Defender V Hilux, Head V Heart
- Thread starter baggins
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Depends on the Car / Plant, TATA are really starting to plough money back into the company and the technology in 16 months I have been at Halewood there have been some serious production upgrades.
That nice to hear, but the car is no more British than a Nissan made in Sunderland
Sounds like we have a similar problem on both sides of the Atlantic. While our own car companies are outsourcing overseas, the Japanese companies are building plants in our countries. It appears the Japanese have more faith in our workers than our own industries do.
To th OP, I'd just buy the Land Rover and get on with enjoying it. I really dunno why everyone gets the impression that they always need fixing.. mine seems to be soldiering on quite nicely and is coming up for 140K miles....
Nothing against Toyota et al, but they are somewhat "boring" in my opinion..
By far the most unreliable car i've ever had was that paragon of reliability, a Subaru Outback......
Nothing against Toyota et al, but they are somewhat "boring" in my opinion..
By far the most unreliable car i've ever had was that paragon of reliability, a Subaru Outback......
Hi Guys,
Just a quick update for you all. The house sold and here i am, staring at my new series 2 disco. I guess it was a bit of head and heart in the end. For the price, the disco worked out about the same as most of the other 4x4s and seems (on paper at least) to be the most frugal on gogo juice and it actually makes me feel good driving it, whereas none of the others did.
I'm sure i'll have the same old probs but, fingers crossed, as it is one of the latter ones, it should keep me going for a good few years.
Cheers for all the comments
Baggins
Just a quick update for you all. The house sold and here i am, staring at my new series 2 disco. I guess it was a bit of head and heart in the end. For the price, the disco worked out about the same as most of the other 4x4s and seems (on paper at least) to be the most frugal on gogo juice and it actually makes me feel good driving it, whereas none of the others did.
I'm sure i'll have the same old probs but, fingers crossed, as it is one of the latter ones, it should keep me going for a good few years.
Cheers for all the comments
Baggins
Good to hear. Hope you enjoy it for years to come. Some pics would be appreciated, Covered with mud in its natural habitat of course.
I love the Hilux, but the leg room in Pickups is dire for me. I'm been contemplating a Toyota Land Cruiser lately.
Haha, leg room is pretty good in the new ranger but having had it for a 5 months now it really is as big as you can fit in the uk. The f150 or bigger would be too big all around around to get about.
Which version? There are 3 different versions of the 1500 alone:
1) The 2 door with front seats and storage spave behind the seat. It has loads of front seat room (as do all versions actually) and generous stoage area behind the seats
2) The 4 door version also has a full a full bench seat (semi buckets actually) behind the front seats and has generous head room but limiited leg room; plenty of storage under the rear seat.
3) A slightly larger 4 door version with more legroom in the rear.
As for cargo room in the bed, there are 2 versions: Long bed (plenty of room for a full sheet of plywood, and short bed (only a 6 foot bed)
I have the shorter version of the 4 door with a full length cargo bed. Enough head room to wear my hat inside and I'm 6'2" Mine is 7 years old but the new models are basicly the same I believe.
No children so 2 door, as long as I can fit my 6'4.5" and rather leggy frame inside. What is the engine like for reliability, starting on very cold mornings ect?
After 7 years and over 120,000 miles it's still going strong. A little trouble with small auxilliary items (Radio/CD player has a stuck CD)
Had a very tall mate miffed cause he wanted a MX5 but couldn't fit in it properly.
Persuaded him that we could sort it, so he bought one and we spent an hour or so taking little slithers of foam out the seat.
5 years on and he's still driving it.
So if you really want a certain car don't give up on it as there is stuff you can do to modify it so your comfortable.
lol was going to say you might want to look at a disco or a Range Rover.
? They weight over a ton, and can pull an artic trailer. Car vs car, other car better have large airbags.
They have aircon, you slide the lever down and it open the flap on the front.
You know why that bracket is black the one that the flap goes into? When they were sent to the US, they could see the screws down the top of the dash so the whole bracket is painted so that you cannot see the screw.
The whole point of them is need to get from a to b and back again and that they do really will. The old ones especially, it break in the middle of nowhere and it stand a good chance you can fix it, because there no chip or anything to get in way.
It the best offroad 4x4 in the world, for 60 years!
They are getting a really good rep offroad, but then again put the right tyres on something and it amazing the diffrence it makes.
You ever get the chance to be in one driven by someone who knows what they doing, and do not have to pay for the repairs. A land rover driven by an expert is scarly amazing. We drifted in mud, under perfect control!
What did it get hit by, or was there something wrong with the chasis?
A friend of mine has just reversed into a tree, no more tree and much to his annoance he has a stripe up his rear door. Most land rovers that get rear ended the driver goes out and looks at the other car impaled on the tow bar. He gets out because he notices the steam.
Owned a Micro, every time it broke spent days ringing round scrap yards for parts. The pricing is scary on parts!
Do not buy a defender, unless new then, even then....
There is a saying of Defender owners, "My Defender does not have a leak?", the reply is "What is wrong with it?"
They never really caught on in the US. To be honest, you can see why, can you imagine driving the Dalton Highway in a Defender . Also there is a lot more of a buy US thing or the Japanese pricings is feeding the market more. Plus if you going to buy second hand, there no military ones to buy.
In the US what is their basic spec for a car is middle to high here, and you do not get more basic than a Land Rover. The Neon etc are brillant bargains because you get so much for your money.
That is because they are not cars! A land rover is a transit van that can go anywhere. If you buy a defender to drive on the road, go see a shrink you need help. You buy a defender because you want a defender.
With the money you save on fuel you could buy a second set of wheels with off-road or winter tyres
That what I going to do. Getting my bike license, and buying japanese, but to be honest cycling to work at moment and it takes the same time, I do not get stuck in traffic.
Really fancy a pre-1973 defender ambulance for my second vehicle, or a 110 series 2.
Yep, just look at all the stuff you can get to fix a Defender's sins. Used to have to drive a works disco, and the main driver was tall, spent all my time looking out though the steering wheel.
There are no used military off road vehicles of ANY type over here (no military Landrovers or Jeeps) except for a few collectables from WWII. They're not legal for private sale as they don't meet highway specs. The ones built prior to the 1960s are grandfathered in but nothing newer. TBH they used military ones were never a big part of the market as they were ragged as hell when released from service.
On the other hand the Military Land Rovers are the prized ones second hand. They have a better paint spec for a start.
It's not because the military jeeps wouldn't be prized. Rather beacause the military refuses to sell them (or did back when there were military Jeeps) Same for the military Humvees; they won't sell them. All because of liability fears if anybody puts it ON road.
Paint is irrelevant. The first thing a civilian owner always did was to either restore it as a collector or repaint in a civilian paint scheme.
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