New in AULRO + Thinking of buying a new 110

[Ewen]

Hi everyone, have been trolling the net recently reading up on the Defender and am amazed at the AULRO forums so decided to sign up. :) I didn't get to bed yesterday till 2am just reading threads after threads here.

Anyway I'm tossing up buying a new 2012 110 deefy or getting a second hand with extras already loaded. What is drawing me toward a new car are some of the 07-2010 ish deefys with upwards of 100k km that are still asking for 30 grand+? Do deefys just hold their resale value really well or what?

Plus, who doesn't want a brand new car? And all the fun that goes along putting in all the extras yourself.

Took the missus out to a dealer carpark just now at 10pm for her to check out the deefy and she seemed ok with it. :) Probably book a test drive soon!

[frantic]

Book a good length test drive, not just 10 min around the block and look at sidesteps if your partners vertically challenged. If your going to carry around kids that need a seat be aware that there are NO bolts in defenders but lots of us have had them fitted different ways. The best but most costly was to fit them directly to the seats back like a couple of others have done on here. As to other mods im sure you will find a link on here to help on your customization of your 110.

[JDNSW]

.... What is drawing me toward a new car are some of the 07-2010 ish deefys with upwards of 100k km that are still asking for 30 grand+? Do deefys just hold their resale value really well or what?
...

The simple answer is - yes. Unlike most cars that are sold by luxury car dealers, they have strong demand by used buyers, partly because it is very difficult to tell whether it is this year's model, or is two or ten years old. So the people buying them (new or used) tend not to be those looking for the latest thing.

John

[slippery]

My view is that the new landrovers are a vast money pit, gone are the days where you cannot rely on the brand, when they go back to something with either a tdi 200 or 300, I would then buy a hew one, till then I'll stick with my 200 defender and 300 discovery, no computers, no sensers, none of those nasty expensive repairs, no tdi5, either land rover gets it act together, it will loose a lot, even the army has dumped them, I'll keep what I have keep maintaining it and they;ll see me out, if its later than 1998 then its expensive and unreliable.

[BilboBoggles]

A new Land rover has the benefit of a warranty, and if you work for a large company then you will also get a corporate package with free servicing. This more than offsets the potential running costs for an old Land Rover.

I budget around $5000 per year in maintenance on my 2003 TD5, last year I spent $8000+ (Clutch, FlyWheel, cracked A Pillars, worn steering components etc). The extra goodies it has are a minor cost compared to running costs. And don't forget those extra goodies such as winches etc get old and drop off and require maintenance. Nothing like using a 10 year old Warn winch compared to a brand new winch, and knowing there is a better chance when you get stuck that the damned thing will work.

Also the New MY12+ models are quite a bit nicer to drive than the previous models.

So my vote is go new if you can afford it.

Of course all of the above applies if you are planning to have all of the maintenance work jobbed out. If you are doing it yourself - then the reverse is true - I used to run old Range Rovers, and do all the work myself in which case maintenance costs are based on your time, if you don't value your time, it's very very low cost to run them. (Now I have kids - my time became more valuable than fixing the car.)

[Green Elephant]

I was originally looking for a TD5 but they just cost too much for the amount of k's on them. Defenders hold their value and sell pretty quickly too. Ended up with a '12 110, very happy

[Ewen]

Thanks for the response guys. I'm gonna go check out a 2002 110 with 212k kms on it that's going for $19,990. It already has most add ons fitted which is a plus.

As said the high price of deefys with high km was quite a shocker compared to the usual prado types.

Do yall reckon that's a good starting price for a 02MY 110 with 212ks already on?

[flagg]

20k for one in good nick with a service history is reasonable. Anything that hasn't been maintained well will cost A LOT so make sure what ever you go for has a sound history from a good place.

[manic]

Looking at current posts on the forum there are two that highlight a few pro's and con's when picking new or second hand defender

someone who bought new
http://www.aulro.com/afvb/90-110-130-defender-county/167078-some-puma-90-niggles-frustrations-warranty.html

here is someone who chose to build on a second hand defender instead of new puma
http://www.aulro.com/afvb/members-rides/163068-rolf-94-300tdi-hardtop.html

[Samblers]

I started out looking for a td5, ended up with 2010 110... td5 just too much money for used examples, puma a better package. Very happy.

Search for my post on here

Sam :)