A Land Rover question.

Amhuinnsuidhe

Well-Known Member
If I were in the market to buy a Defender 90 and had a £4-6k budget, would I be better off with a late 300Tdi or an Early Td5?
 
it depends if you want to fix it yourself or not both are good only trouble I have found with td5s is eletrics and for your budget you would get a really good 300 but not so good td5 hope that helps
 
late 300 tdi do not touch an early td5 unless you want heart ache and misery i know ive owned the odd few


a low milage late 300 tdi will still hold a good price but it will be easier to work on in the work shop as the electrics are old skool andthings like fuel pumps, front wiring harness, oil ingressiion in to the ecu, electic throttle control, wont happen to it because they arent on it unlike the TD5

I owned one 2000 td5 for 6 minths and replaced rear fuel pump approx £600 and a fly wheel (twice ) and three starter motors thankfully these were allunder warranty at amain dealers
 
A late 300tdi would be my call .....my stalking partner has a td5 that he's spent a fortune on , its a never ending nightmare of little problems that add up . I know the post is about Landrover's but get a jap wagon & save the aggro ...
 
Either a Hilux or an L200
Anything but a landrover
If you insist though,, neither, find a 200tdi
 
have you ever owned a landrover before? if not then you will have to spend the money and suffer the heart ache because you won't believe the people who tell you just how unreliable they are !

once you've done it and learnt your expensive lesson you can go and buy Toyota and live happily ever after ............
 
I wish I had a pound for every 'awesome off road' landrover I've pulled out of the snow with my land cruiser ? whats your point?

who needs it to be an "awesome off road" anything. Have a std disco 3 and it does its job - merely stating a fact rather than be aggressive or getting in anyones face !
 
Dont do what I did.... Buy an old V8 90 and then spend 6K keeping it on the road !!!!!

Worth it ..... S**T Yeah !

Regards

​Ed
 
who needs it to be an "awesome off road" anything. Have a std disco 3 and it does its job - merely stating a fact rather than be aggressive or getting in anyones face !

yep me too , no aggression here matey but I get tired of the bull about how awesome this and that 4x4 is and land rover owners seem to be the noisiest in this respect? I run a landcruiser (standard) and it does it's job and has been for 240,000 miles now and showing no signs that it won't carry on for another 1/4 million miles? (I did run land rovers products but they are just not reliable enough for me ? good vehicles apart from that though)
 
Either a Hilux or an L200
Anything but a landrover
If you insist though,, neither, find a 200tdi

+1 for the Hilux, but if you insist on a LR 90 then a good 200 TDI preferably one that's had a new chassis and check the bulkhead / door pillars. The early 300 TDI was not very good the later ones got better but the 200 is still better than that.
Closest you want to get to a TD5 is a quick walk past it !
Wingy
 
If maintained well defenders are reliable but a lot are not. I work on a lot of land rovers and own a couple. But in your price range you will have to be carefull what you buy as there are a lot of abused old farmers trucks out there if you get one of these you will regret it. The early td5 can be no end of trouble, I would say go for a 300 taxi there are some good ones out there but check chassis carefully check for oil leaks power steering box leaks and if you don't know much about cars get someone to check it for you who knows what they are looking at.
 
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With your budget you are unlikley to get a decent td5 , go for a late 300tdi , main isue with the 300tdi is heads/ head gaskets but they are cheap , make sure cooling system is in perfect condition , rad ,hoses , t/stat , viscous etc , when you are viewing one make sure coolant is clean and coloured , if its got rusty tap water in then walk away.
Other issues are turbos and of course like all LRs transmissions , take your potential purchase on a good 5 mile thrash and watch out for excessive smoke , high temperatures and excessive vibration + corrosion which can be everywhere ! .Good Luck . Johno (many years experience selling LR parts)
 
land rovers are a love hate relationship love them when they work rite hate them when not but I would have nothing else for work im a gamekeeper on the south coast I have an 51 plate td5 whit a hundred and tweanty thoused on the clock all it does allday is go through mudd and sandy soil wearing everything out apart from going through brake pads fast because of sandy soil its fine nothing else would last as long as a land rover and I bet u cant go and get I bit off a 1980 jap crap and put it on a 2000 plate parts are cheap loads off second hand parts about and you can turn them into anything I know some one had a disco sold it bought a l200 sold it a month later bought another disco
 
same with any car u get bad ones and good one my garege said mine is the onley land rover they know does what it is intended for work!!!
 
You would be much better buying something Jap, Landrovers are unreliable heaps of junk, and £4000 will get you an oil leaking rusty heap, which to be fair you will get your money back on after a couple of years, and it will still be a rusty heap of crap.
 
just my 2 pence worth if they are so crap why do the british army still use them and why do they hold so much money ive had nearly all the 4x4 around and am looking for a landy as we speak
 
just my 2 pence worth if they are so crap why do the british army still use them and why do they hold so much money ive had nearly all the 4x4 around and am looking for a landy as we speak

subsidised and they are moving away now,pinguazer anyone?

as for holding there money , well they have cult status which is no reflection of there actual ability.
 
they hold there value because they are easy to fix parts are cheap and wide spread the head gasket went on my disco last year cost me a £100 to get it fixed there is not many cars that you could fix something like that for that little
 
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