You MOT’d the 90 yet trail_rat?

Also agree on the mileage thing – rust kills landys, not mileage.

you seem focused on milage molgrips …. milage is not the be all and end all … 300k – i might do that in 15 years – time does more damage to cars than milage !

Time damages some stuff, mileage damages other things.

Ultra high mileage cars might have knackered gearboxes or engines, really old ones can have knackered interiors and bodies.

Is life better after having a landrover? Not for the polar bears, no.

Actually, there’s a very strong argument that vehicles like 90s and 110s are actually about as green as you can get, despite having higher emissions whilst actually running. ‘dust to dust’ analysis looking at environmental impact of a vehicle from its conception to its complete scrappage means that the very long life span of the average landrover when compared to the average car and the relatively low amounts of plastic non recyclable materials involved in its construction all add up to impressive green credentials.

It’s not inefficient cars that is massively wasteful, it’s the massive desire of most people to alway have the next new car that is. Replacing a car on a 3-4 yearly basis because you want a shinier one and you are killing the planet, not me in my ratty old (already about 75% recycled once) landy. So don’t change your car, fix it!

Also, it’s far harder work to drive than a modern car, so encourages me to get on the bike more…

Actually, there’s a very strong argument biased and flawed report paid for by oil companies that says that that vehicles like 90s and 110s are actually about as green as you can get

FTFY.

The long lifespan is only a positive when compared with the same number of miles done in any other car. Its our lifestyles that dictates how far we drive, so you have to compare 200k miles done in a Landy to 200k miles done in anything else. I think that it would come out second best against some economical Japanese motor purely on fuel, never mind the amount of parts that need replacing. They all have to be manufactured too.

Plus, most of these old Landies seem to be run as fun cars AS WELL as some other daily driver. Therefore the carbon footprint of maintaining and driving for fun these cars is ON TOP of the footprint of your daily driver.

If you want to keep a car for 30 years and throw money at it, that’s perfectly possible for any classic car, not just Landies. Many other classics are more economical than Landies too.

So I don’t think that argument stacks up at all.

So I don’t think that argument stacks up at all.

I think you’re wrong – as owning a Defender puts you off driving far, therefore you are ‘greener’…

There used to be a statistic threw about, that 50% of all defenders ever built were still knocking about.Name me any other car where that is the case……..

br – that is a very plausible scenario 🙂

emac65 – that’s no good if they are not the only car you own – see my post.

Thats rubbish mate….Early ones were all used off road,so they were harsh miles.It’s only in recent years they’ve become a fashion item,name me any other car that could do it all off road as well.They are also one of the easiest cars to work on,bits are easy to replace….

I dunno if they are a fashion item or not but they’ve been an enthusiast item for ages. How many people use them all the time instead of a normal car, and how many people have them as a hobby?

not yet kenneth – not been in the uk for more than a 8 days since june …… Houses deposits dont appear by them selves unfortunantly.

reluctant to mot it tbh till ive got my house sorted but i know i will need it to get anywhere from th house again this winter if i dont do it !

you like to read about facts and figures molgrips….. stateside study but prius doesnt really come out all that good all over…. 29.7 MPG when used as a real car and not just going round town – thats only 1.7mpg more than my 90 ….as well as being 169% of the purchase price in repairs on average and having a shorter predicted life span (industry average of 135%)

http://cnwmr.com/nss-folder/automotiveenergy/DUST%20PDF%20VERSION.pdf

But feel free to continue to bang your drum if you wish – ill continue to drive my 90 through the winter as your prius has NO chance of getting to my house

There used to be a statistic threw about, that 50% of all defenders ever built were still knocking about

The quote you are looking for was aimed at HD’s, but probably works for Landie’s:

50% of the Defenders ever built are still on the road…, the rest got home

stateside study but prius doesnt really come out all that good all over…. 29.7 MPG when used as a real car and not just going round town – thats only 1.7mpg more than my 90

I think that’s complete crap. Firstly, that’s US MPG which would be 35mpg in the UK. I’ve never seen 35mpg EVER in my Prius, if I see less than 50 it’s an outrage and that’s never happened on a tankful. The only time I saw an average of 48 was driving between two houses when moving house, that was about a mile up and down a steep hill repeatedly on a cold engine. I average 56 in winter, 62 ish in summer doing probably 75% miles on the motorway. Also it’s cost me a total of £0 on repairs.

So that looks like another rubbish study like the last one that said a Hummer was greener.

