defender, probably second only to the old Lightweights..To me, the Defender just looks like an 4x4 utility vehicle should..
 
PeteE said:
Wasn't there a known gearbox issue with the 200TDi that caused a lot of them to fail at around the 60,000 mile mark? IIRC, it was something to do with the gearboxes being slightly misaligned and thus suffering from early excessive wear?
Click to expand...

no, h suffix boxes had compound baulk rings on 1st and 2nd with a thrust washer that broke ,and mainshaft /input gear splines wore but g suffix were a very good box
 
KillaJoules said:
I believe that a layshaft bearing was put into a lot of teh early R380s wrong way round.

Land Rover managed to dodge the recall bullet but replaced many of the boxes under warranty if the customers requested.

That said I personally have had poor luck with my R380s and have been waiting 3 months for LR warranty to source a third box for my 110!

But other folk I know have run the same boxes well into th 100ks without any issues.

In general they are prtty robust, mine must just be lemons.
Click to expand...

never heard of that ,its impossible to do ,lr should have loctited bearing races in as are a loose fit and often spin and wear through castings eventually causing excessive backlash
 
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