Which Landie? Revisited

Hi all,

Regular readers will know I'm selling my P38 and plan to get a Disco. But I have a lingering temptation to look at a Defender... Perhaps somebody could give input which will influence my decision.

I need something which is presentable for work use (Defenders are regarded as "cool" so I could probably get away with a nice tidy one, particularly if it looked like one of those fancy expedition vehicles which never leave the Tesco car park). I do about 25,000 miles a year, of which a lot is motorway use.

But I'm also going back to Iceland next year with a boot load of teenage kids and lots of kit. And I spend about 8-10 weekends a year on Dartmoor doing various outdoor activities involving muddy kit, kids etc.

The Disco should be the obvious choice, plus I prefer auto gearboxen, but I like the idea of the lack of depreciation on Defenders, and the practicality of having all that space, bigger roof rack and rugged simplicity. But I'm only looking at spending £7-9K and you don't get much Defender for that. Whatever I get it'll be a 300Tdi. And it needs to look spick & span, preferably spotless.

I've driven both and liked both! Leaning towards a Disco but feel free to convince me otherwise.

Opinions welcome.

David

Reply to
David French
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On or around Sun, 29 Feb 2004 22:09:03 -0000, "David French" enlightened us thusly:

yer should get a tidy 300TDI 110 CSW for 7 grand, I'd have thought.

However.

these are mine:

standard Defender seats are CRAP - mine has ford seats in it which are much better.

You can convert to an auto box (by getting the box from/for a suitable donor vehicle, though I've never tried a TDi+auto combination - mine's a V8 and I wouldn't swap back, now. You tend to lose the middle row front seat, as you need somewhere to mount the gearchange, and the cable length/stiffness doesn't give you a lot of choice. Get or make a suitable cubby box and you cam do it tidily, unlike mine which has the RR gearchange lump screwed on top of the seat-box. In the RR, of course, there's a nice panel for it to sit in.

The 110 and the disco are almost identical in outside dimensions, the only difference is the longer bonnet on the disco which loses you some interior space.

disco rear load space with seats folded is more usable than the loadspace on the 110.

middle-row seat comfort in the 110 is compromised by the seatbox, which limits foot-space on the floor.

bodywork is apt to get loose and rattle and squeak and bang

If you could swing it, consider one of them new santanas which that bloke in S.wales is importing - it solves a lot of the 110's problems. Okay, it's till on leafs, but those parabolic leafs give a much better ride than the old LR ones. more money, of course, but a dead-nice looking vehicle, for all that.

Reply to
Austin Shackles

On or around Mon, 01 Mar 2004 07:45:46 +0000, Austin Shackles enlightened us thusly:

perhaps I should elucidate:

  • bodywork assembled in one piece and painted, then mounted on the chassis on (I think) rubber mounts

  • no seat box, so more middle-row foot room

  • seats look better

  • wider loadspace between wheelarches, and wider rear door.

and yes, if I had the money, I'd have one, though I might put a V8 + auto box combo in it instead of the 2.8 Iveco. Might keep the Iveco. might tune up the Iveco - there's a higher-power version available as standard, dunno why they don't fit it. Iveco 2.8 in high power form mated to a ZF 4-speed auto ought to work well.

Reply to
Austin Shackles

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