The Land Rover Defender has legions of rabid fans who will defend the Defender as the best thing that ever happened to planet Earth since sunshine and puppies. I digress. Lovely C5 X7-specific 3D-printable models at www.cgtrader.c...
I use mine for transporting dirty , rough items to dirty rough places, where I would not take an ordinary car. I use mine to recover ordinary cars stuck in snow , a ditch or mud. Landrovers are a tool, a truck you can use to transport animals and then hose out. A utility vehicle, not a car. I have driven mine from UK to South of Switzerland and back in snow. It is not the only vehicle I own but it has unique uses.
The trouble with old Defenders.... People buy them and forget that they're old, the previous owner will have treated maintenence as if they owned a new Fiesta yet will have been through every local stream and lane, owners don't change all the oils on time, they're specialist and do need maintenence, nearly every used Defender will almost certainly need all four corners sorting, wheel bearings, discs, pads, swivel seals and balls and drive flanges if not halfshafts as well, once done they'll last for years if maintained, service parts are cheap (decent make front discs £60 a pair, pads under £20, Mahle oil filter around £5, wheel bearing kits £25), everything is available, from the chassis, bulkheads, panels etc. Are they uncomfortable? Depends what you're used to, it's a small light truck on long travel suspension, what do you expect? I find the front seats comfortable though elbow room is tight, add to the above that they're classless, Lords, Farmers and builders can drive them, I get 26mpg day to day, 30mpg on a run from the old tdi, it can pull a 3.5 tonne trailer and is very good off road as long as its kept standard ish and is very simple to work on. I've owned plenty of nice cars over the years but nothing gets under your skin like an old Land Rover, they also hold their value, try that with a BMW X5 or Q7. If you want one, buy a tdi, it keeps the electronics to zero, td5's are good but I'd avoid the later tdci with it's Ford engine and added electronic injection though they do drive well.
@@andicog oh I agree with you on many counts, but one thing that's changed is that they're not classless any more, or at least, not in the same way. They sell for crazy money locally, 30k is the starting price, and need lots of maintenance. So these days, you have to be rather well-off to own and run a classic Defender
@@comcarclub Defenders can be bought for a lot less than 30k at the moment, a friend has just bought a very straight 110 puma County with air con for £18k, another has bought a 110 200tdi County (actually pre Defender as its badged 110) for £4k, neither have needed anything but a thorough service, they are out there, ex military 110 Wolf can be bought registered and sorted for a little over £13k up and earlier military 90 and 110's can be bought from £6k, just depends what you want but considering how much a 2 year old Ford/Audi/BMW will cost I'd say a Defender is within reach for a lot of normal working people and servicing is simple if you're handy with the spanners, no ecu and no diagnostic tools needed on early vehicles either . A nice refurb from Mahker or JLR classics will be £150k though! I run an ex military 110 and am far from well off, I'd recommend one to anyone, they're great fun and easy to fix and maintain.
@@andicog I mean locally, here in Portugal. And owners shit themselves at the thought of them getting nicked, because they get sold on immediately and are never seen again
I imagine that apart from the UK, there's probably no country in the world with as many *Land Rovers per capita* as my country. Land Rovers are everywhere here, mostly as Range Rovers and Discovery, but quite a bit of Defenders. The Defenders are used for highland adventure tours. You are absolutely correct, the Defenders are tools, built for a purpose - for off-roading and adventure. Not for driving and enjoying roads. And damn they look the part as an off-road adventure vehicle. Not even the original Jeep that it was based on has that special something. I think that's why I find myself adoring the Land Rover Defender. At the same time I don't want to own one, or drive one, but I salute it! OK maybe if I had the garage space I'd love to own one. And tinker with it. And I am glad the Land Rover made Defenders. (well until 2015 but that is a very good run) ... New Defender is another topic entirely and makes me somewhat sad to think about.
Hi, I live in Sweden and is actually daily driving a 1999 Defender 110 Td5. (OK, not every day, but I do use it for going to work and grocery shopping several days a week). I agree with everything you say, the car is loud, slow, clumsy, expensive and unreliable. But I STILL love my old Defender 😄 It always bring a smile to my face. It got a huge roof rack for storage and is fitted with a sleeping platform in the back, complete with kitchen, extra electricity, solar panels and a fridge. We can go camp anywhere with it. It is demanding to drive, but it's never boring to drive! However, I must admit, after driving 7000 kilometers in 20 days, sleeping in the car basically every night, through six different countries this summer, my back was aching pretty bad. But the cool thing was that one day we where driving on the french highways, and the next day we drove on a small dirt road on 2000m height on a Pyrenees mountain top. Not too many cars today can do that. Although the best part of using that car on the holiday travels was all the people that we made happy that saw it, and came to talk to us on all the camping spots. Made a lot of new friends on that trip. It has a special aura, that's for sure. So, i "daily drive it", and we use it as a holiday vehicle, we use it as a work truck on our farm, we use it as a commercial vehicle when we go to the farmers market in the summer, and we use it as a "plow through the deep snow" vehicle during the harsh Swedish winter. I won't keep the car forever, I'm a "car guy" and want to try different cars, but for now, I love it ❤ and it's going to stay with me for some more years ☺
@@mudden thank you very much for your lovely comment. Thanks also for not being cross because of my criticism of the Defender, I understand that many people love it and I am glad you do too!! All the best!
