Faults:

Rear cross member and drivers side outrigger required replacement at 120000 miles due to rust.

Battery lasted 90000 miles/10 years.

Prop shaft UJ failed badly at 130000 miles (cheap to replace)

Leaking fuel tank replaced with rear cross member.

Front bumper rusted through at 140000, replaced from ebay for 22GBP.

General Comments:

The ultimate functional vehicle that will do everything except race round a track.

Easy and cheap to fix but very tough and reliable.

Comfort is okay but over very long distances it is not as good as a car. The heater is pathetically weak along with it's demisting qualities. I carry a rag in the cab. The cab also leaks in the rain but this is normal for most Defender and Series Land Rovers - I'm used to it now.

Mine is a 1994, 300Tdi non-cat version which is the best of the bunch. No cat means a complete exhaust for about 120GBP. Non genuine parts are abundant and very cheap and I've had no problems using them from a Land Rover specialist. I do 95% of my own maintenance and repair and it's easy - but you'll need a hammer.

My landy is a family car and used for everything including towing a large caravan and carrying bicycles on the roof. Heavily laden, it is not fast, but it will go anywhere and return about 24mpg with about 30mpg possible under lighter use. That is pretty good for a 2.2 ton vehicle. I don't drive it hard because it is pointless - it just drinks a lot more diesel.

Town/city work is possible but often height restrictions stop car park use. The power steering makes handling easy but beware the poor turning circle of such a large vehicle.

Faults:

Fuel lift pump needed replacing (replaced free of charge by the dealer).

Power steering pump developed a leak (actually a torrent rather than a leak). 200GBP.

Both rear shock absorbers have been replaced. 17GBP each.

Handle came off bonnet release cable. About 5GBP.

Rear section of silencer replaced. About 35GBP.

General Comments:

My defender has been remarkably trouble free (for a 13 year old vehicle). I'm sure this is mostly due to the previous owners (The Royal Air Force) having maintained it so well. It has only let me down once due to the lift pump failing, which was replaced by the dealer free of charge, as I had only owned the vehicle for a day.

It has an engine oil change approximately every 5000 miles, and I treated it to its 2nd timing belt change at 120000 miles (this was first changed, to my knowledge, by the supplying dealer at 74000 miles) and at a cost of 100GBP.

As can be seen from the prices I have given in the above section, parts prices are relatively cheap (in the UK at least) compared with a modern car (150GBP for a mid section of exhaust for a Peugeot 406 - was just a 2 foot section of pipe as it was a diesel, so no cat.)

I travel about 80 miles every day, to and from work, on the motorway and it is a pleasure to drive. It can generally be treated much like a modern estate car (albeit a slightly slower and noisier one), as long as multi-storey car parks and restricted height barriers are avoided, as they usually seem to have a height restriction of somewhere between 1.8 and 2 metres.

Where a Defender comes into its own is when you leave the tarmac behind. Although the only drawback behind this is first thing in the morning on a campsite, when it has been raining overnight. Everyone stuck in the mud in normal cars decide that you would love to be woken up to be able to have the chance to pull their car from the site ;)

Faults:

Over the last four years, I have had the water pump go at 60k, heater fan at 80k, rear differential pinion bearing at 83k - which was really my fault, I did not check the level of gear oil and it was low..

General Comments:

A great truck as long as you stay on top of general maintenance, checking oil, fluids and repairing any problems as they come up. It will also go anywhere with no modifications, spend a few dollars and you have a truck that can go just about anywhere in the world and not leave you stranded.

Nice heavy frame under it, and a light weight aluminum upper body give it a low center of gravity which helps when you are wheeling.