1998 Land Rover Defender

1998 Land Rover Defender 110 Few vehicles, with the exception of the Mini, are as famous and familiar as a Land Rover. From the first so called 'Series' Land Rovers that ran from 1948 to 1983, through the 90 and 110 models that replaced them in 1983, to the renamed Defender 90 and Defender 110 'Landies' that were produced from 1989, the model barely changed, at least outwardly. If you have a job to do, from hauling a family over hostile terrain to dragging a boat out of a slipway, and you like the idea of a vehicle you can largely maintain yourself with a few well chosen tools and a trusty workshop manual, there's nothing to touch a Land Rover 90, 110 and Defender.  Haynes.com  For consignment, a 1998 Land Rover Defender 110 with a title verified 95,955 actual kilometers. This is a right hand drive 4x4 and it doesn't get much cooler than this unpretentious example of the real deal ruggedness that more civilian Land Rovers secretly desire to be!  Exterior Flat gray paint with a slight bluish hue covers the rig and has its share of dings and dents, as if just back from a safari and encounter with a rhinoceros. But the slab side and doors are in decent shape and lead to the epic tail with a series of round lights and markers. The hood and front fenders are replete with mounting hardware and even some holes where former hardware once resided and the front edge of the hood lost that battle with the rhino, now sporting a series of small dents. Round headlights in square housing with round markers is iconically Land Rover and each one here is protected by brush guards. The fiberglass top is accompanied by canvas lined windows in back and the color matched 16-inch wheels wear knobby tires under black fender flares. As mentioned, the exterior sports lots of dings and several dents. Interior Pure utilitarian on this inside however there are black plastic door panels with some storage at the bottom. Gray vinyl bucket seats sit tall and are in nice shape while the back has folding type chair tops on the metal shelves, both facing inward and all under a full roll cage. The dash shows some ruggedness, as if constructed from various donors and some holes are left where lights and switches may have been. The wonderfully rugged looking shifter rises to your left hand and the range selector lives just behind it. Next we have a triangular housing for the AM/FM/CD radio over a textured steel plate in the center. A gray textured covering is on board instead of carpet, ready to take on your elephant dung encrusted boots! It's clear this interior's objective is to provide the driving platform for this off roader rather than a lap of luxury. Even so, the bucket seats are comfortable and visibility is excellent!  Drivetrain Under the hood is a 2.5 liter inline turbo diesel engine, hanging on to mint green paint, and rated at 111 horsepower. It's fuel injected and mated to a 5-speed manual transmission that routes power through axles at both ends with 3.54 gears.  Undercarriage Plenty of age and surface rust coats the underside where ball and claw axles team with power disc brakes at all four wheels. The single exhaust runs through a stock style muffler and eventually exits in the right side rear. Suspension includes coil springs with trailing arms up front and a 4 link with coil springs out back. We note some oil on the transfer case.   Drive-Ability We start the trusty diesel up and row the shifter to get the 4x4 moving towards the wilds of Morgantown, or at least to our test loop. We note the side slider window rattle quite a bit while the truck is idling. The tall Defender does give a nice view of the road ahead; the cabin is airy and open. It tracks straight and stops well and other than the horn and turn signals, all functions operate as they should. While Classic Auto Mall represents that these functions were working at the time of our test drive, we cannot guarantee these functions will be working at the time of y