Landrover defender curious

Does mental health outweigh the importance of the climate crisis?

…well I could top myself – that should save some carbon.

Preachy little… [insert insult]

So we’ve ended up playing Climate Crisis Top Trumps now then.

Dogs trump people BTW. 😉

We have two dogs and we have their dog crates in the back of a Discovery 5 commercial, which means low benefit in kind tax. How many points does that score me?

Back to the OP’s question.
I’ve driven short and long wheelbase new Defenders as well as the Disco, on road and at Eastnor. All were options when we came to buy a commercial vehicle for our business.
My thought before buying was that I would like the Defender 90 best, but it really is quite tight in there.
We bought (well leased to be fair) the Disco 5 as the interior is nicer, I prefer the exterior too as it seems a little less contrived than the new Defenders. All have sufficient off road and towing capability for our needs.
So, from my experience I’d say try a Disco as well as a Defender, buy the one you like best and don’t bother with the prejudice on here.

Does your wifes family (who she chose to leave on the other side of the ocean) trump climate change?

Does your mountain biking holiday trump clinate change?

Clue… They don’t. you preachy hypocrite.

My dad had a v8 discovery 1 in the early 2000s and it cost him about 3 grand a year in repairs back then. At todays labour rates it would be impossible to run sensibly.

Landrover is nice but is it a workhorse?

Friend has Landrover Discovery and a Landrover 90 in the Far East, but both require more maintenance by comparison the local favourite there of various Japanese 4×4.

@walowiz (op) has any of this been helpful to you?

Get a Defender Octa. It’s got a reliable BMW engine from the M5. A bit quick too!

It always surprises me that people on here always pile in on a 4×4 thread with the sanctimonious bs but swap it for a camper van tread and you are good to crack on (generally same mpg an most SUV’s.) most campervans are used for school drop off as far as I see. Topped up with beds, furniture, roof boxes and stuff ready for that 1 night stop in a pub car park every few months!
Each to their own, I suppose.

One thing in common of having a 4×4 in the UK and the Far East is the high possibility it getting stolen.

In UK, thieves like to steal Landrover but in the Far East it is Landcruiser / Hilux.

@wheelsonfire1 some of it has. A lot of it hasn’t.

bit pushed for time to respond in full. But unless I’m missing something and it’s possible – no one on this thread ACTUALLY has a new defender ? I saw one person would like one, one has it on their wish list, and several have demo’ed them.

From the few that have LR’s that commented thanks, it is actually helpful.

as I stated up front, I’m not new to LR. I currently enjoy my disco 4, that has been faultless and taken us all over Europe multiple times, often at great pace too. It’s a lovely place to be for a car. It would be my 4th disco. Loved all of them. I’ve tried the disco 5 several times and just don’t like it. I can’t fathom why, but I don’t.

When I did my landy off road course the instructor did tell me the disco is nearly as capable as the defender and would be better on road. I have taken mine off (light ish) road and it’s pretty bloody good. Once you get past the fear of damaging it that is.

And as a nod to all the nay sayers, I personally know two friends that one put 250k miles on a D3, the other has done 180k miles on his D4. No drama on either.

as for LR being shite, my last VW golf crept breaking down costing loads and huge inconvenience when it did so abroad, as did each and every friggin’ new style mini, as did the super expensive BMW we had. There seems to be niggles across most brands of car, obviously not Toyota (apart from the self drive incident in the US recently) – I’m sure it was Toyota – I should check I’ve remembered that correctly). Probably not Honda and to be fair if Honda did a Defender style car I’d buy it.
as for the new Toyota Land Cruiser, it looks amazing, but only a diesel ? And prices are insane for one on auto trader 80k, 100k ! Nuts.

and no I don’t have a scooby what the side sandwich boxes are for – unusual design decision. They look like the first thing that will get knocked off. Don’t like them at all.

Daft sandwich boxes aside, the feature that makes me chuckle is the extendable ladder down one side.

Fair enough if you need to get to the roof. 90% of the ones I see them on, don’t even have roof bars

It always surprises me that people on here always pile in on a 4×4 thread with the sanctimonious bs but swap it for a camper van tread and you are good to crack on (generally same mpg an most SUV’s.) most campervans are used for school drop off as far as I see. Topped up with beds, furniture, roof boxes and stuff ready

Can you really not see the difference?

I seem to recall the dog ownership carbon foot print thing was debunked. Well for the moment. It might change in the future

Has anyone got a link?

Daft sandwich boxes aside, the feature that makes me chuckle is the extendable ladder down one side.

