Toby Savage – contributor

Driving 4×4 Magazine’s Jeep Wrangler for the first time, it struck me just how much the basic design had improved over the years, while retaining the same core values as my own 1943 model. This was now a truck that was twice as fast and had twice as many gears, as I discovered 30 miles into my first drive, when I looked down at the gear lever and saw the number ‘6’, just below ‘5’ on the gear lever knob. Suddenly, everything was quieter! As it was such a pleasant day and the Jeep was a new toy for me, I opted to have a quick run up a local greenlane, to assess its performance. On the dry, baked earth it was easy, but bouncy going. The big coil springs soaked up the bumps well and the 2.8-litre common rail diesel engine certainly had ample power.

Wayne Mitchelson – contributor

Probably the worst thing a bloke can do while messing about on eBay is to drink a bottle of wine. I did that very thing, and the next morning my worst fears woke me. I’m sure I bought a Defender last night? Through one blurred eye I turned on the Mac and to my horror, yes, in the bought items was one Woodcoat green Td5 90. Fortunately, the Defender was not a million miles away and I did actually need a vehicle. A couple of days later, there on my drive stood my most expensive eBay buy-it-now item ever – that £4.90 bottle of Shiraz cost me almost £8000.

In the sober light of day, the bodywork was battered and bruised, the interior looked shabby and torn and the All Terrains were the slick type. Not quite the exiting purchase I hoped for, but it had potential. I had owned a 90 several years earlier and loved it dearly, so I knew that, with a little effort and a few dollars more, I could turn this pig’s ear into a smart, every day do-all Defender.