Thread: What are the pros and cons Defender v Puma v Disco3/4

There is allot of good advice here....Only you can make up the right decision for you.....but when you are buying a Defender be it a Puma or any other model you are buying a lifestyle.

Im not sure what it is like over there where you guys are from but here in South Africa when you see another Defender you wave at them. I can think of no other vehicle brand that does the same. before using my Defender as a daily driver I have different types of waves from people, useually they were flipping the bird....

Like someone said in an earlier post, "you either buy with your heart or with your head".........I bought with my heart and I took delivery of a 11MY Puma on the 1st of October and I am not sorry at all.

Good luck with your choice......its half the fun of the end result!

Go the Puma!

Thanks Celtoid - you make the D4 very tempting. . .

Originally Posted by P38ace

What, all at once?
That's an example of technological failure. !!

Dare I say it would not have happened with 16's and a better depth of rubber.

LOL...love to blame it on the technology but I think it was more to do with the driver going "smooth beach, smooth beach ....where the hell did that bloody big hole appear from?".......

Funnily enough....I drove away from that and didn't bother getting the wheels looked at for weeks as I had nothing more than a slight....bloody annoying vibration.....sacrificial wheels....... The same family that were there with us were back again a few weeks later and had a very similar incident in a troopie....no sacrificial wheels, one broken...and I mean seriously broken, troopie.....

Maybe they are jinxed!

FWIW, both the D4 and Puma rely of a multitude of electronics. All things being equal, you stand the same chances of being stuck in the middle of nowhere due to a faulty sensor.

however, quality-wise, the Puma is below par and well below the build quality of the D4. So whereas you may get stuck with a broken down Puma, you stand a better chance of the D4 not breaking down.

Originally Posted by Captain HSE 4.6 2000

Thanks Celtoid - you make the D4 very tempting. . .

Thanks Captain HSE 4.6, but you need to buy what works for you.

When you drive a D4 you'll not believe that its a diesel...it's quiet and it'll blow away any concept of being slow off the mark or in a cruise....it does not drive like a truck. Low down....well no point in even commenting....it's got it covered. Off road...well, i've covered that.

But....it's shiney and not exactly cheap......

Same old Q.....buy what you need or want?

I live in the burbs and would love to have the space for a dedicted 4X4 and would buy another LR product hands down to meet the need for the off-road experience. I often look at places and think....smash those few trees down and off I go.....but...a D4...not likley....the D4 can do it...but that's why you need friends with Prados....LOL.....

But I don't have the room and can't afford both. But the D4 works for what I do.

If I owned a new Puma or another Deffer product, I'd feel the same....not big on braking what I've worked very hard for...so don't get me wrong. But if I had the $ to just get amongst it without care.....who knows....

Cheers Kev.

Here we don't have a lot of Pumas or D4 in the country, but I have seen a few of them being used in real 4x4...... the Puma is a Defender, so no questions at all..... the D4 is a car with 4x4 option. If you try to use a D4 in real world off road, this is not the car. I have seen 2 D3 in real mud getting stuck where a Grand Cherokee goes like on road. The cause? there were so much wheel spinning the ECU preferred to shut down the locking capability (it was supposed to be a temperature protection).... if you let me choose, I won't go for a different model than the Puma in Land Rover actual line (not even the Range, too much buttons for me; Free is really crap for off road, at least for Colombian off road). What car went for rescue of both Disco? a 67' Series with HP tires..... a really disappointing day for Land Rover dealer... they were their showroom cars.

This is not the end. At the end of the day, when everybody was ready to go home (it was a track), one of the Disco didn't move.... its engine started but something wrong was happening with his auto transmission.... the car had to be towed.....

I have heard from a tech of Land Rover official dealer that our diesel have too much sulphure for Disco's TD engine, creating engine malfunctions and making them to only import gasoline V8... don't really know if this is true...

I know everybody talks about D4 quality, but I have my reserves........ they are not high quality cars, they are really below the average (even when compared with Jeep, a crap-brand in quality terms, Disco lose):

JDPower.com | Land Rover

Originally Posted by carlosbeldia

Here we don't have a lot of Pumas or D4 in the country, but I have seen a few of them being used in real 4x4...... the Puma is a Defender, so no questions at all..... the D4 is a car with 4x4 option. If you try to use a D4 in real world off road, this is not the car. I have seen 2 D3 in real mud getting stuck where a Grand Cherokee goes like on road. The cause? there were so much wheel spinning the ECU preferred to shut down the locking capability (it was supposed to be a temperature protection).... if you let me choose, I won't go for a different model than the Puma in Land Rover actual line (not even the Range, too much buttons for me; Free is really crap for off road, at least for Colombian off road). What car went for rescue of both Disco? a 67' Series with HP tires..... a really disappointing day for Land Rover dealer... they were their showroom cars.

This is not the end. At the end of the day, when everybody was ready to go home (it was a track), one of the Disco didn't move.... its engine started but something wrong was happening with his auto transmission.... the car had to be towed.....

I have heard from a tech of Land Rover official dealer that our diesel have too much sulphure for Disco's TD engine, creating engine malfunctions and making them to only import gasoline V8... don't really know if this is true...

I know everybody talks about D4 quality, but I have my reserves........ they are not high quality cars, they are really below the average (even when compared with Jeep, a crap-brand in quality terms, Disco lose):

JDPower.com | Land Rover

Geez, I must have bought the only good one then....cause it's the complete opposite of what you and that report discribe.

It would be nice if comments and reports were based on facts.....maybe they should consult some actual owners.

Have a look at the D3/D4/RRS threads....are all these happy owners in fantasy land? Are all the reports about what they've done in their car all made up?

This is the first one I've owned, which I've had for about a year now and been lot's and lot's of places off-road......and on the quality front, it hasn't stopped going once....even after an accident. Some of the guys on this site have owned several. They must be on drugs to keep buying crap cars then.

Can they get stuck, broken or bogged.....of course they can.....so can anything.