Used Land Rover Defender (Mk1, 1990-2016) review - What do owners think?
It’s as tough as old boots, but the Defender is an old design and will be more troublesome than newer machines
Overall Defender owners love their cars, blindly accepting its flaws, quirks and occasional reliability concerns because it’s such a characterful machine. Most take their cars to a specialist for mechanical work, which is unsurprising given the brand’s own dealers finish plum last in our Driver Power satisfaction poll, with high costs and poor service singled out by owners.
Reliability
The Defender hasn’t appeared in Driver Power surveys, but an army of enthusiastic owners has left reviews on our sister site Carbuyer.co.uk, awarding it on average 4.1 stars out of five, compared with our less generous verdict. Essentially, the Land Rover is built tough and can withstand plenty of abuse, but older examples in particular are likely to suffer from more faults than owners of much newer cars are used to.
