Hopefully, I am fairly qualified to answer this having owned many Land Rovers, including a V8 Defender 130 (www.defender130.com), 101's, a Transit County and, now, TWO 4x4 Sprinter vans. If you want a pretty-much-go-anywhere vehicle with lots of storage spaces, there is little to beat the 4x4 Sprinters. I have both my vans converted to minibuses. You have to be careful which version you buy, as there are several permutations. There is a very rare version that has a lo/hi box, but only available with the rear difflock. Most of them appear to be Medium Wheel Base (3.5m) and permanent 4x4 with both centre and rear difflocks and many of them are ex-Utilities. I have a 1998 312D MWB and a 2002 316CDi LWB (the LWB is rare in 4x4). Mine are both currently fitted with BFG MT's and are very capable off-road (with the exception of the restrictions the 4m wheelbase of the LWB gives). Back in 2006, we took the 312D around a built off-road course that Club Land Rover Ireland built and it faired better than all of the shiny Land Rovers there, failing to get stuck once. Most photos I have of that event has a marshal in the background laughing!! (see http://www.sprinter4x4.com/clri.html)
My 316CDi started out life as a 311CDi (2.2 litre 4 cylinder 109PS) and, to be honest, I found it underpowered. I had the engine replaced and, with ECU reprogram, is now 190PS. The 312CDi, whilst being the earlier model, has more torque than the 311CDi and feels quite a lot more powerful, despite similar BHP figures)
The Ford Transit County is junk in comparison. Just be prepared for Mercedes parts prices though :-( When I changed the 4-cyl engine to the longer 5-cyl unit, the shorter gearbox to transfer box driveshaft cost over 700 euros!! Most service items are available on Ebay.
Good luck.
Malcolm.
Co. Meath, Ireland