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Well the Suzuki Jimny and Defender have a few things in common that includes maintaining high residual values - which makes me as an owner a rather happy chappy. As for Land Rover Defenders, they also have their fans, many of whom seem happy to turn a 'blind eye' to their shocking build quality, awful reliability and in my experience - dreadful after sales service.
As my Jimny approaches its 3rd birthday I'm struggling to decide whether to MOT it and keep it for another year - or see if I really can achieve a good price for it. The other issue for me is - if I sell the Jimny what do I fancy as a replacement vehicle?
I'd never buy a Defender myself. We've had a few, both new and used. All have had their fair share of problems. Chassis needing welding for the first MOT was a good one. Gearbox output shafts breaking, drive flanges wearing out, many driveshafts UJs replaced, CV joints, corroded wiring harnesses, door trims pulling off, ignition barrels wearing out. And that's ignoring the other stuff like they are terrible to drive, the heaters are terrible, the stereos are terrible, the wipers are terrible, the steering wheel is huge, they all jump out of low range, the seat bases wear out, the floor mats wear out, the door catches wear out, they rattle, they are slow, they are uneconomical. I could go on. It's a poor design built badly with cheap materials. There is no excusing that.
Should l take this from the top? most of it is open to argument !!
Although l would refer to my previous post and say that if your Land Rover jumped out of low range it's not been a well looked after example.
None of mine have ever "jumped out of low range" Most issues are due to poor maintenance
Defenders are effectively a classic car, so on purchase it was wise to get the chassis waxoyled and also generally look after it, doing nothing but tossing it at a dealer once a year for a service was always asking for trouble.
Not sure how you would wear out a seat base, mine tend to last around 80,000 miles before
cracks appear on the side of the bolster.
And of course, they are only £60 to replace and take around 30 seconds to swap out.
I would say it's technically impossible for the chassis to need structural welding after three years, unless you worked the vehicle down a salt mine or parked it in a river every night. Untreated, the chassis starts to go at around 15 years.
Drive shaft flanges can wear out, but will last 100,000 miles with a bit of grease every time you change the brake pads.
And they are less than £20 each.
Not sure about "corroded wiring harnesses" never had or heard of that.
Door trims pulling off, well they are pretty secure as standard but people yank them off and break the trim buttons
on the door card, then they don't fit securely. There is a simple repair using a
type of flat headed screw that avoids having to fit a new door card.
Drive shaft U/Js don't fail unless they are never greased (classic car remember) do it every other service and you'll never change one.
l haven't in 200,000 miles.
lgnition barrels, l've replaced one due to the spring failing, never had one "wear out" though.
Floor mats wear out? You mean the rubber floor mats? Mine are on 131,000 and still good. lf it's the carpet floor mats l can't say l've noticed any excessive wear, obviously after 15 years 4x4 use they might be past their best though.
Never replaced a door catch
Slow? Some are but any with a turbo are at least as good as a Jimny and can be transformed with a remap.
Economy? Well, my 110 does 26-28mpg.
The old V8 was a bit of a beast at 14mpg.
My Transit Connect Van only managed around 32mpg
Land Rover designed the Defender as a utility and farm vehicle. For those who thought it was too basic to use as a road car they brought out a solution, it was called "Discovery"
Poor design built badly with cheap materials? Not a poor design if you use it for what it was designed to do.
As for "badly made" l will submit the following link.
Some days l love my Defender and some days find me looking online at late model Jeep Wranglers for sale.
lg only Land Rover had continued to invest in Defender, it would now be effectively a larger Jimny, and they'd have a world beater on their hands.
Look at how Jimny is selling, even at £25-30,000. It shows that you can refine a live axle 4x4 so it's a viable alternative to the legions of SUV's available today.
The new Defender is a great SUV but it's too expensive and it's got 83 microprocessors in it, best of luck with that when it gets old or LR stop supporting the software.
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