Fair enough if you need to get to the roof. 90% of the ones I see them on, don’t even have roof bars

the extendable ladder would have been useful when I put the Thule roof bag or box on the rood of the disco, or when I put the mtb on the roof, which isn’t that often these days but when I do I’m reminded it’s a long way to lift a bike up.

Re the Porsche, had a go in go in the v8 which is a barrel of laughs, but would see me license less fairly quickly. The v6 is great too. But I don’t like the interior it’s crammed full of buttons, it’s like they just thought buttons, it needs more buttons.
The ineos grenadier looks good up close, I see one round here regularly, but haven’t driven one. Not sure I want to splurge 44k+ on one.

Re the Porsche, had a go in go in the v8 which is a barrel of laughs, but would see me license less fairly quickly.

I had the 2024 V6 Hybrid Cayenne for around 6 months before coming to the same conclusion. 😉

Here is the paper

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0181301

I think flaw is it assumes that the meat that pets eat is the same as humans. It’s not. Dogs did is udders and ears which don’t get eaten by people. Obviously if you feed your dog human grade meat then it’s carbon fit print will be huge

The key to owning LR is having reliable garage to service and to maintain them; and not one that is trying to rip you off.  Once you have that ready (garage and mechanic ready)  it is just as reliable as any other 4×4.

First really cold weather today and I’ve just been past a new defender on the back of an AA van.

And the OP needs something like a Defender for what exactly – or is it just a want?

For business/farm use, tow horse box, lives 5 miles up a forest road, etc etc.

My OH had a couple of LR’s, now with a Kia 4×4 (use to tow horse box) but I much prefer driving my BMW saloon on actual roads.

It’s almost like it’s okay to like different things.

It clearly isn’t, haven’t you been reading the thread?

but swap it for a camper van thread

I’d suggest that people also use campervans for their intended purpose, whereas many 4x4s will never be used for their intended purpose.

What I’m actually curious about, is why these people who buy/drive these type of vehicles to shop, do the school run and  ‘pose’ in, think that most of the public are looking at them them thinking- ‘oh wow look at them, they must be so rich, so lucky, so wonderful’. Unless these types of vehicles are being bought for genuine work/needs, then they shouldn’t be on the road.

As mentioned above, I often see them parked up on double yellows, engine running, while someone ‘just’ nips into somewhere, without a single care for our planet, or the very children they are bringing into this world – and breath.

As mentioned above, I often see them parked up on double yellows, engine running, while someone ‘just’ nips into somewhere, without a single care for our planet, or the very children they are bringing into this world – and breath.

Our local ‘entitled’ Range Rover/Land Rover owners (I can’t keep up, they have one each and they change them about every six months) live on a road that is currently being resurfaced so they can’t get to their house between 9.30am and 4pm. Twice in the last week I have seen one or both of their vehicles parked on the roundabout which leads to the closed road – they just dump them as close as they possibly can to the road closure to save the effort of walking just a little bit further despite there being plenty of places they could have parked more safely.

What I’m actually curious about, is why these people who buy/drive these type of vehicles to shop, do the school run and  ‘pose’ in, think that most of the public are looking at them them thinking- ‘oh wow look at them, they must be so rich, so lucky, so wonderful

I think that’s more about the chip on your shoulder , rather than theirs….

I think that’s more about the chip on your shoulder , rather than theirs…

Hahaha – you are definitely having a laugh. As a regular on here you must shirley know I’m in the ‘greeny’ brigade.

Perhaps it’s nothing to do with “a chip on your shoulder” but a concern not just for the environment but also a reaction to the ostentatious display of wealth? We have such a huge disparity of opportunities and resources in this country (and the world in general) where some people have very little and  rely on food banks and charities  whilst others are driving around in resource hungry vehicles that cost more than a house! I must admit that my initial honest reaction to the OP wasn’t “good for you’ at being able to afford such a vehicle but why are you announcing it on here where there are people who ask advice on how to keep their one and only ‘banger” on the road? I bear no ill will to the OP but I dislike an increasing amount of posts here on STW. Sorry!

but why are you announcing it on here where there are people who ask advice on how to keep their one and only ‘banger” on the road?

Why shouldn’t the OP talk about it on here? It’s not in the rules that you can only talk about how poor you are. We’ve been here before, it’s not povertytrackworld, it’s a public forum. Some people have £10k bikes, some people don’t. Do you piss and moan about that too?

I wasn’t saying that the OP shouldn’t post on here about purchase decisions, I was asking ‘’why”? We definitely have been here before when I expressed polite opinions about the use of excessive speed and the waste of resources, I believe I was told to get off the thread if I didn’t agree. I was reading last night about children that didn’t have beds to sleep in, warm clothes to wear (warm coats, gloves and hats being donated to schools) or hot food to eat, this is in the UK! I make no apologies for raising terrible inequalities – in a polite way.

