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This was the day that the hunt ended and we collected our brand new Defender 90 from our local Land Rover dealer.

Our hunt began for a defender about 8 weeks prior to this, when we set out to find ourselves a used 1999 - 2000 defender 90 pickup. The year was to ensure that it would have the TD5 engine and also to ensure that it had 3 years minimum of depreciation. We also didn't want something which had been thrashed by a farmer and we were looking for full service history, tidy interior and no major bodywork damage.

As it transpired finding a 90 Pickup was almost impossible let alone one with the spec which we wanted. The problem was, being Ireland, most were bought by farmers who seem to keep them and are not really interested in selling them after only 3 years. Also, being VAT registered if we were to buy a second hand vehicle the seller would have to be VAT registered as well so that there was a proper VAT record in order for us to reclaim it. Again it transpired that most sellers were not.

So after about 3 weeks of full-on searching all over the country and having heard the phrase 'Hen's teeth' as many times as we could handle we decided that we should re-address our brief.

Following on from the commercial theme with the pickup we decided that we would widen the search to include 90 Hardtops as well. The reason for commercial was to avail of the €50 Vehicle Registration Tax and commercial road tax. Also the commercial status would enable us to get cheap insurance as we can combine the car with our land and house insurance.

So with our wider brief we hit the phones again. Immediately the response was more positive. Unfortunately though most of the ones that we went to drive had been badly neglected by the previous owners. Even used models at dealers were in a bad state of repair especially considering the price that they were asking. This left us in a bit of a quandary: Do we settle for a used defender with a lot of tidying required, or do we look at a new defender which initially commands a higher price but you get the benefit of 3yrs warranty, a new un-thrashed car and you can be assured of reclaiming the VAT.

So after a re-calculation of our figures we decided to plump for the new motor, and above you can see us collecting it.

The spec of the final car is: - Defender 90 Hardtop - 2.5 Ltr TD5 - Alveston red - Full County pack - Adjustable towing pack - Side and rear steps - Front and rear light guards - Mud flaps all round - Boost alloys with locknuts - Load bay liner