In terms of the car most things we wanted to accomplish are complete. The roof rack and snorkel where already attached when we picked the truck up and we have added a safety features such as the undercarriage protection and then bumperettes ourselves. Meanwhile we have tested the truck on long haul drives on the highway, state roads, back roads and the occasional rural route and even off-road. The truck handles wonderful, here we are not talking about only the technical aspect (we have found the Defender very reliable) but mostly about the comfort. Driving in the Defender in any situation is definitely relaxing. The seats of the 2005 model are cushy and the rear end can definitely take it well no matter what the road situation. The noise, even though the Defender is loud over 110km/h, is bearable and a conversation is possible.

On the inside we have so far only added the TomTom 700 navigation system, but there are still quite a few things we are thinking about putting in the car to make for a smoother ride. The first, and thankfully rather small, investment will be rubber floor mats. Dirt collects in the standard carpet floormats like crazy and the rubber just makes for easier clean up altogether.

We are still debating the importance of a CB radio in the truck, but think we will decide against one for the spain trip. Perhaps if we find that Family Band is not high-end enough for this trip we might upgrade later.

We definitely will be upgrading our car’s head unit though. While it sounds fine, it is a bit on the stingy side in terms of quality and features. Given that we will be spending close to 90 hours in the car during our 3 week tour we are in need of a serious car stereo. We have our sights set on a stereo capable of playing MP3’s from DVDs, 4.7GB of music on one disc – that should put enough music in our CD case to last us for months.