Thread: Defender vs 80 series reliability

Originally Posted by weeds

30 years of driving I haven’t been flat bed’d once

HQ Ute
VC commodore
40 Series cruiser trayback
Earlier 80’s hi-lux
2 door rangie
300 tdi fender
TD5 fender

But the 300tdi fender did hold me up with on side of the road repairs in a number of times. Don’t recall getting tools out for the other cars.

No D2 in that list
I seriously believe my D2 was built on a Friday, between a beer festival on Thursday and a Weed carnival on the Saturday.

When I bought my MY12 Defer, I was also seriously looking at the Troop Carrier. After going back and forth a few times the price difference was $28K so for the extra 50+% they would want to be more reliable.
I've spent a whole lot less than that with 3 ATB's, Ashcrofts shaft and a Maxidrive A frame ball joint.


One of the cotton companies I previously contracted to (and still do bits and pieces for) gives all the gin managers an Isuzu DMax. Given what those guys's do with them, I'd reckon the DMax would have to be near the top for reliability. They do however have the common diesel problem of not being able to drive underwater.

Cheers Glen

I have owned...

5 Defenders, drove a 1996 300tdi all over Africa never walked home and couldn't anyway, ex Camel Trophy so had an arguably harder life... still have it.
D2A V8 never walked home.
D3 V8 never walked home. CSR, GCR, Telegraph road across the bight and Googs and Pilbara all over...
3 x Range Rover Classics, never walked home a 1982 one with a silly engine on steroids took me over most of the Pilbara at break neck speed...

Current is a 2008 Defender SVX with extras, just drove Broome and back to Perth at 110/120km/h no issues, comfortable and easy, though might get a cruise control...

Anyway buy what you like not what you think you should have, never seen the point of driving a car you don't like to drive...

Thanks for the replies.

I was just thinking about cruising around Australia like strzelecki, Big Red, Gibbs River Road, etc.

Would you comfortably do that in a Defender, or too concerned stuff gonna go wrong, in which case the Land cruiser is the better option... or is this what you are saying, Land Cruiser is not a better option and no more reliable than the Defender, so both could do all of that without issues but both could also have issues doing all of that, you are not better off with one over the other.

I just dont want a money pit. Thats all.

I know the 80 Series TD 1HD-FT multi valve engine that was in a 40th aniversary, 1997, last made 80 series, that thing was reliable, solid, just general maintence and not hard to see land cruiser with over 600,000-700,000km still going strong and reliable (not falling apart like new cars).

I mean its a go forever type vehicle. The ones I seen are good anyway. Like a modern car. People say they are all getting 'old' now... but those 'old' ones will go further than new ones with 50,000 km only on them.

They were just built to last.

If the Defender is like that, go forever, wont have issues (if looked after) etc like the cruisers I seen, well, then no problem.

Last thing we wanna do is, go buy a defender, start going out and find out one thing after the other needs replacing. Then will forever feel like "stupid should of just got the LC, and not have had these issues" - if you know what i mean.

The 1HDFT could never be called reliable
I guarantee your mates 580k model has had its bottom end shells replaced otherwise it would be in the scrap heap... once the faulty OEM shells are replaced they go alright but it certainly wasn’t Toyota best diesel.

If you want an 80 get the 1Hz slow but unbreakable.


But the reality is if you buy a 199 ish anything and take it bush for a year stuff is going to break.
Arguably parts for an old Toyota will be possibly found out bush BUT getting parts for a defender is not exactly difficult. To be honest parts is less of an issue than the skill to diagnose and fix

Steve

My BIL's 80 has cost him a lot of money to keep it reliable.
Any vehicle needs maintenance. Look after S Defender and it will be fine.
I wouldn't hesitate to set out to drive mine around the country. They don't need many accessories either, just tyres mainly.

When my 80 Series had a Catastrophic engine failure (1HDT) on the Cape Leveque Road at 540,000km a 70 series Troopy stopped to lend a hand , they had done 750,000 trouble free km with a 1HZ .

That was the only time Ive ever needed a Tow Truck in nearly 40 years of 4x4's ,(except recently in my E-Landy when I ran out of charge whilst testing its battery range) In a Landy I've always been able to patch it up and Limp home .

Toyotas are generally more reliable (until they go bang) but Landrovers need constant tinkering and fettling .

The Toyota owners all drink the Koolaid. I’ve spent endless hours fixing Landcruisers on the trail. I’ve talked on the subject with shops that fix them all day long and they agree one brand is no more reliable than any other. They make their lives fixing broken down Toyotas.

In the mid 60s, I was speaking to a farmer who owned a huge property on the Paroo Channel. He had owned most of the 4WDs available at the time: Land Rovers,Landcruisers, International Scout, Haflinger, Patrol and I think a couple more. They all had their particular faults.

His view was that property owners got rid of their Land Rovers because they needed maintenance to keep them going. They bought Land Cruisers instead and found they needed just as much maintenance. They discovered that any piece of machinery with that many moving parts that was worked as hard as farm vehicles are in that part of the world need fixing every now and then.
Because they had by then converted their specialised tools, their spare parts etc to suit the Toyota, they saw no advantage in changing back again.

He did admit that the larger engine was an advantage given some of the distances they had to drive to go into town. He loved the fact that with the Haflinger, he didn't have to walk as much because it would go places the other couldn't. I remember his comment was that the problem with getting out of the vehicle and walking to get somewhere was that he then also had to walk all the way back to the vehicle.

Of course that was just one farmer's opinion. However, there may be some truth in his claim.