Vehicle

[Jamesey1981]

Living in London I have an annoying dilemma: until the S hits the fan, I can only drive a pristine, non-polluting vehicle which complies with the Low Emission Zone regulations, otherwise I have to pay £100 a day to drive it. So the much desired ex-Military Landy is, alas, off the cards as it can only be used after armageddon has hit! Sigh...

Pretty sure the LEZ only applies to commercial vehicles, states "Light 4x4 utility" on their website as the category that will hit an ex army Land Rover, or they could be in the pick up category depending on body style, so if you were to buy one that has rear seats and windows like an old County Station Wagon (SWB only, I think the LWB is legally a minibus!) then you should be ok, can't say for sure as I have never put it to the test but worth a check as if you really want an old Land Rover you may well be able to get one, it'll likely cost more than an ex army one, the countys are pretty sought after as classics now but might be worth it to get away without falling foul of the LEZ.

[defender130]

The LEZ categories for land rovers vary as jamesey has said depending upon whether they are classed as commercial or not, could be wrong but isn't it also different for petrols and diesels

I seem to remember an article in LRO magazine where they were saying a 300tdi defender 90 was not allowed but a 300tdi discovery was even though they are the same engine

I also think (but could be wrong) that something like a station wagon (as mentioned above) is fine even if it was the much thirstier V8 petrol version like the early 110CSW with the 3.5 litre V8 engine

Have a look around ebay etc at vehicles you think might be ok and if you can see the reg number in the listing photos try them in the LEZ checker on the website

You may just find out you can have your landy after all


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[Jamesey1981]

One thing I forgot to mention but if you live in London then you probably already know, the new mayor has a plan to introduce a new Ultra Low Emission Zone that will apply to all vehicles by 2020, so you'll want to check you won't need to drive within that very often too!
https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/ultra- ... ssion-zone
The standard will be Euro 4 for petrol and Euro 6 for diesel, so the oldest diesel car that's compliant will be no older than September last year!

All this could change though since at some point the European emissions standards will cease to apply, and whether whatever they're replaced with is identical or not or whether we'll just keep them anyway no one knows yet.

[ukpreppergrrl]

From what I've read pretty much all the ex-Military vehicles fall foul of the LEZ. Particularly the old diesels which I was most interested in the as I really liked the idea of getting them to run on sunflower oil! Non-military Station Wagons are rather out of my price range unless they are in need of attention, though they are indeed LEZ exempt. So until such times as I leave London I've put the the Landy dream on hold. Instead I've been investigating the Suzuki Grand Vitara, 1.9L diesel, which is post 2005 I think. A genuine 4x4 and does go off road if required, though the advice is to get the after-market lift if you're intending to do it in earnest (presumably by that they mean serious green-laning). Lots of parts, pretty solidly made. I have already checked the registration numbers of a few of them found online and they're all current LEZ exempt. Fortunately I live outside of the currently planned Ultra-LEZ so unless they change the goal-posts again (sigh) I should be ok. As I look like a "soccer mom" I figure the Suzuki would be suitably grey man if needed, more so in fact than an ex-Military Landy! Just got to justify the funding of two, albeit complimentary, cars in a pre-apocalyptic world as I don't want to give up the MX5

[poppypiesdad]

Vehicles that are made before oct 1973 are exempt . Series two lanie anyone

Get one before 1968 for free tax , no mot and clasic car insurance

J

[Jamesey1981]

If you're talking suzukis then I would go for the Jimny (I did, currently selling mine on auto trader as I needed a bigger vehicle, sad to see it go but can't justify two 4x4s) rather than the Vitara, it's tiny and a bit crude on the motorway, and you can't have a diesel unless you import a left hand drive one, but even Suzuki dealers will tell you that the Jimny is better off road than the Vitara, live axles and heavy duty suspension make it a lot closer to the Land Rover that you like, and if you drive an mx5 currently then you won't notice how small they are!
Doesn't have diff locks or traction control but with decent tyres you won't get stuck, even on road tyres I took mine up a stupidly steep snow covered hill in Brighton without a single slip that I would have been wary of in a bigger 4x4.

[defender130]

Well spotted poppiepiesdad although according to the tfl website it is vehicles built before 1st Jan 1973 so series 2, 2a and the very early series 3 Land Rover's would be LEZ exempt

If you have anything registered within the first few months of 1973 and can prove its build date was before 1st Jan then these should be exempt as well I think


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[preparedsurrey]

@ukpreppergirl Just buy yourself a petrol landrover and convert it to lpg and it's exempt from the LEZ no matter what it is down as on the log book van/estate/4x4 light utility whatever.
If fuel is a worry should SHTF then it is possible to run
off an upside down orange propane bottle and there are no limits to storing sensible amounts of lpg at home unlike petrol.

In fact if you were to buy yourself the landrover if your dreams and it happend to have a diesel fitted as long as it's down on the log book as petrol....

[ukpreppergrrl]

I've looked at the Jimny, but its size, or lack thereof, put me off. One of the main justifications I can think of for a second vehicle is that there's only room for me and the cat in the MX5! I can put the rfile in the boot, but only in a slip case as the hard case doesn't fit. So a larger vehicle that could virtually double as a van gets a definite justification tick!

One of the things that has put me off living in London and old exempt Landys (when I first got the Landy bug I was originally looking for a Series 2 from 1967, an excellent year ) is the double clutching! It's bad enough on the left thigh in an MX5 with all the stopping and starting. I also have to confess that I can change a wiper blade, but anything more serious gets tended to by a nice man at the garage. I would like to learn, and part of the Landy fantasy was about learning how to do all the repairs, but other things seem to have risen above vehicle maintenance in the Urgent To Do list.

Oooh...preparedsurrey! You naughty boy! Now you've got me thinking...! The next expensive purchase on the cards is a "silent" generator that is dual fuel and runs on LPG for that exact reason. I seem to recall a website that talked about LPG conversions for Landys...

[Jamesey1981]

You can get more in the Jimny than you would think with the seats down, I used to get two big guys and kit for a day's pigeon shooting reasonably comfortably, including hides, decoys and all the rest, you are right though they're small, and I felt very sorry for anyone that had to sit behind my seat as I needed it pushed all the way back!
The size is the only thing wrong with jimnys in my opinion, I would happily have stayed with one if there was an option of a slightly longer wheelbase and five doors, and a diesel option would have been nice.
There will be a new Jimny at some point and hopefully there will be a bit more choice.