Land Rover® 90 *SERIES 001 – Incredible Spec* (VUY)

For sale, Land Rover® 90 Ragtop in Deep Bronze Green (1986). 

200TDI Diesel. MOT with no advisories until 14th July 2026 – will be MOT & Tax Exempt in April 2027! Power Steering. Front Disc Brakes. Stereo & Speakers. Apple CarPlay & Android Auto. 2 Former Keepers since release from British Army in 2003 – very late release. 750 Chevron Tyres & Wolf Steel Wheels. Wheel Spacers. Recent Sand Canvas with Side Windows. 6 Seater – Deluxe Front High Back Seats with Rear Tip Ups. Seat Belt Bar with Roll Hoop. “Land Rover” Rear Mud Flaps. Swing Away Wheel Carrier with Matching Spare. Side Opening Rear Tailgate. Full Clear LED Lighting Package with “HALO” DRL Headlights. Galvanised Front Bumper with Rubber End Caps. JB 4×4 “Series” refurbishment. 12V Socket for charging phones, tablets or sat navs. 116,508 miles from new – just 2987 miles a year!

We are delighted to present for sale this 1986, early C Registration Land Rover® 90, which will be MOT & Tax Exempt on 1st April 2027 under current rules and regulations. This particular vehicle has been subjected to a “Series” refurbishment by the team at HQ – we have long since wondered what a proper homage to the Series Land Rover® might look like, and the team have worked hard to create a Series recreation with lots of nice touches.. and the spec on this vehicle, as well as the benefits, are enormous – we will try not to wax on too long about this truck – but if you are a keen reader, we’re sure you’ll get a flavour below!

Externally, we are sure the eagle-eyed future keeper will see the obvious hallmarks of a Series Land Rover® – but, we would not be doing our job if we did not outline these items anyway… from the number plate on a bracket, to the galvanised front bumper, the Deep Bronze Green LRC001 Series paint colour, the steel wheels with our 750 Chevron 4×4 tyres, the “Land Rover” classic badged rear mud flaps with exhaust cut out, the silver body cappings as per a Series rather than the Defender body colour, the wing top chequer plate, the front grill and light surrounds in contrasting silver – the list goes on – even the doors are Series without lots of complicating cables for motors and windows – simple, sliding windows which work every time… not just some of the time like later ones can do.

The team at HQ have also been careful to ensure that a Series homage does not mean it is lacking items which a new keeper may want/need- a full clear LED light set, including the number plate light, fog lights and side repeaters, has been fitted for increased reliability and improved visibility – subtle “HALO” LED headlights with daytime running lights are also fitted, giving far superior night driving – something which is extremely welcome during the reduced daylight hours time of year. The matching spare is stowed on a SwingAway wheel carrier, which not only looks great, but can also be moved for superior access to the rear (more on this later..). In our opinion, this is the perfect homologation between a Series look and a Defender – and based on the comments from those who’ve passed through the showroom as we’ve refurbished this vehicle, and on our test route – we’d hope you agree.

However, don’t think that those external Series tweaks mean that on the inside things are unpleasant – in the front, there are a pair of deluxe high back seats with integrated headrests, and a seat belt bar with built in roll over hoop for additional protection and 3 point inertia seat belts. There is a deluxe matting set too, which is rubberised so that muddy boots or dogs don’t damage the interior – it also acts as a barrier of sound deadening and such “made to measure” kits are an expensive item today worth several hundred pounds alone. OEM floor mats sit on top of these which are also rubber for easier cleaning. The original centre seta position houses a cubby box, which has cup holders for the drive through, and is useful for keeping items out of sight when so desired. The central cubby box also houses the stereo and speakers… and those will notice the fitment of a touch screen system on the dash, which is compatible both wired and wireless for Android Auto or Apple CarPlay – a complete game changer in terms of interior technology…. no longer is one lumbered with just an FM Stereo or an AUX cable – now, you can answer calls, messages, listen to Spotify, or run Waze/Google Maps for directions – it brings the interior in line with exactly what you’d expect… even above the very last 2015 Defender 90s which did not have these items as standard – let alone a central touch screen from factory. A 12v supply is fitted to charge your phone whilst driving, which we’re all very used to these days. The rear houses four individual tip up rear seats to bring seating for six people including the driver – and the canvas with side windows means it is light and airy back here, as well as easier to drive thanks to easier blind spot monitoring. The rear tailgate is side opening to aid with passenger loading, which is another nice and welcome touch if you’ve got kids, dogs or bikes back here for easier loading and unloading without a high “boot line” of a drop down tailgate. A rear load mat is fitted for rear floor protection.

