Why a classic Land Rover Defender can cost £7k or £230k

Can a fancy restomod really be 33 times better than the classic 4x4?

What a month for Land Rover Defender residuals, with the announcement of not one but two restoration-and-modification specials.

I also see that we’re deep into territory that I predicted (go me) in 2016, when I thought that within a few years, old Defenders would be rebranded as Defender Classics.

I was partly right: it seems to be Classic Defender, going by the official title bestowed by Land Rover Classic on its most recent few editions.

The latest is the Land Rover Classic Defender V8 by Works Bespoke, perhaps announced now as a reminder to anyone contemplating a Grenadier Detour from Ineos’s new Arcane Works division that the original maker of cars that look like this is still doing a trade in them. Ineos is a company of which JLR, I think it’s fair to say, is no great fan.

The Works etc isn’t the first Defender to get a serious overhaul from Land Rover Classic, with the company basically doing enough to uprate the car without (according to DVLA rules, which should be followed by all restomodders) doing so much that the car ends up with a Q numberplate.

There’s a serious interior makeover on top and, I have to say, an external paint and wheel refresh that makes the 110 that they’ve used for the promotional pictures, on steelies and with a white roof, border on my perfect classic Defender spec.

Also step forward Oxfordshire firm Kingsley Cars. It has done a long line of classic Range Rover restorations and mods and now, apparently under new ownership, it has added Defenders to it too.

It’s not a dissimilar deal to the official Land Rover offering (or to that of other restomodders) in that you can have a V8 should you want to. Kingsley can be more liberal than JLR about the ones it selects, so you could choose a General Motors LS. And there’s quite a nifty configurator, for those of us who are prone to spending time on such things, as I am.

But the thing about both of these and others (I’m also fond of the work done by Twisted) is the cost: from around £168,000 for a car from Kingsley and from £228,000 for something from Land Rover Classic. And the more bespoke you go, the more expensive it gets.

While I totally get that level of pricing for what you might define as exotic classics, it feels weird for a car that started in life – and in many cases still exists in life – as a working vehicle.

The cheapest Defender 90 for sale on Auto Trader as I write is a 1990 2.5-litre turbo diesel pick-up on steel wheels at just under £7000. It appears to be very scruffy around the edges but has a full history and a new MOT and it looks so brilliant that, despite already owning a Defender, I’d quite like it.

There’s only so good you can make an old Defender within the rules of it staying, y’know, a Defender. And I’m not sure that one can really be 33 times better than another.

But the world of Defenders is odd like that. When I briefly toyed with selling mine, a mate considered buying it, and thankfully opted against it. Instead, he picked up an ex-farm car for approximately £10,000 (I forget exactly), spent a few thousand on accessories like an exterior roll cage and a winch and some cool wheels and sold it for almost £30,000.

I’m not sure there’s another vehicle that has such a wild disparity of pricing. Should I ever want or need to sell mine, I think I’ll hit the accessories catalogues first.