Thread: Do we have 15-20 year cars in the Puma

G'day, I've never seen a Puma, but I have a Isuzu 110 and have owned it for 20 years cheers Dennis

I think we will be keeping ours for a long time, cant afford another one....

my guess is probabley not.. but I also said the same thing about the td5.

my reasoning is this

1. you cant totally rebuild the block, its designed as a one shot wonder, once its worn out theres no recomended "oversizing" (same deal for the TD5)
2. the cost of replacing the engine is (once you get to having an old vehicle on your hands) more than the vehicle is worth (same with the td5)
3. the recent owner ship transfer of landy from ford to tata means that when they redo the deefer they'll change the layout and obsolete the older stuff. (there are some bits in the puma that are specific to only the deefer and no other landy so that hurts you in the spare parts department you have a smaller pool to start with).

this is based on doing 30K Km a year and nothing catastrophic happening to the vehicle, if you do less than that and keep it off the hard stuff and away from the beach it should last longer.

as an interesting note... I have a suspicion that in the future cars are going to become like airframes and have a limited life after which they must be scrapped. This is probably going to be done under the guise of concern over the continued reliability of the safety features in the design of the vehicle such as crumple zones as the metal ages and its properties change or it rust/stresses and they start to collapse on themselves with routine use.

Dave you are depressing me.

I think that from the point of view of bodywork, there'll be plenty of Puma's around in 20 years time, as I do believe that they have made some significant improvements over some of the body parts and panels of the earlier Defender. However, as Dave has pointed out, the engine and drivetrain is a different story.Easiest way to look at it is to ask yourself "how many Ford Transits do I see still running in 20 years time???"

The future for serviceable cars in general is bleak. Again,as Dave pointed out, the people in the pointy hats in health and safety offices all over the world are making car parts obsolete after a few years due to various "safety" concerns, and already in Europe, some car manufacturers are already bringing out cars with "black box" engines. No longer to you change the timing belt when it's due, or swap out the alternator when that goes.Instead, after 100,000km you drive into your local dealership, they chuck a crane over your car, yank out your fully sealed engine, and drop in a replacement, complete with bits bolted on.

Originally Posted by Blknight.aus

as an interesting note... I have a suspicion that in the future cars are going to become like airframes and have a limited life after which they must be scrapped. This is probably going to be done under the guise of concern over the continued reliability of the safety features in the design of the vehicle such as crumple zones as the metal ages and its properties change or it rust/stresses and they start to collapse on themselves with routine use.

You deserve another iced coffee Dave - that's exactly were we are going.

Originally Posted by VladTepes

Dave you are depressing me.

Does me to a degree too - however the truth often does that

This thread reminds me of the old fellow who claimed he had been using the same axe for 60 years. In that time he replaced the head three times and the handle seven.

That said, I don't have any doubt the Pumas will last at least 10 years and many will see 20. Will they last 50+ like the Series Is is a different question. In 50 years enthusiasts will most likely be looking for old Pumas to cannibalise for parts for their project vehicle just like many Series I enthusiasts do today. I do admit that the Series vehicles are more akin to an axe than a Puma is however.

A more pressing issue relating to vehicle longevity is fuel availability and far more stringent controls on emissions.


Cheers
KarlB

I think it is a reasonable question to ask.
It comes back to how many kms you plan on putting on the vehicle (as Blknight stated)
Our Puma is not a daily driver and hence the kms are going to stay low, so ‘yes’ we plan to keep for 10-15 years and ‘yes’ keep adding gear as we go.