Defenders having the last laugh ?

[Grimbo]

For years we've laughed a bit at the old LR Defender owners..... ( I had one so not entirely biased ) as they replaced chassis , bulkheads , spent £100's fitting lockers , lifts and upgrades to achieve what an out the box 80 can do.
However last few weeks 3 customers have sold their not mint but clean farm Defenders for £1000s more than they paid for them new.... one told Farmer told me with glee he had made more money that morning than he did all of last month by selling his Defender ... he paid 23K for it new and after many years service around the farm towing sheep trailers etc the clean and tidy 90 had just fetched 28K..... another with a Hi Cap 110 TD5 has also beaten his purchase price by several K ......
Don't see my 80 ever reaching it's original new value .....
It's a strange old world

 

[Bob]

Supply, demand plus nostalgia plus jolly old British patriotic sentiment - the Land Rover has always been the name that made the most impact.. the Toyotas, while in many ways superior products fell foul of the motoring press (mostly through lack of coverage rather than bad mouthing) Now that the new Defender is not a defender at all, the purists and posers are gobbling up the remaining old defenders that are worth buying. It happened with Merc G-wagens when the mega rich started using gloss black bullet-proof G500s - now a 30 year old G280 is 25 grand and slap a fibreglass body kit on it.

Ssshhhhhh- don't tell anyone and maybe the cruisers won't go completely bonkers

 

[Shayne]

Because they never updated it , however 1977 Toyota Land Cruiser FJ 40 Sold for over $100,000 - [Leaving Land Cruiser Club]

 

[Higgy]

Land Rover and Range Rover sales, restoration and repairs UK

Land Rover Sales and 4x4 Restoration & Repair - Land Rover Defenders for sale, Range Rovers, Discoverys all online. Worldwide Shipping Contact us 07706333444

arrowworks.co.uk

 

[Higgy]

See Above.... This place is just a couple of miles from me, I went to look at an overpriced Ifor Williams trailer they were selling .... And had a peek about... My god the prices of some of their stuff was Mental...... They are Trying to sell a Colorado for about 7 grand i think it was..

 

[Higgy]

Something up with the site at the 'mo'.. Cant Edit/Delete/report/ Smiley faces etc.....

 

[SteveJB]

Plus the JLR Heritage factory where they remake restore them with the unreliability factor built in as if they rolled of the production line back in the day

 

[Juddian]

It is a strange old world, have people gone stark raving mad, or should i rearrange the words have and people.
Who in their right mind would pay such amounts of money for what was sadly an unreliable cramped uncomfortable vehicle when new, and age won't have helped any.

 

[Dave_S]

Even the guys in the LR fraternity agree on this - its gone nuts, especially for Defenders - to the point where (as an example) a 110 Defender that is literally knackered and in bits is worth more than a near-mint TD5 Discovery - essentially the same running gear, with a different bodyshell.

 

[Towpack]

Looks like the people selling them are having the last laugh!

 

[Raj]

Old defenders that price n craze. Sometimes don’t understand things…a friend ready to pay 20K for Audi badge while another friend selling mint stock condition Lexus doesn’t find buyers…(finally a lucky owner got that Lexus)….everyone I know about talk about good credit score while I never looked at it.. when I was declined a small amount, I looked at my score n it’s 999, Experian says I can’t go beyond that WTF n still declined a silly amount. MAY BE BANKERS KNEW SOMETHING IS COMING … I never understand what’s all this. Is it the cosmetics that rule or the character.. never got it

 

[chapel gate]

Is it the cosmetics that rule or the character..

in todays world, i say it with regret that it is the cosmetics for many people.

 

[Raj]

Strangely a friend of mine from India says his dream car is a old defender. Either JLR are good at promoting their cars or majority of population is always attracted to wrong sides…don’t know what to say here. Is it the England’s influence on the world that’s makes defenders great across all old British colonies???

 

[karl2000]

Who in their right mind would pay such amounts of money for what was sadly an unreliable cramped uncomfortable vehicle

Higgy - just to be clear, he means the Defender

 

[Grimbo]

My 300 TDI Defender 90 was new ..... it leaked water when it rained , it rained in the back on cold mornings from the condensation on the roof , even in the coldest winter I drove with the traditional drivers window down arm out the window Defender drivers stance.... yet to be fair it never went wrong in 140K miles of tough use and abuse....it sat at 80mph on the motorway for hrs ... it towed all manner of loads ,

One occasion we drove down the M4 into Wales in a snow storm towing a car trailer on the way to pick up a TR7 V8 rally car I'd bought....the motorway was closed behind us and we still turned off and up into the wild lands and hills bashing through snow drifts as we went , picked up the TR8 and headed home 200 + miles ....

I can see why people want one but no way are they worth the money being asked..... LR marketing has long been world class .....who in this day and age would spend 40K as it was then on a R Rover Vogue that had the door handles and controls from a Morris Marina .....yet loads did .... same as now..... the "new Defender is flying out the show room despite having a dismal reliability record and being ugly as from the rear .....

 

[chapel gate]

does the new defender have a dismal reliability record?

 

[karl2000]

TFL didn't have much luck with it!

 

[Bob]

I remember a few instances of media bias boosting LR products. Off road and 4wd mag did a 3 car test about 1998 of the Discovery, Colorado, and Merc ML.. they drive them all into a bog, and the cruiser was the only one to get itself out, it had the best mpg figures, 8 seats instead of 7, and yet the author concluded that the Discovery was the only choice..
For years many 4x4 road tests excluded the Japanese products totally, and of course the Range Rover was lauded as the best.

Funnily enough Jeremy Clarkson was honest enough to admit to driving an 80 series back in 1994, and to proclaiming the 100 series LC as being better than the Range Rover.. on telly..

That doesn't explain the defender though, and my reckoning is that there was no direct competitors to the defender.. even a 70 series toyota is like a luxury limo in comparison. This gives off an air of masculinity, of toughness and of adventure that urban cowboys buy into.

I work in a large town, that is full of city folk who relocated for cheaper housing... there's loads of shiny defenders sitting on BFG tyres wafting about..
I live in a rural farming area, full of sheep, cattle, wheat and corn...and Toyotas.. landcruisers everywhere.. that for me explains the defender now

 

[AdventureWagon]

IIRC PowerfulUK also had issues with his new Defender but his now seems a bit better than TFLs ever was.

Looks sexy as though however I have got a thing for Discovery 3 and 4 after watching a ton of LR Time videos.

Don't think I would ever be brave enough to pull the trigger on one though, plus even a 90 series is about AUD10k+ at the moment which is bonkers considering I bought mine in 2019 for AUD6k.

 

[Higgy]

I just plucked this from ebay as an example.... They do look good 'tho...' Iv always thought the 110 as an Expedition Truck Looks good.... 2005(05) Land Rover Defender 110 XS Td5 Overland Camper | eBay - [Leaving Land Cruiser Club]