Ok, point taken, but…

Whilst children in poverty is very sad and certainly shouldn’t be happening in a country like the UK (if anywhere), what do you suppose middle/high earners do about it?

I’m not talking very/super rich – that amount of wealth shouldn’t really be allowed as long as there is poverty, but that’s a different discussion.

Should people that can afford some nice things not buy them because people that can’t afford them don’t like it? Should they give their earnings away? What?

Just for the record, I have a nice Land Rover – I’m not however cash rich, don’t have a big flash house (still have a good chunk on my mortgage at 53), nor a big pension pot/savings. Sometimes I’ll have some extra disposable income and use it to fund stuff – probably why I’m not cash rich

A mate came round in the summer to borrow a roof box for his new Defender 110. We had to get step ladders out to fit in on. The whole thing was bloody massive and why were we fitting the roof box? Because the boot was too small for his family of four to go on a week’s holiday with all their stuff (albeit he may not of been a car packing ninja). It’s conspicuous consumption (and I live in the land of this in leafy Surrey) for no reason, which I can see why it irks people.

Give me a nice sized estate any day!

The key to owning LR is having

….. getting rid when the warranty runs out.

it is just as reliable as any other 4×4

That is honestly laughable.  A number of friends/family have had LR and almost every one has had problems – usually electrical but ranging up to completely seized engine on a 3 year old car.

getting rid when the warranty runs out

My current one has just hit three years old, so I’m paying £80/month for extended Land Rover warranty, which is worth it for peace of mind

That is honestly laughable. A number of friends/family have had LR and almost every one has had problems – usually electrical but ranging up to completely seized engine on a 3 year old car.

And then I’ve had three in the last 6 years with barely any issues as stated on page 1

Yes they CAN be unreliable, but they aren’t ALWAYS the horror story that some would have you believe. That said, you get a bad one and I can imagine it’s a nightmare

Does mental health outweigh the importance of the climate crisis?

Just got round to this one

Whilst I appreciate @munrobiker not berating me for owning a Land Rover (albeit while I do use one for work, I have one for pleasure)

Call me selfish, but to answer the question – personally, my own and my immediate family’s health (mental or otherwise) matters to me more than any ‘crisis’. Sometimes primary survival trumps everything else and sometimes people that pretend it doesn’t are lying.

I’ll be having a dog when my personal situation allows it again

Never trust a man that doesn’t like dogs 😉

but they aren’t ALWAYS the horror story that some would have you believe.

and yet you’re now forking out an extra grand a year on a 3yr old car because you just know it’s going to go catastrophically wrong soon 🙂

and yet you’re now forking out an extra grand a year on a 3yr old car because you just know it’s going to go catastrophically wrong soon

No

I’m forking it on an extended warranty IN CASE anything goes wrong.

Lots of people buy worthless warranties with second hand cars. Quite happy to have a genuine manufacturers warranty to cover all eventualities. I’ll probably only keep it this year and then move it on. A grand on top of a £55k car for peace of mind makes sense.

Check out LRtime on YouTube – humourous German husband and wife who fix their own Landrover V6 gen 1 & gen2  engines that have suffered snapped cranks. I’m a capable engineer but they’ve put me off buying any Landrover newer than a TD5

What about an Ineos? Nice BMW engine and auto box. Probably more capable offroad and even a little cheaper than a new Defender. I wouldn’t mind one but struggling to get over giving Jim Ratcliffe any of my hard earned cash.

albeit while I do use one for work, I have one for pleasure

I’m assuming there’s a missing”n’t” somewhere in there.?

Can’t recall the earlier posts, but I’m going to work on the basis that you do own a LR.

Sometimes primary survival trumps everything

And having a LR is essential for primary survival?

Apologies if I’ve got that wrong. Been on a live incident call all day

I’m assuming there’s a missing”n’t” somewhere in there.?

Can’t recall the earlier posts, but I’m going to work on the basis that you do own a LR.

I have one for work and pleasure, so two. Poor grammar in the initial reply.

munro was stating that some people such as me have a need for one, which for work is mostly true – I could get away with a different vehicle, but a commercial Land Rover is pretty much ideal for muddy solar farms. I fessed up to having one for personal use too though

And having a LR is essential for primary survival?

Apologies if I’ve got that wrong. Been on a live incident call all day

Nothing to do with Land Rovers per se – was a reply (again to munrobiker) who stated that the climate crisis trumps mental health