Santana PS10
Jan 11th, 2008
Once upon a time, many years ago there were twin 4×4s - one lived on her farm in Britain, one in Spain.
They grew apart, they grew up, and they had children.
We know one of those children well - the Land Rover Defender.
Meet the cousin!
Santana used to make Land Rovers under licence, and like the Defender, this is a development of the old Series III.
Unlike the Landy, the Santana has selectable 4×4 and in low range there is no centre diff (I don’t think there’s one at all - a big consideration if you’re looking to buy one for towing). The low 1st gear is very similar to the new low 1st on the 2007 Landy, and is wonderful for crawling down rocky slopes. The 2.8l Iveco engine seems solid enough - another van engine for another van - you can see why Landy looked to the Transit for their engine can’t you.
The other big difference is that the Santana is still on cartsprings. Leaf springs all round do mean that the load capacity is huge - loads more than an unmodified Defender. Unfortunately it does mean that on road it feels like it was designed around the same time as the Morris Minor (……oh yeah, it was!). You can only get a long wheel base (110 equivalent) at the moment, though there is a SWB in Spain.
Off road it’s great to be honest - in cross axle situations the articulation doesn’t seem quite so good as the Defender, but I may have been imagining that - in all other respects, it seems slightly better than the TD5 and pretty much on a par with the 2007.
And considering that it’s about £3 grand cheaper - why wouldn’t you consider it?
Well there’s a couple of reasons - first and foremost of these is that it’s not a Defender. There really is an emotional attatchment for me which would make me feel like I was cheating somehow!
From a logical point of view - spares and repairs are less simple due to parts (though not impossible, everything is pretty simple). Some reports suggest that the transfer box is not the most robust thing in the world, and others suggest that neither is the front axle, but realistically - how many of us have ever bought a brand new Defender and had no problems with it?!
So if you need to lug heavy weights across country - it may be worth looking into. For the price of a soft roader you can have the real thing.
With a bit of pressure they may even bring in the very good looking short wheel base version this year!