Thinking of buying a defender..

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J

jlj76

New Member
Posts
6
Location
London
Hi guys,
So after watching that top gear ep of the the defender being phased out, I thought it might be pretty cool to have one as a second car.
Probably have a budget of about 4k, so something old and basic.
Whats a good way to get up to scratch before buying?
Things to stay away from, things I should look out for.
Maybe 4X4 as a new hobby might be on the cards, also keen to try my hand at DIY repairs, both of which I have no experience with.
All opinions welcome.
Ta
 
You don't know when you first turn up here, but it is traditional and sort of expected to introduce yourself in the 'introduce yourself' section.
This post would have been a good one.
Anyway, if you are going to spend 4k and you don't have a lot of other money to spend, then DIY Land Rover repairs WILL be your next hobby
Your question has been asked many, many times. My first advice would be search the forum for previous threads the same as yours, learn from those. Use those to lead you on to other threads to build up your understanding. Go and look at lots of Defenders in your price range, but don't buy one until you've done enough research to know what you are looking at. Tread carefully, don't rush in :confused:
 
Well you are in the wrong place asking the right questions, I guess some on here will have acted first and then talked the problems through after making the mistake. Do you want a 90/110, are you gifted mechanically, do you have space and money to repair a LR etc etc?

Oh and post in the right section next time ;@)

Good luck
 
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I just did the search... apologies for being a noob and not doing so beforehand!
gifted mechanically... I'm hoping to discover hidden talents. heh. I like tinkering with things, but never on a car.
Space wise, I have a garage out back of the house, though not sure if will accommodate the height.
90 or 110, the 90 looks nice and compact, but more space is always good. Do owners end up evolving and regret going too small once in defender world?
 
jlj76 said:
I just did the search... apologies for being a noob and not doing so beforehand!
gifted mechanically... I'm hoping to discover hidden talents. heh. I like tinkering with things, but never on a car.
Space wise, I have a garage out back of the house, though not sure if will accommodate the height.
90 or 110, the 90 looks nice and compact, but more space is always good. Do owners end up evolving and regret going too small once in defender world?
Click to expand...
Search didn't reveal the Introduce Yourself section, then?
Any landy you buy under 4k is likely to need a lot of work, only the competent and well equipped should consider buying one.
And if you don't know whether you want swb or lwb, I doubt whether anyone can advise.
 
It revealed a lot of threads, hence my apology for not searching first.
Fair enough, sounds like its probably a bad idea then if my budget will only land me a basket case.
 
As mentioned before, unless you are very lucky, £4k will buy you something that will probably need plenty of attention, although it should have an MOT. It would however buy you a decent series, which make excellent hobby vehicles - easy to work on, virtually no electrics, plenty of parts still available.
 
jlj76 said:
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201508125986553?make=land_rover&sort=default&page=1&model=defender_90&postcode=ss177su&onesearchad=used,nearlynew,new&channel=cars&search-target=usedcars&radius=200&logcode=p
Sounds well loved, anything in this example that would be worrying?
Previous poster indicated a car like this is not a "starter" for a novice, happy to learn and buy equipment incrementally, but if I need a fully equipped garage from the get go, and its breaking every other day, then I'm definitely shooting myself in the foot.
Click to expand...
It depends really. I bought mine for £4k, but then changed the chassis so I stand at about £9k now.
That one looks like it needs some welding on the bulkhead so it depends on how good you are with a welder...plus if the crossmember has been replaced I would expect some of the rest of the chassis will need welding....

In terms of a good starter car to learn mechanics they are awesome, I am a computer programmer with no mechanical knowledge and I managed to rebuild a whole defender. A year on and I reckon I could fix virtually anything on it if I had to, so if you manage to find a decent one go for it.

But as others have said, due to the fact that they aren't making them anymore the price is going up quite steeply, so you might struggle to find a driveable one for £4k. The main problems are the chassis rotting and the bulkhead, everything else is fixable
 
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I would suggest before buying or dreaming of owning one, take one out for a test drive. I'm told they are not every ones cup of tea. It also depends on what sort of motoring you are going to use it for. I have a 110 which works fine for me. I live in the French countryside and I wouldn't want anything else. If I lived somewhere like central London I could think of other vehicles to have which are smoother and more comfortable. When I lived in London I had BMW's Audi's and the like. Out here I wouldn't think of parting with my Defender. They grow on you. If you look after your Defender they are reliable. Parts are cheap and they are easy to work on. Mine has crossed the Sahara several times and I would not have any worries if I had to drive it to the UK and back.or to Morocco. In fact its going again next spring to Morocco. I would check for rust in the chassis and bulkhead, Those are fairly expensive to sort out.
 
Best advice I say to anyone who fancies an old landy,is to take someone who knows about them to view/check over the vehicle. Its amazing what out there,good and bad.
Also be patient the right one is out there.
 
There is some top advice above, particularly going for a test drive and taking a knowledgeable person with you when you inspect. As for driving in London, it's a lot more fun than my jag as everyone gets out of the way!

Good luck
 
A lot depends on what your expectations are. If you anticipate just being able to step in and drive it around and forget about maintenance, then there are a lot more things you could do with £4000 that would better suit your needs. On the other hand if you think of it as a kind of rolling rebuild where every month on payday you buy a few more spares for it and spend a couple of weekends swapping them over then you'll probably be fine. There's someone called Min200 on here who's shown what he's done with a Series and a Discovery in this kind of way in some detail. OK, neither of his are Defenders but it seems to me to be a good way to tackle budget Land Rover ownership.

The big jobs are chassis replacement and bulkhead replacement, as understandably these involve a lot of dismantling. So if you can find something with a reasonably solid chassis and bulkhead and anticipate working your way through other tasks on an ongoing basis there's no reason why you shouldn't be fine.
 
Thanks for all the advise. Is there any non obvious place for sourcing a gem apart from autotrader and pistonheads?
So far from what I gather, 200 or 300 TDI and chassis/ bulkhead galvanised would be my prerequisites.
What years should I look at or avoid?
What year is the cut off before they start introducing too much tech?
Any Sutton/ Morden area defender owners/ hobbyists free for a chat?
 
A good point about driving one first. It's not like driving a car, and the 110s have a large turning circle, which means they can be tricky to park. They also don't fit in some car parks. On the positive side, once you're hooked, it's a great hobby, and you will get a wave from other landy drivers - it's a big friendly club.
 
jlj76 said:
Thanks for all the advise. Is there any non obvious place for sourcing a gem apart from autotrader and pistonheads?
So far from what I gather, 200 or 300 TDI and chassis/ bulkhead galvanised would be my prerequisites.
What years should I look at or avoid?
What year is the cut off before they start introducing too much tech?
Any Sutton/ Morden area defender owners/ hobbyists free for a chat?
Click to expand...
You won't get a galv one for £4000 I don't think. You could look at getting one that needs a new chassis, factor in £3.5k for a swap.

I like 300s better than 200s as the gearbox is stronger, other than that there isn't much difference.

1998 was the last of the TDis before the TD5 got introduced with its electrics, but I wouldn't let that put you off, they have proved to be a reliable engine once the initial problems were fixed. I would rather a TD5 if I had the choice.

Try ebay aswell for one, seem to be quite a few on there.
 
Interesting that there are a couple 1998 300 TDI that are about 4500 on ebay. I would have assumed they would be much pricier vs the much earlier versions.
For example http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Land-Rover-Defender-90-300tdi-/121741189666?hash=item1c58572222
Looks alright, is it because it has not got many extras on it, ie winch, snorkel etc.
States free from rust and chassis in good nick, obviously this will have to be verified, are there more things to consider?
 
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