Thread: The perfect Defender?

Originally Posted by DutchMick

Hi Karl,

Would love to! If I would be around. Still 16.000km away though. And not sure how to buy a car from the Netherlands in OZ and keep it in 'storage' for 3 months But I am open to suggestions As yes, looks to be OK from description and pictures. An independent vehicle inspection would anyway be my preferred option before I buy something like a Defender. But no clue if I can buy a car without being in Australia yet... (FYI; I am immigrating to Canberra in January)

You could ask the seller to have it inspected by the NRMA (National Roads and Motoring Association in NSW) at your expense and forward the report to you.
If you decide to buy it you could ask the seller if he would store it for three months for a nominal charge or a variation in price.

Originally Posted by rar110

A county will probably be older with a lot more km.

I will preface my comments below by declaring that I do own a Perentie RFSV. I picked it up about 18 months ago at a Grays auction in Perth. It only had 5000kms on the clock and had been fully rebuilt in 2010 by Tenex, the company that had the contract to rebuild Perentiie's. I paid $14000 plus Grays premium and then had to license it. All up around 16k and I was driving legally on Australian roads in what I believe is an excellent vehicle. I now have around 35000kms of trouble free motoring on the clock.

I have owned Landrovers for the last 25 years including a 2002 Range Rover. I still own the first Landrover I ever purchased which is a 1981 Series III Stage One V8. I have driven pretty much all varieties from Series I through to a 2015 Puma.

Isuzu County's are excellent vehicles and I was always keen to own one because of the 4BD Isuzu engine upfront. I never did get one but when the Army announced that they were going to be selling off their entire Landrover fleet plus trailers and spares I was very keen to pick up a Perentie and a No5 trailer.

The reason for the change in my desire to own a County to the Perentie is because of the extra's that are fitted to the Perentie and the fact that if you do your homework you can get an excellent condition Perentie that has a full service history.

A County won't have full galvanised chassis, PTO winch, dual batteries, onboard air compressor, rotating pintal hitch, side locking storage boxes, plus a full service history unless it has had a lot of money spent on it. If you add it up I believe Perentie's in general are excellent value.

I think from memory this post started with the call for the ultimate Defender being a vehicle that was going to be mainly used as a weekend off road vehicle, so onroad manners were a minor part of the owners driving. If that is the case then an Isuzu powered Landrover is a good choice and if you can get one with those types of accessories and it has done under 100 000kms with a full service history I think it is good buying.

I also enjoy driving mine on the road too as the suspension and seats that the army specified are good quality and the ride is quite comfortable. As far as I know the suspension components and seats in a Perentie are not the same as a County. Mine being a RFSV has power steering and 4 wheel disk brakes as standard spec which I don't believe the Perentie Commander (5 door) has but I am happy to be corrected. I am also not sure but I believe the County does have power steering but not disk brake rear axle.

Anyway just my thoughts on the subject and I hope it goes some way to convincing Dazza TD5 that they are not an "overpriced tractor"! I hope that when Dazza's TD5 gets to vintage status it is still on the road as I am sure that most Perentie's around that time will have just run their 4BD Isuzu nicely in.

Regards Warrick.