New Defender 9000 Mile Review

This is an update of how things have gone since I bought this motor in February 2009. I was disappointed in the motor and thoroughly annoyed with Land Rover Assistance. Not the back up expected from a premier 4x4 maker. I have had 41 Land Rovers of varying types, and I will always have one. But not a new one for a long long long long long time!

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• New
• Defender
• Land
• Rover
• TDCi
• Puma
• 4x4

[stustafford]

Sadly, the poxy transit engine and fords parts costcutting has caused this.....I had one, and nearly burnt it in frustration........TD5 is a far superior machine in every way

[DingleZilla]

HI Stu, Ha ha ha ha. I agree the Td5 or better still the 300tdi are better. However, it might be the case the LR have sorted all the issues & finally got a good Puma Defender? I often wish I hadn't sold my 55plate Td5.

[Harker436]

Its a shame really about the defenders build quality. At one point i nearly bought a new 90 CSW. But the build quality looked poor even brand new. And as if this was some justification, the salesman said " well it is a defender". Like that counts for crap quality. It was £23,000. Thankfully I walked away. Ive stuck with my old venerable V8 90 which rarely has put a foot wrong. Interestingly i bought a small skoda. a VRS diesel 1.9 130bhp and 231lb/ torque.And far better build quality than LR.

[DingleZilla]

Build quality is not a term I would use to sell a new Defender, one sales chap told me "if it doesn't leak, it isn't a Land Rover", sad that I think. Your right about the high price vs quality, they simply are not worth it compared to some Jap stuff. I nearly bought a Mazda fully loaded 4x4 pick-up thing once over & regretted very very much buying a Td5 Disco instead, that was an evil spirited death trap. A good combination you have there hopefully too. The V8 90 will sound very nice I think?

[Harker436]

For 9000 miles this is piss poor. The new defenders are worse for reliability than they were twenty years ago. Quite frankly they are crap. A new diff on 9000 miles is a joke. The V8 90s had the best diff combination. It was a five pinion diff. And my V890 has 200,000 miles on. And hasnt needed any attention in the last 50,000 miles. carburettors are simple but keep going. All these sensors are just more to go wrong. Take me to your dealer.

[DingleZilla]

Hi Harker436, It is, it was & its someone elses problem now! The dealer I bought it from to be fair is very good. The dealer that did the repairs however made some very basic mistakes like "not connecting the turbo pipes properly" resulting in Series 3 diesel performance! One day I will have another Defender but not a Puma one unless they have them sorted. I don't see how they can build great motors like Range Rovers, Discovery's & Freelanders and then assemble crap like this?

[PhantomTD]

So sorry to read this. Just got myself a 09 Defender 90 that has done about 17000k's. Had to change some parts in the back diff (Leaking a few drops of oil) But it has been working fine for a month + now :-D

[pikoony]

@DingleZilla Thanks for the information. 300 Tdi will be my first choice then! Glad to hear that Disco 3 is quite reliable. I indeed heard that many people in the U.K. praise it a lot (and I adore it too) but I just haven't heard much from real owners. As you know, there are those "smart" people who know about everything and judge a car which they haven't owned.. Oh by the way, I checked my channel settings and somehow it was set to "invisible". You should be able to see my channel from now on.

[DingleZilla]

Hi pikoony, For some reason your channel is "not available"? I wouldn't recommend the Puma engined Defender based on my experience, maybe mine was built on a Friday or Monday following a hangover! 300Tdi gets my thumbs up, I saw a mint 29,000 pick-up at £10k! A very steep that but I would still like to have bought it at the right money, because they are better than the all electric management Td5's & Puma 2.4's. My brother has a 2005 Disco 3, no reliability issues at all to report!

[pikoony]

Hello DingleZilla, I'm a big fan of Land Rover. It's sad to hear that the new Defender, yours in particular, is such unreliable. Defender has always been my dream car. I truly hope that Land Rover will do the right thing on the forthcoming all-new Defender. I'd like to ask for your suggestion, do you think 300 Tdi is the best model? I plan to buy one in the future but I want a very reliable one. Also, is Discovery 3 reliable? I heard that it's very unreliable in the U.S. Thank you in advance.