This may look like a Series, but that doesn’t mean it goes like one…. not only does this early Land Rover® 90 benefit from 200TDI power and diesel injection for superior reliability, but also power steering is fitted to make parking or town work a doddle – if you plan to have your wife, kids, or husband (we don’t judge here!) drive your Land Rover®, this really does make all the difference. Front disc brakes mean superior stopping, which is welcome. Five gears instead of the four you’d find in a Series means that modern road speeds are easier to achieve and maintain. This may look like a period machine (and that is the point) – but you’d find it hard to tell any major differences over a later Defender 90.

So, what we have here then is a vehicle which you can jump into, pull your belt from over your shoulder, just like your modern car at home, hook your phone up for your tunes and navigation, with the whole family, and away you go. This may not sound like a revolutionary idea to the uninitiated – but to those who’ve stepped into an early Defender or a Series before – fighting with a static belt and trying to adjust it, and having no ability to even charge your phone, let alone actually use it to navigate or play music – will know what a “big deal” this is. Perhaps the biggest USP is one we haven’t touched on though – the fact this vehicle, with all those internal upgrades and the mechanical ones too – has no ECU, no onboard sensors or OBD ports – there is nothing on this vehicle one could not maintain at home using YouTube or a Haynes Manual – and no matter where in the world you find yourself with this vehicle – this entire truck is an example of good, old fashioned mechanical engineering – no more chasing error codes like a later TD5 or TDCI – everything here can be adjusted with a 13mm spanner and a hammer!

No longer will you be a slave to the dealer – and no longer will the later electronic engineering be “sticking its smug nose in” – no annoying lane departure systems fighting the steering wheel and driving you into the kerb because they’re designed for enormous, wide American roads (not the Cotswolds or the Yorkshire Moors!), no over cautious autonomous emergency braking stamping on and almost causing you to be rear ended and road raged because you are within 500m of the car ahead, no constant loud and distracting beeping at you when it has misread the 40mph speed limit as a 30/20mph one – get in and it is yours to drive…. we wonder if can you tell the writer of this advert suffers this daily in a modern Land Rover® 4×4….. it takes 3 sub menus before every journey to turn it all off… and it force defaults it ALL back to on when you turn it off!

We haven’t even got to the best bit yet – often people ask us, why would I pick a vehicle like this over a later Defender 90 TD5/TDCI? Obviously, we have covered quite a bit about the far simplified maintenance and repair, especially without compromising creature comforts – but the biggest of all is the fact that on 1st April 2027, this vehicle will become MOT & Tax Exempt – no road tax to pay, and MOT process to go through each year. If you did decide to buy a TD5 or TDCI, the vast majority of these vehicles now fall into the recent revised road tax bands, meaning they can be £730 a year, every year – just to tax! There is a long MOT with no advisories on this 90 too – which is always a bonus – and it’ll only need one more to make the date of exemption.

Whether you are sick of putting money into the governments back pocket – or you want to keep this vehicle from 2027 onwards at a holiday home abroad and use it for 90 days a year on British plates without registering it, or you just don’t like having your wallet exploited every year by a main dealer – this Defender negates all of that, whilst looking vintage cool, feeling broadly the same to drive and being tech future proofed for the next 20 years thanks to the addition of smart phone integration…. and the whole family can come on any excursion you plan – whether it is a trip to the pub on a Sunday, the beach, the woods with the bikes – or for the less adventurous type – McDonalds drive through (again, at HQ we don’t judge and we won’t tell!). We really think this is a great option for a client who wants that vintage look with a truck far better suited to more frequent use – and we don’t envisage it will be in stock for long.

SOLD