1984 Land Rover 110 County Station Wagon

Imagine you’re stranded in the mountains. You’ve stuffed your car in a ditch, a pack of wolves are howling in the background, and heavy snow is falling. The temperature is plummeting and the daylight is rapidly dwindling. You’ve got no mobile phone signal and your children’s teeth are chattering with the onset of hypothermia.

And then, out of the swirling gloam strides a mountain man. Well over six feet tall, his beard is unkempt, his clothes are shabby, and he carries a huge axe over one shoulder. He strides over to your car and asks, in a surprisingly educated voice, if you need any help.

You relax instinctively. You might be outside your comfort zone but he’s as calm as if he were out for a summer’s evening stroll in the local park. His appearance might be forbidding but you trust him. You know you’re going to be safe.

This Land Rover 110 County is that man.

In the care of the seller since September 2019, this wonderfully patinated 110 County (it didn’t become the Defender until 1989, although only pedants like us make the distinction these days…) does not wear its years lightly. It’s got dents, scrapes, dinks and even the odd patch of rust – and it looks utterly magnificent.

Finished in two-tone Roan Brown and Limestone in the County style, its rugged factory good looks have been supplemented by one of the largest roof racks we’ve ever seen, plus oodles of chequer plate to protect its vulnerable areas. (Yes, even a Land Rover is capable of vulnerability sometimes.)

There are light guards too, plus extra lighting, a shovel, and some grab handles. Side-steps as well, for vertically challenged passengers and easier access to the roof.

It’s also got a winch packed with synthetic cable plus a towbar at the back all the better for pulling itself, and others, out of trouble.

Speaking of which, the steel wheels are fitted with a set of four BF Goodrich T/A KO2 tyres, possibly the finest multi-purpose all-terrain tyre ever made. Someone clearly knows their stuff – and they’re all 265/75R16 too, so they’re a bit bigger than normal all the better to claw their way out of whatever bad luck you’ve got yourself into. They were new in 2019 too, so their tread depth can still be measured in good old imperial inches.

We will never get tired of telling you that experience shows that matching high-quality tyres are an infallible sign of a caring and mechanically sympathetic owner who is prepared to spend the appropriate amount in maintaining their car properly. Their presence does not, of course, preclude the need for a thorough inspection - something the vendor would welcome, by the way – but it does perhaps give you a shortcut into their attitude towards maintenance.

In fact, our only disappointment is the spare wheel on the rear door, which is a road-biased anticlimax rather than the matching BFG we’d prefer to see. Still, if you threw a couple of hundred pounds at that problem we think it’d be perfect.

The interior’s bare-bones functionality has been enhanced with a few carefully chosen extras such as additional switches, a compass, and a bottle opener.

There’s even a fancy-pants Bluetooth headunit with a motorised slide-out screen.

Don’t go thinking this is a hipster special though because nothing could be further from the truth.

The back of the rear seats is ripped (#21), the side-facing bench seats are padded with nothing more comfortable than sheets of thick rubber matting, and the black leather front seats don’t match the rest.

But, don’t let any of this put you off because it, like the exterior, reeks of the sort of hard-won authenticity no recent resto-mod can ever hope to match.

Sure, no one is ever going to get in it and run a hand over the dashboard and sigh lovingly. Well, not until you’ve pulled them out of a ditch and are ferrying them to safety in a storm, anyway.

As for work to do, we think the floors are going to need some attention soon as there’s a smattering of rust over them. You could keep patching it or you could replace the whole floorpan. Either way, few vehicles are easier to strip down and work on than this.

The original 2.5-litre diesel engine has been junked in favour of a replacement 200TDI, quite possible the most reliable engine Land Rover ever fitted and the one that sat under the Defender’s bonnet from 1989 onwards. It’s decently powerful, almost civilized, and surprisingly frugal.

It’s a Good Choice.

As you can see, it fires straight up and idles well. It’s muted too, thanks to vast quantities of sound-deadening.

It’s had a new alternator in 2021 plus more than £1,600 on electrical rewiring work in 2022 and the same again in 2023 for welding and repairs to the braking system, both by RACE Ltd. AJS 4X4 carried out almost two thousand pounds of work in 2021 too, and all this was preceded by £3,000-worth of miscellaneous fettling by CSK Automotive in 2019 (#360).

This is not a Land Rover that’s been limping from one MoT to another. “I’ve concentrated on getting the bits you can’t see working properly,” the owner told us. “It’s important to me that it does what it should and that it does it reliably.”

The underside saw some restorative work in 2016-ish, as you can see from the attached invoices. It looks good and the MoT history is remarkably free of mentions of structural corrosion.

And, while we’re on the subject of the annual test, its MoT certificate, which is valid until August 2023, was gained, like the one before, with no advisories a feat that must be unique in the annals of Land Rover history, surely?

Its history file includes a thick wad of old receipts and invoices, a current V5 registration document, and a bunch of expired MoT certificates.

The recent Vehicle History Check is clean.

Land Rover owners tend to fall into one of two categories, the first of which like buying Stuff and then Bolting It On. Heh, we’re not judging because there is more than one of us here who lives like that and enjoys every moment.

The second category comprises those for whom form over function is an alien concept. The sort of folk who are happy to pay thousands of pounds to keep their Landy running perfectly but would rather spend the seat cover money on diesel for their next adventure.

You know which category you fit into and if it’s the latter then you need to make an appointment to pop along to take a look at this one because we’re ever so slightly smitten - and we think you might be, too especially given the estimate of only £10,000 to £13,000.

Oh, and it’ll qualify for historic status next year, which means all you city dwellers who’ve had to sell their beloved Defenders because you can’t afford the ULEZ charge can jump straight in and enjoy exemption from 2024.

Viewing is always encouraged, and this particular car is located with us at The Market HQ near Abingdon; we are open weekdays 9am-5pm, to arrange an appointment please use the Contact Seller button at the top of the listing. Feel free to ask any questions or make observations in the comments section below, or try our ‘Frequently Asked Questions’.