You can go ahead and believe rubbish reports without looking at the methodology if you like, and I’ll continue to bang my drum and get 60mpg.

ill continue to drive my 90 through the winter as your prius has NO chance of getting to my house

I’ll continue to drive it through the winter on snow tyres, and it’ll have 100% chance of getting to MY house which is what’s important, funnily enough. Why don’t you continue to pick and choose facts to justify your desired outcome, you’ll feel better that way 🙂

We have a Land Rover. It’s not a real one, it’s a Freelander 2 and it’s fantastic.

Yea but you (molgrips, that is) have to drive a prius, while trail_rat gets to pimp about in a 90.

Motoring doesn’t always come down to economy anyway. If I had to drive somewhere right now, I reckon the most fun way of doing it would be in the V8. If you would rather take your prius that’s cool, but they’re not for everyone.

No I know, I’m not saying it is. Just taking issue with these stupid ‘reports’ that keep cropping up in the press that tell me I only get 35mpg 🙄

We all make our own decisions, but ‘hybrids are worse than SUVs for the environment’ and ‘it doesn’t matter what we do cos of China’ are bullsh*t excuses.

hybrids are worse than SUVs for the environment’ and ‘it doesn’t matter what we do cos of China’ are bullsh*t excuses

Maybe,

But turn off the whole UK, kill us all. What percentange of the worlds environmental harm have we just removed?

I love my 2001 Tomb Raider Defender 90. I think it looks great, and I’ve driven it on a number of 4hour plus journeys and it’s been far more comfortable than I’d have imagined!

I’ll try to post a pic tomorrow – its cool!

Sadly, I think I may have to sell it to comply with austerity measures… But if I do, I will certainly buy another one as soon as I can.

Nick

But turn off the whole UK, kill us all. What percentange of the worlds environmental harm have we just removed?

What’s that got to do with it?

Save a bit of energy. Then get everyone else in the world to save a bit of energy. What difference does that make? Plenty.

We all have to do what we can, that’s all there is to it. “You first” “No, you first” ad infinitum won’t get us anywhere will it?

50% still around? I reckon most are here:
http://atsearch.autotrader.co.uk/www/ds_search.asp?did=9941&pageid=3&originalid=&gid=nogroup&tid=2

50% of the Defenders ever built are still on the road…, the rest got home

Very good, but not my experience at all, more like;

‘most old cars you don’t get round to drive much because of fixing them all the time, old landies you don’t get round to fixing much because your driving them all the time’

My landrover was my daily drive for around ten years; the only reason it isn’t now is because I do a 70 mile commute and I’m not lining the governments pockets with fuel duty for no good reason.

The 90 is now in a rebuild phase, getting a galvanised chassis and various other upgraded that it heartily deserves after serving me well. Nothing to do with ‘studies funded by oil companies’ but common sense says that rejuvintating the landy for a fraction of the cost (financial, environmental) of a new vehicle is far more ‘green’ than buying a new one, even if it was ‘euro 4 compliant’ or other such nonsense.

And the ‘ooh it’s not environmentally friendly if you have a second car’ argument is nonsense as well, you can only drive and produce emissions in one at a time.

A an aside, a lot of landies I know of run on waste vegetable oil now, which is completely carbon neutral and knocks a Prius into a cocked hat on the old green credentials argument… Not mine though, I’m actively working towards Costa del Shropshire, bring on global warming, and extremes of weather, groovy.

Better off spending your money on a Disco I think. A lot more to go wrong but a series 2 isn’t that bad.

£3000 got me a top spec 99 reg TD5 ES with 126k miles. I love it.
It’ll run on veg oil too. 🙂
Or you could get the engine remapped for more power and MPG for around £350.

I absolutely loved my old 2.5TD Ninety. Rattly, slow, noisy but it just kept going, and I sold it for a fat profit after 3 years of ownership, pretty much paid for the 3 years worth of road tax and MOTs. Definately valued on condition not age.
I replaced mine with a Range Rover Classic, simply because I now have to do about 200 miles a week for work with a fair bit of motorway but still going off road at the end of the journey. Luckily they pay the 3.9l V8 related fuel costs! Am considering moving it on for a Disco though, its too nice to bugger up off road.

flip – don’t buy a tipper they are freakin’ horrendous, had one at work and it was always the last thing in the yard. Tipper system and body makes it badly top heavy and most conversions use a regular 110 chassis/spring setup rather than a HD one, Inside rear wheel lift around road corners in a Landy is not fun. Better off getting a Hi-Cap and man-handling the stuff out.