Used Car of the Day: 1997 Land Rover Defender 110

Tim Healey
by Tim Healey

I've said it before, but I have a weak spot for 1990s Land Rover Defenders.

So this one has me considering lottery tickets. It's a pricey 1997 Land Rover Defender 110.


It's left-hand drive, so it will be easy to wheel around these United States -- and Canada. The turbodiesel engine apparently runs well, and the mileage is an estimated 127,000.

Updates and upgrades include LED lights, 16-inch Land Rover alloy wheels, a new steering wheel, and a complete replacement of fluids and filters about a year ago.

It's a five-speed manual -- be still my heart -- and in addition to the engine, it appears the brakes and power steering function properly. The headliner is new and the gauges work.

There's apparently no rust and there is an aftermarket Bluetooth stereo.

There are relatively new mud tires on the rig.

Are there flaws? Just a few. Minor fluid "weeping" on the differentials and smoke puffs upon start up.

If the price wasn't similar to a Dark Horse Mustang, I'd be all over this Texas-based four-wheeler. Click here if you feel similarly.

[Images: Seller]

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Tim Healey
Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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  • Kwik_Shift_Pro4X Kwik_Shift_Pro4X on Mar 20, 2024

    I like this. About the age (and older) I'd look for in a Land Rover.

  • ToolGuy ToolGuy on Mar 20, 2024

    "this one has me considering lottery tickets"

    • If you had taken half my advice you would own the building you live in by now.

  • Tassos All of VW's EVS have been DISMAL FAILURES. They utterly lack the awesome performance and range of same priced Teslas, and now they prove to be a worthless POS like EVERY OTHER VW, reliability-wise.In the Competitive US market, the ALMIGHTY CONSUMER has PUNISHED VW AGAIN AND AGAIN for their WORTHLESS, SHODDY PRODUCTS. As with ICEs, same with EVs.
  • Kjhkjlhkjhkljh kljhjkhjklhkjh wut is this ... wut ?
  • Kwik_Shift_Pro4X Defender looks way better than the Bronco in both 2-door and 4-door.
  • ToolGuy I found this particular episode to be incredibly offensive.I am shocked that eBay Motors is supporting this kind of language and attitudes in 2024.I will certainly keep this in mind next time I am choosing where to buy auto parts (I buy a LOT of auto parts).
  • SaulTigh When I was young in the late 80's one of my friends had the "cool dad." You know the guy, first to buy a Betamax and a C-band satellite dish. Couple of stand up arcade games in the den. Bought my friend an Atari 2600 as soon as they came out. He had two of these crap heaps. One that only ran half the time and one for parts in the yard. My middle school brain though he was the most awesome dad ever, buying us pizza and letting us watch R rated movies recorded on free HBO weekend. At the time I though he was much better than my boring father.Now with adult hindsight, I now know he was "dad who should have taken better care of his family" and not had so many toys.
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