1984 Land Rover 110 review from Australia and New Zealand

At 175,000 km when I bought the vehicle, the V8 showed all the well-known characteristics of a worn Rover V8 - in particular a lack of power and poor fuel economy characteristic of worn camshaft, lifters timing chain and gears. I replaced these for approximately 700 Australian Dollars (say 300 pounds). This markedly improved performance and fuel economy. Subsequently I replaced the mechanical distributor with an electronic ignition with some performance improvement.

Apart from these fairly major maintenance items the vehicle has performed flawlessly.

For a true Land Rover (ie not a Discovery or a Freelander) this vehicle is very comfortable to drive, especially on long trips and on genuine 4WD tracks. It is an excellent family tourer as it carries large loads easily and the visibility for the children in the rear seats is good.

Fuel consumption is poor, but is less bad than before the camshaft, lifters and timing chain were replaced. On a recent 1500km trip I averaged 6km/l (17 mpg) over a combination of highway cruising (100km/h) and easy bush tracks. Fuel consumption was very high (6mpg) over a 80 km stretch of very rough track (Low Range 1 and 2 country). I use this vehicle as a second car and only for camping trips in the bush. Even at Australian fuel prices (85c/L = 35p/L) I would not want to use this as my primary source of transport due to fuel costs.