Bring a Trailer Defender Auction Criticism

WreckITFrank

Technical Excellence Contributor
Not BAT, but a damn fine BAT candidate.


Article that brought me to this gem.
 

JimC

Super Moderator
Staff member
Good grief. Anywhere in there is there any explanation of who this guy is and why he is some kind of authority? Im really sensitive to this since that Ben Folge dude wrote a crap book about Land Rovers in which he discovers and reveals great quantities of inaccurate information.
 

erover82

Well-known member
Listening to a few of the podcasts, they sound like a pair of trust-fund babies who maintain constantly changing fleets of whatever vehicles tickle their fancy. Unfortunately it seems these clowns are into LRs. As such, they're desperate to convince the internet that they are the foremost authorities on the realm of their whimsical toys.
 

JimC

Super Moderator
Staff member
Let’s be honest, this is a deeply unimpressive build. This was cobbled together with a bunch of leftover parts from other projects and involved purchasing as few new parts as possible. I particularly love the grill that has been drilled out to allow air flow to the trans cooler even when the appropriate part is available. The price is already too high at 18k but the usual cast of salad tossers are busy hyping it up and engaging in circular congratufellation.

 

Z.G

Well-known member
Let’s be honest, this is a deeply unimpressive build. This was cobbled together with a bunch of leftover parts from other projects and involved purchasing as few new parts as possible. I particularly love the grill that has been drilled out to allow air flow to the trans cooler even when the appropriate part is available. The price is already too high at 18k but the usual cast of salad tossers are busy hyping it up and engaging in circular congratufellation.


While you are correct about it being cobbled together with leftover parts, having seen this truck in person I'd still say it surpasses most of the BaT trash. Originally built with spare parts for a fun custom length 110(has 90" rear overhang), turned into a bit too nice of a build to wheel.
 

JimC

Super Moderator
Staff member
Zack, I appreciate that the seller is representing the truck honestly, but let’s be realistic, it’s not too nice to wheel. It’s perfect for thrashing. The comments are the worst, like usual.
 

Z.G

Well-known member
Zack, I appreciate that the seller is representing the truck honestly, but let’s be realistic, it’s not too nice to wheel. It’s perfect for thrashing. The comments are the worst, like usual.

That definitely depends on your budget! It's the perfect truck to wheel if you want to spend the $30k+ that it'll probably go for on BaT
 

Uncle Douglas

Well-known member
Callsign: delete
Zack, I appreciate that the seller is representing the truck honestly, but let’s be realistic, it’s not too nice to wheel. It’s perfect for thrashing. The comments are the worst, like usual.
Seller isn't the builder. Drew built that truck for himself to wheel and sold it to Devin when it was 80% done and then finished it to Devin's spec.
Was excited Drew was building himself a trail rig so we could go wheeling but when the bonatti paint job turned out much better than expected it was destined to be sold. His current project is a 148 inch soft top with full size 2nd row doors.
 
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JimC

Super Moderator
Staff member
ive heard of someone giving up because a paint job or something else goes bad, but I’ve never heard of someone giving up because it went too well. Crazy, so this just became a new category of weirdness for BaT: Someone reputable builds a truck to be used and it gets transmogrified into an amazing restoration by with comments section.
 

JimC

Super Moderator
Staff member
Who pays almost a hundred large for this? It’s unethical to be pushing these Turkish trucks with sub-Maaco refurb jobs but it’s monumentally stupid to buy one. I remain dumbfounded and refuse to believe that this 20-something huckster has tapped into a vein of market idiocy that better builders haven’t.


Crimes:
- Incomplete repaint, the inside of the bulkhead is still white, bottom of sills still white, wheels still white on the inside
- Old seals, the alpine window seals have white paint on them from being masked
- Beginnings of rust through on the rear chassis rails by crossmember
- Rubberized undercoating chassis restoration (hasn’t been run enough to even burn off the exhaust)
- Torn out holes on rear tie-down
- Drag link ball joint has torn bush and needs replacing
- Wrong badge stuck on grill doesn’t even cover holes
- Didnt replace the radiator hose after it got cut by the tensioner puller, just did a butt-joint and called it good
- Paint where it shouldn’t be in the latches, on door seals, roof side seals, windshield seal, thresholds, door checks, strikers, door hinge buffets, on the lug nuts, etc
- Rear shoulder belts MIA
- No door seals on the bottoms of the doors (the removed and discarded the old-style ones that were mounted to the sill)
- Whose arm would go on that armrest?
- Lassa tires?
 

worldofinflation

Active member
I think the key thing to understand here w/r/t all the Defender auction madness is that it probably typifies how much wealth has accumulated among certain groups in our country since 2008. Paying an extra $60k over fair market isn't really a big deal for more people than I think we'd suspect.

Call it an "I want that exact thing in my driveway next week" premium -- something that has zero option value for most enthusiasts on this site.

Just my .02
 
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