Thread: Which Defender as long-term touring vehicle

Originally Posted by 2stroke

Oh boy, looks like the Disco section is leaking again.

Not nearly as much as your defender does

Originally Posted by gusthedog

But if you want to buy an overpriced, out of date, unsafe alloy box, then go right ahead

Lets do a head on crash test, my defender vs your disco - predicting who survives with the least injury would be like tossing a coin but for sure the defender would be worth more afterwards!

Seriously though , a disco is great for both getting around town and 'touring', so is a VW Transporter. But what I think gus is trying to say is that the defender costs more than a disco of the same age, which is annoying because disco's are clearly more refined. There are reasons for this apparent price anomaly; the disco is not an infinitely customisable 'expedition' vehicle that can be rebuilt and re-configured over and over again. The disco does not look better with some dents in it and does not appear to get any better with age. The disco is not an iconic vehicle, and the bodywork is still made out of that out of date steel stuff that rusts.

For the record, I'm having A LOT of fun plodding around Australia in a Defender. I've driven long distances in all kinds of new vehicles over the past 5 years and all of them have required frequent stops to shake off the boredom. I can drive my defender for hours, grinning all the way!

For a purpose built tourer, something that is not going to be used to commute or do the shopping in, the defender is a good upgrade from a disco 1. More space, lots more possibilities to customise it to your needs.

Originally Posted by gusthedog

Not nearly as much as your defender does

My Deafener currently does not leak no really
Seriously though nothing wrong with a disco if you can fit everything in... Though the OP did say "long term tourer".

Thanks for that.


I thought I should update this thread by advising we have bought a 2009 Puma 2.4 110. The main reason we went for this particular vehicle is it has only done 53,000 kms, which is very low for a five year old vehicle.
It is very white and very long compared with the D1.
Its in very original condition, including the original tyres, but it has had a bulbar with winch, snorkel, Steinbauer chip and Long Ranger tank fitted, so its a good basis for building up a long-term tourer.
Plans include a rear wheel carrier (to stop the rear door rattle), cargo barrier, electric brake controller, drawer, dual battery system, extended seat rails, rear door stopper and side door extended bolts. The budget won't cover all that, so its going to take a little while to get there.
For now, I'm just focused on transferring the rego. and getting used to driving a manual again.
I'll post some pics later in the best place.
Very happy at this stage, although sad to see the D1 go, as so many memories went with it. Gone but not forgotten.

Disco_Mick,

Will be very interested to hear how u find going from your D1 to the Defender as your touring vehicle & I assume your daily driver?

We will be in a similar situation in a few years time when we will have to change our current touring vehicle to something that will give us more space for our 3 kids + more cargo space as well..... Just not sure how a Defender would go as my daily driver though.....plus, then there's the lack of outback dealers/mechanics if anything ever went wrong......

When the time comes, I'd probably like to get one of the Puma versions myself..... if we end up going down that path.......

Its not my daily driver. We use the wife's Yaris for commuting. You could commute in a Defender, but parking stations could be a tight fit. Mind you, plant the right foot and, with the chip, it can certainly accelerate at a good rate when required. And, as it is only ticking over at 2000 rpm in sixth at 100 km/h it is certainly economical. WIth the big tank we should be able to do about 1000km between refills.

The D1 was and now the Defender will be parked for most of the week and built up for touring and towing our camper trailer. We are setting ourselves up to hopefully stop working fulltime and wander off in a couple of years (while spending the kids inheritance!).

Do we hear a name change to 'Defer-Mick'?

Congratulations on your new car. I think you will be really pleased you chose it. It really is an iconic vehicle, and great fun!!

Oh, and welcome to the Defender club. Remember to wave

Cheers

Nino.

Thanks. Yes, I'm very pleased.
No, I think I'll stick with DiscoMick for the moment, just to keep my history intact. The Disco is gone, but not forgotten. I changed my signature to show the history.
Funnily enough, Plan B was always to keep the Disco and spend some money to really bulletproof it for touring, but the wife (what a woman!) said she wanted a Defender. How many wives would say that? She's a keeper. Now we've got it she's right into finding the accessories we want for it.

We're going to keep it standard height and retain the original suspension for now, but might add rear airbags if it drops too much when towing.
Today I'm off for a safety inspection this arvo so the rego can be transferred to Qld. Once that's done I'll start ordering accessories. This is gonna be fun!