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1994 Land Rover Defender 90 Base Sport Utility 2-door 3.9l on 2040-cars

Year:1994 Mileage:96000
Location:

Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, United States

Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, United States
Advertising:

Offered for sale is my 1994 D90.  I've owned the truck since 2002, using it for the first couple of years as a daily driver.  Since then it's seen very limited use.  For better than half of those, it's seen no use at all.  The truck is no cream puff.  It frankly needs quite a bit to make it truly right.  But it starts first time every time.   I'm not looking for a mint for it - the reserve is set for $5000.  I've just way to many projects around the house right now, and at this point, I'd just like to clear the space in the garage.  I'm going to do my best here to describe what's wrong with the 90.  As much as I'd like to get maximum dollar for the vehicle, I have no intention of screwing anyone.  And when it sells, I want it gone. Having to re-list it due to it being 'not as described' would be counter productive.

History:  As mentioned, I bought the Defender in 2002 with roughly 80,000 miles on it as a daily driver.  Despite my grand delusions of testing it's Camel Trophy abilities, I've never had it off road.  After a couple of years it became a sometimes second vehicle, but mostly sat unused.  Aside from a stack of receipts, I have no history of the truck before my ownership.  I purchased it from a guy in Virginia who incidentally was replacing it with a 109.

Chassis/Body:  Much of the rust proofing was peeling, so I spent some time scraping the loose stuff off to get a better idea of the chassis's actual condition.  There is of plenty surface rust, but it's stout.  The body is for the most part in passable condition though the doors have looked better.  They've galvanic corrosion around the bottom that should be visible in the photos.  There are a couple of dings around the tail lights, and the bonnet also has some dings on it.  These are also in the photos, but I'm not sure how visible they are as the white doesn't lend itself well to magnifying such imperfections.  I'm quite sure the dings on the bonnet could be taken out by a paintless dent removal guy.  The right rear quarter has sort of a 'crease' in it.  Again, I'm not sure how visible it is in the photos. I cannot say what caused any of the dings or the crease as it's all been there since I purchased it.  I suspect they all are results of off roading by a previous owner, but that is pure speculation.

Drive Train:  The odometer shows 96,000 miles.  The odometer also does not work.  Actually, it does...  The problem is where the cable connects to the transfer case.  Spinning the cable activates the speedometer.  As I recall - it's been a long time since I looked at it - there's a clip of some sort that is supposed to fasten the cable housing to the transfer case, but isn't.  It stopped working sometime after it was retired as a daily driver, so there's not been much incentive to fix it.  You may take my estimate for what it's worth, but I doubt the truck has yet made it to 100,000 miles.
No doubt the engine needs a tune.  It hasn't been looked at in years.  I fired it up for the first time this year in preparation for sale, and the 'service engine' light came on.  Having said that, it started first time, without hesitation, and settled into a nice idle.  It revs well, and sounds good.  The exhaust from the Y pipe back is stainless.  The truck does not have cats.
The transfer case is not original.  I bought a brand new Discovery case in 2004 from Pacific Rover when something went inside the original.  They had apparently just gotten a great deal on a whole bunch of new Discovery cases, and the price was such that I couldn't get the original rebuilt for less.   Ironically, I think it's the only thing for which I don't have a receipt, but I do have the original case minus the tail shaft housing which the shop lost...  The original case comes with the truck if you want it.  It's never been apart, and I still don't know what's actually wrong with it.  When the case was replaced the transmission was pulled apart and checked over by a local trans specialist to re-seal it.  The clutch was relatively new at the time, but the flywheel was resurfaced.  It shifts well, and it doesn't grind in any gears.  Nor is there any whining from the axles.  Speaking of the axles, the swivel balls are in great shape.  No pitting.

Soft Top:  The PO replaced the original top with a Bestop.  It's in serviceable condition, but is frankly a PITA to put on, hence the lack of photos.  It hasn't been on the truck since the last time it spent a night outside.  I've since only used the Bimini.  The sale also includes a tonneau to cover the interior.

Interior:  The interior is mighty spartan, made more so by the lack of a rear seat.  This Defender was originally equipped with a rear bench, but said bench wasn't with the truck when I bought it.  I think the photos are pretty representative of the interior's overall condition.

There are four things that aren't visible in the photos that I would consider to be major issues. 
1. The truck needs new tires.  The spare has never been used, but the four on the road are long past their sell by date.
2.  The transfer case linkage is not hooked up.  The Defender and Disco cases are subtly different in how they connect with the shifter.  I have all the original bits, but it's going to take a bit of fabrication to get it all hooked up.
3.  The turn signals aren't working.
4.  Like the tires, the accessory drive belts need replacing. I have a new set for you, but they'll need to be installed.

Honestly, I believe this Defender would happily drive to California tomorrow, but tires and belts really do need changing for safety and reliability's sake before it's driven any sort of speed or distance.

I've tried to get everything listed here, but it's not inconceivable that I've forgotten something.  If you've any questions, please ask.  I'll make every effort to respond to questions by the end of each day.  If you're in the Detroit area, you're welcome (and encouraged) to come and see it.

