MADNESS: How far would you go for a car?

Madelyn Holmes
5 days ago
4 min read

Well, it was my misfortune that left me in the position of buying another vehicle after my pride and joy Defender 90 was declared a total loss last year.

The first part I might share another time, but this is the saga that followed...

Obviously, buying anything other than a Land Rover was out of the question, and there was little deliberation before I decided on another Defender.

The real questions were: 90 or a 110? Classic or new? Puma or another generation?

I spent countless hours spent going back and forth, painstakingly analysing every (and I mean every) suitable listing across various online sales platforms.

Then I inspected half a dozen vehicles in person, only to find they weren't the right fit for what I wanted and were generally in worse mechanical condition than described.

Call me particular, but I was determined to make the best of a bad situation and for that reason I would keep searching until I found the 'perfect' car.

Early on, I’d saved a 2015 Defender 110 that caught my eye – until I noticed it was in Perth and promptly dismissed it given I'm based in regional Queensland.

After four unsuccessful months, it didn't seem so far-fetched anymore and I requested some more information.

Complete service history - tick, limited offroad use - tick, low odometer reading - tick, tasteful modifications - tick.

Being 4000+ kilometres away, the next logical step was to book a mechanic to inspect it on my behalf.

It came back with a handful of notes but no deal breakers, so I paid a deposit and booked flights to Perth to see the car for myself.

Meanwhile, the questions swirling in my head included (but weren’t limited to):

‘Am I mad for considering a car on the other side of the country?’ ‘Will it meet my expectations?’ ‘How do I get it home?’ ‘Am I asking for disaster if I drive a car I'm not familiar with across the continent?’ ‘Do I get it transported and hope it arrives unscathed?’ ‘How much is this harebrained idea going to cost me?’ ‘What do you mean WA doesn’t require a roadworthy for ownership transfer?’…

So I flew 6.5hrs+, sorted out the purchasing paperwork, got some jobs done and put it in storage until I could return with enough time to get it home in July.

At this point, I’d driven the car 500km at best and in a few months I was expecting it to do 20 times that with a good portion spent remote and/or in 4x4.

Still, when else was I going to have such a perfect opportunity to do a one-way road trip across Australia?

By the time July arrived, I‘d done as much as possible from afar: drop shipping spare parts over, sending a selection of tools and camp gear, weighing luggage and keeping lists of other everything else to be done once we arrived.

I felt prepared but conflictingly anxious.

We had grand plans to drive to Steep Point, the westernmost point of mainland Australia, before venturing across the Nullarbor and cutting through outback New South Wales towards home.

I arrived to a flat battery and a thick layer of dust, but – most pleasingly – not a trace of oil on the garage floor.

Before you ask – yes, it had oil in it.

After a few days in Perth stocking up on supplies, packing and checking things over we set off.

The idea was to keep things stripped back, using a dome swag and basic camping gear – partly by choice, and partly due to budget and logistical limitations.

So, how did it go? Anticlimactic, perhaps.

There were no mechanical issues (aside from a typical clunky driveline that I'll sort out in the near future), generally good weather and only a few days where we were slowed down by sickness.

The community was quite the opposite and made for a nice reminder of why buying a Defender was the right choice.

We were lucky enough to catch up with several friends from the Land Rover world along the way, including Geoff from Seriously Series.

I even ran into the 110’s previous owner at a campsite three hours north-east of Perth – the odds of that happening must have been pretty slim…

As for the scenery, I'll let my images do most of the talking as this could be another article in itself.

My sightseeing highlights from the trip included exploring Kalbarri, driving the Zuytdorp Cliffs, photographing the rich landscapes of Francois Peron National Park, finding caves along the Nullarbor and seeing the Flinders Ranges.