Taco Defender meet up

My family and I moved to the UK for a year abroad. I locked up, parked and left the Taco in Texas and thought out buying a HiLux for our adventure. Upon arrival I was surprised to see Defenders everywhere, and available for pretty cheap. Did some offroading in a few and flew to Wales to pickup our Welsh Wagon. Solid axels, three locking diffs, three pedals, low gearing, low horsepower and high torque! It's like driving a tractor. I'll put her on a boat to meet the Taco when we're done.

 

That's pretty cool. I have a buddy that imports and resales those.

 

Defenders are cool.

 

Awesome choice! I'm not afraid to say I'm a Land Rover geek way more than a taco geek. What motor is in the 110??

 

I love Defenders. Good luck

 

Man I would love one of those.

May I ask what you paid for the defender and what you expect to pay in importing/shipping? Feel free to DM if you prefer.

 

Been wanting a Defender 90 for a long time in my dream car collection. So far, it's just my Taco

 

I'm speaking for myself being a little more involved in the Rover community than Toyota but prices vary depending on motor, 110 vs 90..what part of the world, rust, many factors. The defender market is kinda saturated at the moment but prices are all over from around $20k all the way up to like $70-100K for a fully restored LS motor conversion truck.

 

My buddy that imports and sells them gets about $20K-$25K for a mostly restored (no rust, good seats, new tires, headlights upgraded, clean) right hand drive 110s. If you don't want it gone through, the price is less and he can occasionally get left hand drive ones but the price is quite a bit higher.

 

It originally has a 200 tdi but the last owner just put in a 300tdi from an automatic (which means its the higher HP 300TDI).

In the UK there are tons to be had for less than $10K and the shipping to the US is about $2200. All of this means even someone like myself can own one! And I never thought I'd be able to...

 

Saturated in the US perhaps but they are a dime a dozen in the UK. Plenty to be had in the £4000-£8000 range. Not many LHD though... I have a buddy with a LDH military 90 with 17,000 miles on it he'd sell for... well let's just say cheap.

Anyway I'm living the Taco modern truck daily driver dream and looking forward to pairing that with the Vintage Offroad dream...

 

Nice purchase OP! The 110 is on my toy list.

 

Thanks! It's VERY different than the Taco. The differences are refreshing. Nice to drive the Taco to work - smooth shifting, everything is so tight and perfectly tuned, AC and stereo... Them there's the visceral feeling of driving the Defender - no stereo, no soundproofing, no nothing but a really loud diesel and a gnarly heavy drivetrain. Looking forward to going back and forth between these two!

 

Nice ride, but what does it have to do with 3rd gen Tacomas?

 

I'm a 3rd gen owner and the contrast is interesting. That's all. Thought it would fun to share. No ECU! Triple locking diffs! No stereo, no soundproofing, etc. Helps put the Taco in perspective for me.

 

Yeah don't discount the 90! They are more affordable and common and they drive amazingly well. Not janky like you might expect. They are in many ways the more quintessential one or two person offroad vehicle...

 

I think OP was lamenting the lack of Tacomas in UK.

 

I thought people would get a kick out of this dilemma. Buy a HiLux? Or a Defender... What would you do?

 

I am a closet LR fan. Need to get a kid out of high school, and then I can get back to owning a small stable. Depending on where the rover market is in the US, will dictate what I purchase.

Still, nice rig OP. I would be curious to hear the steps you eventually take to ship and register in the states.

 

300 tdi is a better motor, and you can tune it for a little more power. The beauty of the 200 was the simplicity of it. In the next year or two I'm planning on converting my discovery to a TD5 which is the next generation.