Hey all, I've been considering another fun car to add to the stable and being that I love my daily driver Range Rover 4.6HSE, I was considering an additional Land Rover in the form of either a Defender 90 or an early Mk.III (2003-2004). They're both able to be had for the same money (mid $20s....absolutely absurdly cheap for the RR for sure) but I notice that the D90s seem to hold their value, unlike any other LR. I'd probably use it to go wheelin' a fair amount of the time (as with my current RR), so the Defender would probably win that battle, but on the flip side, it would be nice to have a "modern" version of my P38 RR, in the Mk.III. I've been down the road with repairs on my 4.6, but that being said, it does have 161K miles on it (still on air suspension!!!!). I've not heard much in the way of the reliability of the Defenders, and I know the Mk.III can be an expensive proposition in repairs (front diff failure is common on early ones, so I've gleaned from hours spent on rangerovers.net). So I guess my question here would be directed to anyone who owns or either knows someone who owns a D90...How well do they hold up? And are they as tortuous on the spine as say, a J**p (that's a bad word to a Land Rover owner) Wrangler? Thanks all! Cheers, Aaron '82 GTSi
Look at Range Rover Forums and search for "reliabilty" on both cars. They might look okay in your driveway, but that is where it will spend most of its time. Electrical, drive train, differential, fuel pump... Run Forest Run...
Friend of mine had a D90 on his ranch in Colorado (where he lived) and drove it back & forth to St Louis a number of times, was very reliable and reasonably comfortable on the highway (more so than a Wrangler). He kept it for 6-8 years, traded it on a Hummer H1
John; See my post. I'm a present RR owner (second one) so I'm well aware that they require maintenance. I was just curious about the D90 specifically. Chas; Thanks for the insight. That's interesting to hear the D90 is comfortable on the road..
It has been some time since I had a ton of seat time with a D90, but my memories are all favorable both on and especially off road. Back in prep school a classmate had a D90 wagon (his first car when he was 16), I believe it was a 1995 and he owned it until 1999 before trading it on a RR HSE and a Porsche 993. He was a product of a horse breeding dynasty and they used the truck extensively in the back stables along side his fathers D110 and a string of RR's. The D90 felt shockingly stable on windy roads and was a pleasure to take to the Jersey shore in the summers. I don't recall any of the aforementioned issues and we certainly put the truck through the ringer. These days the major downside would be MPG (IIRC he was getting 7-8mpg) and I imagine the parts are becoming increasingly scarce. That being said, I would love to have one in my stable and I would love to relive the days where I had to pull my slightly trail modded explorer and a friends cj-7 out of the ditches. If you can find one that is clean and well maintained, I say go for it.