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Auto blog

Jaguar appoints Joe Eberhardt as North American President

Thu, 19 Dec 2013

Jaguar Land Rover North America has appointed a new president, Joachim Eberhardt. The German exec, 50, had previously done stints at Chrysler Group, DaimlerChrysler UK, Mercedes-Benz USA and Daimler-Benz.
Eberhardt joins JLR NA in a good, but challenging time for the company. It's fresh off the launch of the Range Rover Sport and Jaguar F-Type, which have been subject to rave reviews, and its overall sales are up 21 percent over 2012. Still, as Automotive News points out, the two manufacturers face a fight to become the equal of A-list competitors like BMW and Mercedes in the eyes of consumers.
"Joe brings a proven industry track record and valuable global leadership experience in luxury sales, service and marketing. We look forward to Joe leading our North American team in working with our retail networks to further grow the business and better serve our customers," JLR's group sales operations director, Andy Goss, said.

Jaguar Land Rover to recall 44,000 vehicles over excessive diesel emissions

Thu, Mar 14 2019

Jaguar Land Rover is recalling 44,000 vehicles in the U.K. due to some of its vehicles emitting higher CO2 emissions than were officially stated. The recall is said to affect vehicles equipped with JLR's 2.0-liter diesel engine in cars built between 2014 and 2018. Quite a few models are affected, including the Jaguar XE, XF, E-Pace, F-Pace, along with the Land Rover Discovery Sport, Range Rover Evoque, Range Rover Velar and Range Rover Sport. The excessive CO2 emissions were discovered by the British vehicle certification agency, who then reported it to JLR. The company is reportedly working on a fix that will satisfy the agency and bring the cars back in line with their stated CO2 emissions. As of now, JLR is not saying what the fix will entail. A statement from JLR reads: "The modifications will be made free of charge, and every effort will be made to minimize inconvenience to the customer." The U.K. magazine Which? said JLR told them owners might experience minor changes to the "overall vehicle experience." Reading between the lines there, that sounds like there could be some pretty serious tampering with the engine software, but we'll leave the speculation to a minimum for now. CO2 emissions numbers are used in the U.K. to set tax levels for vehicles, which means JLR could have gotten out of some taxation with its artificially low CO2 numbers. At this point we don't know how badly the numbers are off, so it's impossible to know how egregious the mislabeling is. There also isn't any explanation for why the CO2 numbers are off, but this is all information that could be forthcoming. The 44,000 number could rise, too, because the UK vehicle standards agency says that some gasoline models could also be involved. That would open a whole new can of worms for JLR. Some Jaguar vehicles (XE, XF and F-Pace) offer a 2.0-liter diesel option for the U.S., but Land Rover's only diesel it sells here now is the 3.0-liter V6. For the time being there's no recall out on the diesel or gas engines from JLR in the U.S. There's no chatter surrounding emissions cheat devices like those involved with Volkswagen's diesel emissions scandal. Nor does the scale of whatever the problem is come anywhere near the amount of Volkswagen diesels that needed to be recalled or taken off the roads. We'll be keeping tabs on the situation to see if this expands any further than the U.K. Green Recalls Jaguar Land Rover SUV Diesel Vehicles Luxury Sedan

Jaguar Land Rover planning to allow owners to earn cryptocurrency

Mon, Apr 29 2019

Jaguar Land Rover, Britain's largest auto manufacturer, said on Monday it is testing software that will allow drivers of its cars to earn the IOTA cryptocurrency as a reward for sharing data. The company is developing what it calls "smart wallet" technology to be installed in its automobiles. This would reward Jaguar car drivers with IOTA coins for actions such as enabling their vehicles to automatically report useful data, such as traffic congestion or potholes to navigation providers or local authorities. Drivers could also earn rewards if the car participates in a ride-sharing program, Jaguar said. The tokens earned could be used to pay for tolls, parking and charging for electric cars. The overall goal was to "achieve zero emissions, zero accidents, and zero congestion," the company said. Global car companies are exploring blockchain applications, figuring out different ways in which they can leverage the technology to suit their different needs. Blockchain, the system powering cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, is a shared database that is maintained by a network of computers connected to the internet. The British car company is testing the technology at the new Jaguar Land Rover software engineering base in Shannon, Ireland, where engineers have already equipped several vehicles, including the Jaguar F-PACE and Range Rover Velar, with "smart wallet" features, the company said. It does not yet have a timetable for when it will be commercially available, said Jaguar, a subsidiary of Tata Motors. The IOTA token is based on a distributed ledger technology that enables people and machines to transfer money and data without any transaction fees. IOTA trades on digital asset exchanges and was last at 27 U.S. cents per token. "The smart wallet technology ... can be easily adapted into all new vehicles," Dominik Schiener, IOTA co-founder and co-chairman of its board, told Reuters on Friday. "IOTA wants to enable interoperability with all these different players. So there is no Jaguar coin, no BMW coin, but one universal token for this machine economy," he added.