Weirdly my 1987 LR 90 has been super reliable, its had an engine transplant now sporting the LR300TDI and just seems happy to continue about its daily duties with no issues. The more modern LR's seemed fairly rubbish in comparison, the tech goes wrong and the build quality seemed to reduce the newer they got! But agree they lack creature comforts with a cruising speed is 50-55mph, long journeys & motorways are a no no......but the wipers and heater work really well!!!
I've never owned a Land Rover, but I did drive a Series 2A when I did a stint in the Army. Since then, I've been smitten with the cursed things, but fortunately my earnings never quite got to the point I could afford to buy one and especially run one. But I still dream about it 😅.
More like a Highland Pony or Fjord Horse in my opinion. But you're definitely on the right track, the Defender is no racehorse for sure - it's kind of odd to call it a car in the first place.
Aussie ex mechanic here, 100% agree. Absolute rubbish compared to a Nissan Patrol. The GQ and newer Patrols are easily the equal of a Defender off road but are far superior on road, easy to work on and service and reliable. Basically everything a Land Rover isn't 🙂
Car? It's a kind of miniature truck. I mean, okay, legally speaking it falls into the car category and sure you can park it in a car parking space, but a cursory acquaintance with it quickly disabuses you of any comparison with an estate car. Our Border Collie was crap at being a gundog. Don't expect it to be a car, like we don't slate VW Golf's for being bad at hauling fencing materials up a rocky hillside.
In my hometown in the south of Baden-Württemberg, near Lake Constance, many people seem to be quite wealthy. They drive Mercedes-Benz G-Modells (English speakers would say «G Wagon») with 6.3 liter V8's around town or some military version of it (as a Mercedes G or a Puch G), fully adventure equiped for the daily inner city adventure. My former boss (outdoor & hunting advertising agency) was «forced» to drive a Defender. Once I had the opportunity to take a ride in this «thing». I thought: «for an agricultural vehicle quite comfortable seats». My boss had one glitch after the other with it. Mainly the electronic gas pedal. Also nice: his wife did forget, that the roof rack was still mounted when she entered underground parking. An unpleasant noise and some fat metal swarfs have been the result. My summary: keep the tractors on the fields and take the bicycle around town. It's better. Believe me...
I worked with a driver who's job was getting around an open cast mine in west Wales with massive ruts, extreme weather and challenging terrain and he hated and didn't rate the defender at all (which he was forced to drive) and he was looking forward to getting his own choice for the professional 4x4 driver, a Vauxhall Frontera. Yep, the professional rated the Frontera better than the defender in every way and said that the Frontera was the most underrated but best 4x4xfar!!
I owned a Frontera 3 door sport for exactly 15 years and absolutely loved it. I now have a Landy Defender 90 Station Wagon. She's a 2007 Puma with the Ford Transit engine and 6 speed gearbox. The Frontera in my opinion was superior on the tarmac and even though she dated from 1994 had more creature comforts. But I still prefer by far the Landy.
i can beat that - I daily a Perentie - that's an 80's LR 110 that the Australian army took, stripped out all the refinement and luxury of a normal defender, slapped a great big isuzu diesel generator engine in and has then been brutalized by hundreds of defense force grunts for 35 years... Yes i need my head read - BUT off road its magic!
😂 100% agree truly awful to drive. Borrowed a 110 defender for a trip around Ireland for a week, ended up with bruised elbow from the door hitting it when u closed it from inside.You can't see the dash dials unless you hunch over and it clattered around like and old tractor. Later I took a spin in a 90 defender with a range rover V8 petrol dropped into it, now that was a blast. Defender is a wonderful utilitarian vehicle for the farming community,the army or anyone who frequents a forest or mountain tracks.But they definitely don't belong in the daily driver category, too much hardship
I have owned my 1986 CSW 2.5 nad for 21 years now converted to 300tdi. These vehicles are everything everyone is saying and love them or loath them that is your choice. Over the 21 years I have had a 1963 Series 2 diesel bits a 1983 RR diesel conversion a1984 Lightweight diesel conversion a1990 200tdi Discovery a 1994 300tdi Discovery and a 1994 Defender 300tdi swb truck cab. I have moved them all on except the 110 I have tried to sell it and asked big ££££ for it as I based it on what I was seeing out there on sale. 200 and 300 tdi Disco and RR a nice drive and easy to work on. Any time someone bought any of them I explained Landrover as best I could to make them aware of what they would be getting into. BTW I still might sell the 110.
