Would 18k annual mileage a year kill a Defender?

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LUKBENPHI

LUKBENPHI

Well-Known Member
Posts
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Location
Peak District
Afternoon All

So while I'm still in this waiting for the car to sell / Looking at landys and dreaming phase, I've been thinking.

I'm currently doing about 18k a year involving a lot of motorway miles to bakewell as the mrs lives/works there and I'm down here in Leicestershire (only slightly above the national average I know).

Now the skoda I'm currently in has been a good mileage muncher, with the exception of the fuel pump and water housing its only had consumables thrown at it as and when required.(annoyingly these all were needed at once so it skinted me but I don't begrudge the car, I blame the previous owner for being a tightwad!)

So the question is would a 90/110 or defender in my budget of 4-5k regardless of engine and gbox , that's more than likely done over 100k already, stand up to the abuse motorway mileage? I'm not on about thrashing it in the slightest but it would be sat at 65-75 for most of on a 140 mile round trip 3 times a week plus my own commute and pottering about..

I realise a lot have done well over 200k+ without major issue but it seems a lot of the ones I'm seeing that have simply accrued that over many years worth of pottering about.

I'm just concerned that a sudden change to the motorway work would kill one in no time flat regardless of how many times it was serviced

Thanks in advance
Phil
 
For a 4 -5k vehicle I'd say the landy would stand it, providing it's not led too sheltered a life beforehand and you fully service it so you _know_ stuff's been done .. The weak link would be you! Could you stand that many motorway miles in a reasonably cramped, noisy environment? It's OK using them like a car for a week or two, but unless you've got full road tyres on and good noise and heat insulation for the cab I'd stick with the car and use a Landy as a plaything or odd occasions. General commuting for a few miles is doable easily, your typical week would become very tiresome, very quickly I reckon.
 
Maintain it correctly and it will be fine.
Motorway miles are the easiest a car will do in it's lifetime.

I would be looking to change the oils regularly (every 4000 miles) and keep the prop shaft joints greased.

Check the wheel bearings once every 6 months and re-grease
 
Its an expensive game, i do roughly 60,000 miles a year and a good 25,000 of them in a defender.
Expensive to run, and they do require maintenance throughout the year. You might be better spending £500 on a banger and just run that into the ground, keeping the landrover as a toy?
 
A decent defender will cope with regular maintenance, but any weaknesses in the drivetrain will show up quickly with long runs at higher revs. Will you be able to cope with the fuel bill though? (think 30mpg) How about buying a cheap car for the motorway - skoda fabia etc, and having a landy for fun?
 
zeaphod said:
A decent defender will cope with regular maintenance, but any weaknesses in the drivetrain will show up quickly with long runs at higher revs. Will you be able to cope with the fuel bill though? (think 30mpg) How about buying a cheap car for the motorway - skoda fabia etc, and having a landy for fun?
Click to expand...

beatcha :p
 
I think if you can find one that hasn't been tampered with too much and kept standard then it should be fine. I have no idea what mileage my 1990, 200 tdi, 110 has done. It has crossed Morocco several times, been down to India; and is going off to the Sahara again next spring. Still on the original engine. I think as the others have already said , you will break before it does providing it has been looked after. One plus point a Defender has is parts are cheap. I have driven mine from the south of France to the UK and back a couple of times. Sitting at 65/70 mph is no problem. After 70 mph you will start to burn up fuel. Well, it does on mine. You will need to do some research and get one where the gearing is set up right. I have read some horror stories on here where some people struggle to get over 65 mph. I'm told a TD5 has better road manners and sound proofing for motorway work. Mine has been sound proofed which does help a lot. Be prepared for drafts and water coming in around the doors and lousy heaters. All part of the Defender experience. Try a couple before you buy.
 
For a well maintained vehicle it will be fine. I happily do 30,000 a year in my 200Tdi, including motorways, and have no problems.

A lot of Land Rovers get ragged round some s****y quarry at the weekend and then parked up for two weeks. Then the owners take them for a motorway drive and wonder why a wheel bearing dies. Looked after, motorway miles are absolutely ok - as mentioned above they are the easiest miles the car will do.
 
A defender isnt the vehicle for motorway cruising at 60/75 for any length of time , after its done 100,000 miles.
discovery would make more sense, slightly better aerodynamics , better buy would be a diesel car eg BMW
etc likely to do twice the mpg , and what it was designed to do . Even a Freelander diesel would be better. JMHO
 
Personally, I don't see what the problem is driving a Defender from Hinckley to Bakewell and back. Sometimes I hop in mine early and trundle up from Leicester to Paddocks at Matlock and buy a load of stuff as soon as they open and then I'm back home in time for a leisurely breakfast and then I can spend the rest of the day fitting my accessories. Quite a nice run, with a bit of a blast on the M1 and some motoring on wiggly rural roads. OK, Bakewell's a little further, but not much. Now, Hinkley (without the c) in Somerset to Bakewell and back in a day, that would be a drive. But still eminently manageable in a Land Rover.
 
Brown said:
Personally, I don't see what the problem is driving a Defender from Hinckley to Bakewell and back. Sometimes I hop in mine early and trundle up from Leicester to Paddocks at Matlock and buy a load of stuff as soon as they open and then I'm back home in time for a leisurely breakfast and then I can spend the rest of the day fitting my accessories. Quite a nice run, with a bit of a blast on the M1 and some motoring on wiggly rural roads. OK, Bakewell's a little further, but not much. Now, Hinkley (without the c) in Somerset to Bakewell and back in a day, that would be a drive. But still eminently manageable in a Land Rover.
Click to expand...

It would soon get boring, noisy and uncomfortable if you _had_ to do it three times a week .. Well, it would in mine .. ;)
 
Well, maybe I'm doing something wrong here. I actually quite like driving around in a Land Rover (which is why I've got one) where I'm high enough up so as to see where I'm going, admire the view over the hedges and wave at other Land Rovers. In fact, since I bought it I've done over 40,000 miles like that, much of which has been on motorways at motorway speeds. I don't intend to stop when the odometer gets up to six figures either.

Now I have been picked up by the AA in that time, of course, with faults that included i) wiring loom fault, ii) oil in injector loom iii) some sort of fuel starvation problem and iii) ECU failure. All except the last one were solvable by me once we'd got home. I don't think any of them were specifically caused by going fast on the motorway. As chronicled on here, I've been working my way through replacing bearings, seals, bushes, brake components and the like, liberally coating the underside and bulkhead (and indeed myself) with Dinitrol. So it's not been maintenance free, but it's certainly feasible to consider them as high mileage vehicles. Come on, it's not that bad.
 
Wallet will be empty.
Fuel consumption will be crap maybe 30/32 at best.
Most old defenders are not well maintained.
The problem with an old land rover is there is always a snag list of stuff to do, normal cars just arent like that, plus when you change something on a normal car thats it, its very unlikely you will ever need to replace that part ever again, on a defender!
I would never choose one to do big miles in, theres many many better ways to do it in more comfort, why suffer/struggle in life if you dont have to?
 
Don't get me wrong, I love me Landy, I've driven from Doncaster to the Lakes just to go laning for a weekend, similarly to Salisbury Plain etc etc and I can't see me ever not having one, the smiles per mile amount for way more than diesel mileage .. but to use one for what's an essentially on-road commute seems just wrong to me and not much of a pleasure.
 
Driving's just not the same if you don't do it in a Land Rover.

Seems to me that if you really want to make driving into an unpleasant chore, you'd do it in something like a Ford Focus or Nissan Micra.
 
I've had mine for 18 months and have covered over 30K miles. Fit a Roverdrive - it really makes a difference.
 
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