Interesting read

www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/f16/showroom-fres...-defender-94412.html


One way to get your self noticed

lifechooser is on here too im sure of it. To be honest, i'm 20 and started with a defender as my first car at 18. I LOVED it, I still love them - they are something of a marmite car, no denying it. There is a couple of reasons why i bought a jimny over a Land Rover - we'll generalise.

One is the cost. I paid 1550 for my 1998 plate jim. It came with two brand new sets of wheels and tyres, is in good to excellent condition just light scratches you'd expect of its age. So in reality i paid 1k for it. It does a little better on fuel, tax is cheaper, its pretty damn good offroad and i cannot yet tow anything over 650kg (licence restrictions due to age) so that aspect doesn't concern me.

I am also a keen member of a 4x4 Response Group and not being able to do anything over the winter really got to me. Yes it won't carry loads or lots of people or tow but I will invariably be teamed with another vehicle which satisfies these criteria. However i can skip over terrain without bogging down and other such features of its smaller size.

If i had no budget for purchase or running costs i'd have a heavily modded jimny and a lightly modified Discovery but we can all dream.

The Jimny is a compromise - thats what life is about. Sorry for the rant.....

Don't get me wrong i love all makes of 4x4's (aslong as they can coupe off road) I had to sell my pajero as we had a baby and i miss that thing trouble was running cost, i don't care what anyone says parts for that were more expensive than parts for the jimny.

At the moment thanks to our lovley wedding next year i dont have a budget til after Unless i win the lottery then hello v8 defender with stupid size tyres and bursting with equipment

Im famous !!!..
The guy with the Tango Orange Defender.. Ours is the pic on page 2

Would point out though, ours has never been stranded on the plain because of water in the imobiliser, and also we never got wet when crossing water deeper than the wingmirrors ... He was soaked !.

We were only let down by the dimensions of the Jimny.. ramp over angle of the landies a lot better than the jimny.
where ever he has gone though, we too have made it through .. or around

Seriously though, next time you go out to play with the Landovers on The Plain, Drop me a bell. Ill happily come and show the marque off .. even if I have to put another new starter motor on !!...

and .. I have pictures of taking ours through water as high as the middle of the bonnet and also raging rivers.

Brave

I love my jimny and i'd also love a d90. I understand why they command a premium but 10k for a 10 year old landy! I cant afford that sort of money for a second car unfortunately and wouldn't like to take on potential issues that may come with the stuff in my budget. I wish the jimny parts etc were cheaper and more readily available.

I do enjoy putting it in places that better prepared trucks go though and showing up better trucks, it makes the disadvantages easier to live with.
I find it struggles most with really deep ruts where often i have to straddle them, really thick mud where the light weight hinders it and i could do with getting down to the harder stuff and overall ride height when it just drags the diffs.

I don't mind the banter at p&p days and theres some pretty diverse stuff at the ones i get to but the landy blinkers on the forums get a bit tedious, we're all enjoying the same hobby....arent we?

well said that man! I had a sensible little peugeot 306 after i got rid of the 90. It was a lovely little car and a real motorway muncher which is just what i needed but after the winter we've had i had to get another 4x4....as good as the pug was i really should have listened to those around me and got the jimny first straight away!! I know a die hard land rover fan - tricked up one and one used for work who won't have a bad word said about jimnys and has just got an old vitara as a toy

We never get any stick of the landie guys at the play and pay days
We usually surprise them on where we can go( and also when we recovered a rangie stuck in a hole )
We usually get admiring comments from the green oval guys

Just finished reading all 19 pages.
Some of the comments are not really called for.
yes, it was a little antagonistic "invading" a Landie forum, but at the end of the day, the pint sized suzuki is more than capable, more reliable, and although its not going to haul a sheep or a couple of heavily over weight guys down a green lane, it will happily go where ever the Bigger boys go.
As for comments of rust ... I can show you a 10 year old Jimny that has been though Mud, Water, Snow, Ice and I can show you a 10 year old Disco / Defender. and guess which one will require welding to pass an MOT ..... ?

Im not saying the Bigger trucks are not any good, The sheer dimensions of a Landy compared to a Jimny will mean it is going to be better at obsticles that require a larger ramp over angle, and a wider track, but at the end of the day, I just have to pick my routes a little better.

I dont see wht they feel the need to comare a Lightweight with a V8 to a Jimny .. its like comparing a KAP trails prepped 3 Litre twin turbo Monster to a standard Disco ... What is the point !!!..