Greed with everything you said. Still love the thing to bits, guess it's head vs. heart. It's a wonder how something so rubbish can keep such a big smile on some people's faces.
I've always liked the idea of having one but also always been well aware of how utterly impractical it would be to have one. Obviously they and other legit rugged 4x4s have their place but I've long since seen is as a bit like the prepper movement of people building underground bunkers to survive the apocalypse when actually you're better off just trying to rebuild society as quickly as possible instead. Owning a defender is the miserable bunker existence.
Suzuki Jimny is a much better rough/unrefined and basic 4x4 despite its size. It now comes in a 5-door. It never fails to put a smile on your face. And I say this as someone whose done a 8000 km roadtrip in a Defender 110 from the 90s from Cape Town to Malawi and back in 2009 and a much more recent 2000 km road trip from Johannesburg to Ponta Malongane and back through Eswatini to Johannesburg. I've spent many days on the road in both. New Jimnys copy the styling of 90s Defenders quite brazenly but driving ergonomics are infinitely better, still slow as a hog with much better handling and off-road performance despite it's handling still being terrible for a modern car.
I think they were okey... as basic offroad tractors, sort of farmers tools. That was when the price made sense and they were dirt cheap for most of their existence... until mid 90s really (and they are firmly 70s tech), but the more they got obsolete, like by 2005 they were horribly obsolete and by 2015 (just before end of production, they were hard to justify making, in fact the reason production ended was simply that car could not meet safety and environmental standard and it needed complete redesign).... so the more they got obsolete the more expensive they got... and that is what does not make sense. How ... and why... would one buy utilitarian vehicle, but pay luxury car price for it? Also why would it even cost so much - the body is simple box, can't really be that expensive - say £2000 to build, the engine was shit and old, the cost of making it can't be more than £500... add some bit, airbags, switches, gearbox, tyres... I can see the actual cost of making it can arrive to maybe £5000. Add some healthy profit margin on top (cars are known to have extremely tight margins, but let's say 30% here) and we arrive to grand total of £6500... let's just round that up to £6995 as they like to do it... And that is in todays money... when then they were selling for £30,000? So here is the issue - as obsolete utilitarian tool/tractor for cheap, must be under £10,000 new, they have their place... but Luxury they were not and I don't understand luxury pricing and why people are so desperate to have one. Or also - why would they buy and drive one in the city.
Sorry, best car ever made, I have a re mapped 2.2 defender 90 XS, great on road, great off road and reliable (unlike the Range Rover I disposed of due to it not working). I do agree it is not good on a long run and, but you can't have everything.
BL rubbish continues to this day, I drove an '04 reg a few years ago and I couldn't believe how LR actually had the face to sell them. Gearbox like rice pudding, no steering to speak of, noisy, even for an iron foundry. Sad indictment of British manufacturing.
Lack of LR Defenders in the Australian bush seems to say Aussies prefer Land Cruisers, which mean they can get back after going off road..........................
@Tillerman56 I used to do a lot of repair work on LR. The series vehicles were pretty durable. When the Defenders came out with chassis that could be rotted through in 2 years, and were pretty much impossible to repair properly, it was the beginning of the end for LR.
@@battlebbot I'm on my 3rd Defender now since 1995, the first two went over 500k km before I sold them. I had my chassis professionally treated with Dinitrol on my second (Td5) and my current one (Td4) and I have had hardly any rust. The first one (2.5 N/A) I did not treat, and that was a viable lesson.Yes, there were some tech issues, but not too serious.
Great video and I agree with almost all of your comments. I cannot agree however, with "make no mistake, they are absolutely brilliant off-road", because they're not. From it's inception, possibly through to the late 60's (as a basic 4x4), it served a purpose. Along came the 70's (with it's strikes) and the quality of what came off the automotive production line in Britain dropped significantly and has never fully recovered, certainly nothing from Jaguar Land Rover. The Defender (old version) still has a role to play for farmers, but the rest of the stable has been loaded up with gizmo's and gadget's that don't work and (in some cases) have appalling engines. The loyalty to these vehicles is primarily a British thing and you'll never change that. Where off-road performance and reliability are key, particularly in countries such as Australia, Africa, South America and parts of Asia, they rely on Japanese brands such as the Toyota Land Cruiser. Why? Because they work.
@@comcarclub It wasn't a criticism. I spent 16 years in the military and am very familiar with their on-road and off-road capabilities, on military exercises and operations. Once again, thank you for the video.
@@Obssy I concur, the gimmicks I am referring to is useless crap like Keyless entry and voice commands and Touchscreens and ambient lighting and other rubbish
