I am considering buying a land rover defender, having driven many in the past thru work. I would be looking at buying a 1999 - 2005 age vehicle due to budget I think.

Two queries
- Most old landys I've driven have handled terribly, lurching around the road like you're driving a boat. Can this be fixed/prevented? 90% of my use would be on road.
- Can the interiors be upgraded? i.e. Better ventilation, comfier seats. Oh, and better windscreen wipers?!

Any help much appreciated!

Tom.

 

Defenders on this side of the pond are highly prized and rare, accepted warts and all. The UK based sites may have a lot more info in this area. Old Landys, at work, may not have had suspension repairs you would have made as an owner. And there is the whole coil vs leafer vs air bags vs ACE (Automated Cornering Enhancement) issues. There have been post of very swanky interiors, teak wood, etc. Get what you want when you buy it, no serious upgrade in these areas is cheap.

 

alot of the time its down to worn suspension bushes, if going down this route then get a good set of poly bushes. As set of good springs and dampers also elminate alot of the lurching, stay away from Britpart as they dont last. Worn king pins will make driving hard and unpridicable until you get to know where she is going to lurch too on the road

As for interiors its all been done before. The only problem with putting car seats in a land rover is that they will sit higher on the seat box and then your eye level can be up tp the top of the wind screen so be carfull which model you put in. If you go for solid fitting then it's a bear to take the seat box out when it comes to do any work.
I used to have a set of mk2 golf GTi seats that worked really