I know it's wrong...

Slime101 said:
Road tax is upto £400+ depending on age so certainly more than some cars, the exception is that some are commercial and cheaper :)
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Only the very newest ones will have £400 tax, the rest will be less than half that.

Slime101 said:
Occasional leaks arent ocassional, they are persistant and permenant, it will ruin your drive with oil leaks and youll have wet carpets/floors year round!
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They are not s bad as that, some are but most are fine.

Slime101 said:
I love them, but buy carefully, chassis and bulkhead rot plague older defenders and discos suffer that along with sills, doors and footwells.
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All the panels can be replaced individually and the majority on the market have spent 20 years in the mud, this would not bother me on a defender.
 
aproctor said:
Only the very newest ones will have £400 tax, the rest will be less than half that.



They are not s bad as that, some are but most are fine.



All the panels can be replaced individually and the majority on the market have spent 20 years in the mud, this would not bother me on a defender.
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Road tax is a min of £210 for the cheapest ones, and its rising fast!

They ALL leak, there isnt a defender out there or disco that doesnt leak from the transfer box/gearbox joint, also most from the bellhousing, injector rails, sump and other places. As for water ingress landroover have an official manual over 2" thick on fixing water leaks on the defender. Its the only car you can buy new from the factory that leaks like a sieve, newer puma engined ones are better, TD5's were poor and early ones, dont even try to make the doors leak proof.

You dont need to replace panels on a defender, they dont rot as they are aluminium, the biggest problem as i said is the bulkhead which is steel. Bulkhead cappings also rot - they are steel too! Discos are far worse, they suffer greatly and panels have to be chopped and welded in, sills and wheel arches are the most common followed by foot wells.

All the above is from years of experience of ownership, competitions and building/repairing them.
 
Slime101 said:
Road tax is a min of £210 for the cheapest ones, and its rising fast!
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This is something that I can't get my head around. Are Defenders taxed as some kind of commercial vehicle, or just normal cars? I have heard on some being classified as Vans for insurance purposes, but never once has the subject of taxing been brought up.

Remember I'm a poor sod and will be looking at pre 2001 models no matter what, so the emission based tax brackets aren't going to affect me.
 
Slime101 said:
Road tax is a min of £210 for the cheapest ones, and its rising fast!

They ALL leak, there isnt a defender out there or disco that doesnt leak from the transfer box/gearbox joint, also most from the bellhousing, injector rails, sump and other places. As for water ingress landroover have an official manual over 2" thick on fixing water leaks on the defender. Its the only car you can buy new from the factory that leaks like a sieve, newer puma engined ones are better, TD5's were poor and early ones, dont even try to make the doors leak proof.

You dont need to replace panels on a defender, they dont rot as they are aluminium, the biggest problem as i said is the bulkhead which is steel. Bulkhead cappings also rot - they are steel too! Discos are far worse, they suffer greatly and panels have to be chopped and welded in, sills and wheel arches are the most common followed by foot wells.

All the above is from years of experience of ownership, competitions and building/repairing them.
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In terms of leaks i wasn't refering to the mechanical side of things, but i have not been in a defender yet which i thought was very leaky, they were a bit damp first thing in the morning but not soddened.

The replacment panels are due to big knocks and bangs, but i stand by my point of not letting a bit of rust bother me on these cars as every rural bodyshop in the land will be able to sort it.

I guess it depends on what your expectations are, every defender i have ever been in has been over 15 years old and it's common knowledge they were not remotely modern then, they are a 40 year old car with 1970's quality control, and by those standards its pretty reliable, compared with a pajero it belongs in a museum.
 
No, not until you park but actually its not that much longer. My choice would be a 90 truck cab all tricked up, or a 110 doublecab like the one in the opening post with a simple tubular winch bumper, but then i use mine off road too.
 
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