Given the Land Rover Defender's lifespan and the number of changes it went through during production there are lots of opinions on which versions were built to the best standard. The reality is that even with the constant updates much of the Defender is based on an old design and so was never built to the same standards as a modern conventional car. If you are looking at the last version of the classic Defender we would suggest going for a model built from 2010 onwards, as earlier versions in this generation with the Ford engine had experienced issues with gearboxes and injectors, while 2012-onwards examples use a 2.2-litre version with better emissions and more torque. Models close to the end of production are also likely to be the most expensive, so a model between 2010 and 2014-2015 is likely the sweet spot.