I hear talk about wanting Defenders from time to time

Here is your chance.

http://raleigh.craigslist.org/cto/4267666094.html

It would not be a challenge to install a Rover V8 in there, and the 200/300 TDi is a cool option. Ford 302 is also pretty easy with adapters on the market.

Of course, this is even easier. No hardtop, but for $2k extra you get a running truck.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Land-Rover-Defender-Defender-90-1986-land-rover-defender-90-300-tdi-diesel-5-speed-rhd-soft-top-us-/331110110182?forcerrptr=true&hash=item4d17b353e6&item=331110110182&pt=US_Cars_Trucks

or for less than half the price, import a working one - diesel, winch, extra armor, rack, and boxes 4,200 brit pounds - edit - 2 years too new...

IIRC the military diesels are non-turbo and have 24V electrics.

They get overtaken by Continental Drift.

I gotta say, I saw a couple of these (real royal army ones) in action when I was stationed in Germany. Really not a very impressive off-roader compared to our HMMWV's. The look is classic, but I'd still rather have a Land Cruiser.

As far as being slow, all real 4x4's are slow as berkeley. It's a point of pride.

In reply to ShadowSix:

These are slow by Land Rover standards. That's different.

In reply to BoxheadTim:

I actually laughed out loud!

$17,500 for a rudimentary 25 year old 4x4 with a blown engine. That is a case of what he dreams it might be worth as opposed to actual market value.

In reply to bearmtnmartin:

My thought, more or less. Do these really sell for that kinda coin in the UK?

Legal ones sell for that kind of coin here with blown engines. As the ability to import legal ones grows, prices should drop.

Try pricing a NAS 110. They're not cheapo Cherokees. If you don't like it, don't buy one.

In reply to Brett_Murphy:

That's my point, this thing is legal, last I checked, its about a $3000 hassle to import a legal car, and this guy claims he's losing tons of cash selling it for $17k. So by this logic, a decent 85 LR D90 is worth at least $20k USD in the UK or I'm wasting time and money with this college E36 M3. However, a brand spanking new D90 in the UK is currently 23,095 lbs, which is $38429.16 US at the time of this posting, which makes me wonder.

I looked at prices on Ebay.uk. There are no pre-86 Defenders for sale, but early 90s models are not expensive.

I suspect that most of the old ones are gobbled up by exporters looking to corner the market.

They're not expensive in the UK, but they corrode rather well and because of the low values in the UK, they're often not worth fixing up.

There are a couple of specialist in the UK that buy early ones and prep them for export to the US, but they usually end up fitting a new galvanised chassis, do rust repair to the bulkhead and refurb the engine. At that point, it's not a GBP2500 car any more.

It's also got the same problem as the Mini, I expect. As soon as they get to be 25, the prices shoot up due to the US legality.

anyone wanna go into the defender importing bus? Most of the ebay listings range from around the 20k mark to the $40s (us models with 4.0 v8s). A couple of imports - high teens to mid 20s.

Keith Tanner wrote: It's also got the same problem as the Mini, I expect. As soon as they get to be 25, the prices shoot up due to the US legality.

I'm not sure if it was the US legality, or the fact that most of the older ones composted themselves. Probably a combination of both - IIRC the MOT test in the UK also got a little tougher.

There's a big difference between a 20-year old Mini and a 25-year-old, from what I remember. The self-recycling process is well established by that point :)

It's an excellent observation that any 25-year-old car is going to need work. Especially in the rust capital of the world, populated by designers that have not yet figured out how to prevent rust. So if the car in question is worth importing, it's going to be one that's had some restorative work. The cheap piles aren't worth importing, but they'll skew the sense of value seen in the ads.

Hum....listed in NC but has Vermont plates.....how longs it been sitting in that British specially shop? what's the storage bill?