I BOUGHT THIS EPIC CRASHED LAND ROVER DEFENDER 110 UNSEEN!...

I bought an awesome Land Rover Defender 110 unseen from a salvage auction, it was a massive gamble because it was expensive... but the more I look at it the more I wonder why it was even written off? Am I going to find massive hidden damage?

[hambojock]

Lack of delivery dates for some parts is a major part of Insurers writing off JLR vehicles at present. You could soon rack up another £5k in storage and car hire costs for several months whilst waiting for parts.

[Josh-qvsk]

Great car for the channel Dean! I’ve been hoping a salvage channel will pick one of these up! Looking forward to it!

[swdman]

I managed to put a slight crease in the front passenger door edge and it cost me nearly £900 so £5K for an entire front assembly sounds great. I was also rear ended by a van when it was 6 months old (20 plate) and it stood up really well but the dealer insisted the deployable tow bar needed replacing and it tools months as it was on back order.

[evilutionltd]

I just bought and repaired a 6 month old 422bhp Smart Brabus #1 on my channel. It was written off in 300 miles by the previous owner.
They wrote it off Cat S as well but the only structural damage I found was a golf ball size dent at the top of the A pillar. The rest of the damage was superficial.
Cost about 4K in parts, body repair work and spraying.

New, the car is £44, 500 and I got it for 18K. So fixed it only cost just North of 22K. The reason it was written off was because they had no information on the arrival dates of some required parts so the insurance company could have been supplying a suitable replacement (like a Tesla Model Y) for in excess of 3 months so they cut their losses. Thankfully the parts only took 6 weeks so now I'm onto the proper job of modifying it.

[wynhughes]

Although it's £5k for parts ( They haven't told you yet if some of those parts are on back order? )I would have thought the labour charges plus courtesy car rental over a prolonged time period would more than doubled that cost.

[StaticVapour]

We have had a few Jaguars and Land Rovers at our shop beginning of this year and spare part delivery times for Jaguar were like 2-3 weeks for engine mounts, exhaust components and brake hoses. Land Rover was similar case with door lock bowden cables and other smaller bits. During the "component crisis" part delivery times were like month or two. Maybe they wrote the car off due to part availability or the insurance company was simply given way too high of an estimate for repairs by shop(s)

[adrianward]

Maybe the delay on parts which made it not viable.

[TBGRocks]

I certainly didn't see this one coming!! Looking forward to this.

[LonelyPickle-mr]

What’s the lead time on the parts? My best mate works for Direct Line as an assessor, they write a lot of JLR stuff off because of the lead time of the parts.

Also, separately check the steering rack for cracks theres an issue with the, cracking.

[davidmatthews]

Beware of the ingenium engine Dean, its a woeful engine and is plaqued with continuous problems that JLR failed to cure, timing chains are most common and I personally have changed these engines with chain failure with less than 10k miles, I haven't known an ingenium get past 50k without issues, the lifters seize in the head because JLR recommend in my opinion the wrong oil, they're just a nightmare full stop ! Timing chain is gearbox end and is a absolute nightmare to change and the chain is so pathetically small it looks like something from a mini moto, that's what happens when an engine designed to run on petrol gets converted to run on diesel, as this exactly what the ingenium is, it works fine as a petrol engine but not up to the task of a diesel engine, if your thinking of keeping this vehicle please bare this in mind as what I'm saying is 100% genuine from previous experience as as a JLR master tech 👍

[uiscebeatha]

I think you are the first channel to do one of these. I think it will make for a good series.

[georgedaville]

Never run a JLR without a warranty! Gap insurance is also good value back to invoice when written off. Lots of older Évoqués and Discovery Sports in the market all at around 50-60 miles coming off PCP.! All could potentially have an engine issue looming ? Great content Dean, j hope it’s us a sweet one for you. Think carefully about using in your business as a tow vehicle, could be an expensive move! 🤔

[Porky]

It may well be parts availability…. We’ve waited months for JLR parts there could also be possible storage charges and like for like courtesy/hire car charges at ridiculous costs, it’s just far cheaper to write cars off and pay costumer out which is usually a finance or lease company.

[scottallman]

They will include labour probably over 100 an hour plus bonnet wing and allowance for anything they might have missed so my guess is it was borderline so they just played safe and wrote it off

[chrisevans]

I have been waiting for one of these to be salvaged, great!

[martinhenrybezer]

I like them ... like the kit on it makes it look better ... as for the fix ?? ...

[brentgilmore]

Great purchase my friend! Thats my favorite Model. I see one parked in our Doctors lot at work and it’s awesome! We don’t see many over here in East Texas USA

[eQuASiANXane]

I knew i recognised that plate! Service documents confirmed it was local to me. What a donut that lad was.

[steveegginton]

Interesting to see you tackling a non VAG car for a change. Lots of reports of parts supply problems with JLR recently which may have been a factor in the decission to write this one off. Having said that there seem to be lots of crazy things going on in the car insurance world just now hence the outrageous price hikes!! Anyway could be a good result for you look forward to the rebuild.👍

[James_Watson]

Awesome find Dean, good luck! I've got one and love it, reckon you will too when it's done!