The Chief Fairy and I are thinking of changing our two vehicles - one is our Freelander 2 XS which she uses mainly or otherwise is used if we go on longish trips together. It's comfortable, fairly rapid and is probably the best car we have ever had. The other is my 1996 Defender 90 300 Tdi Station Wagon which I've spent a lot of money on (Marsland galvanised chassis being the main item but many, many components have been replaced over the past two years). We are thinking of selling both - she will have her VW Golf GDI and below I've set out my requirements.

I am retired but recently became a bit bored so I took a small job with our local Land Rover Dealer collecting cars for servicing and delivering new one's all over the country - poor pay but I enjoy receiving phone calls from them asking me to take a £100,000 Range Rover to Knightsbridge, brief the customer on the vehicle and then get trains back home. So in the course of all this I've driven lots of new 2.2 XS Station Wagons which I really like - a bit different from mine even though it's in brilliant condition. However, I've not driven a 2.4 Defender and was wondering if in reality there is a lot of noticeable difference and whether one engine is considered to be better than another.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Why not put a Puma engine in your defender? There is a firm in Plymouth selling delivery mileage engines and gear boxes for sensible money. I think they do V8 and automatic conversions on new defenders and sell off the original engines & boxes. They advertise them on ebay, see item number 262124393400.