The new defender

[8ob]

Land rover are still one of the UK`s best selling 4x4`s despite a few issues, I would imagine there will be enough of a following for the new Defender to make it another runaway success . Strange how successful the brand has become when you considering who owns it.

Bob

 

[anto44]

85 ECUs says the hamster, that would be a lot of electronics to protect when wading.

85 pfft amateurs, Audi are well over 200 on the Q jeeps

 

[R-D-R]

I love it, had deposit down with the dealer for 6 months and confirmed today my interest in ordering an X. I am not a Defender owner and never have been, I learnt to drive in a series and have been a fan ever since. I have had 5x discovery 3/4s all from new in the last 15 years and also bought Mrs RDR two too. Picked up a D5 last sunday which is getting a bit too range rover for our use case. Don't offroad we just need to pull trailers and bowsers across fields which i don't class as off roading. The Defender with the rubber interior will be perfect for the outdoors family that we are with massive dogs and 3 kids. My original D3 was the best and this looks the perfect modern version of it. Cant wait

 

[seriesonewelder]

We were doing the same at work, did you add the jump leads for a mere £125?

Yes, but not the dog bowl.

My take on the new Defender as a Land Rover enthusiast of 40 years is this:-
I wanted it to be true to its roots as something for the farmer, industry and so on, with power take off's & winches front and back, offered with a choice of 27 body styles as standard from the factory as it was back in the Series days, for the advertising to say 'the worlds most versatile vehicle' again. I knew that it wasn't going to be like this however and I'm still disappointed that it isn't!

Hopefully the utility version will tick the right boxes and be priced competitively with the Japanese etc vehicles are. It's needed as when I was at the forestry show last year I couldn't find my L200 when I returned to the car park, as it was lost in a sea of pick-ups and vans. Then I was struck at how LR had lost out on this sector of the market.

 

[brewdexta]

When I searched for tow bars, all I could find was an electrically retractable tow ball for a grand and some automated towing reversing app for a trailer which I felt wasn't really aimed at seasoned utility users.

The latter sounds good though, when I first started towing the short single axle pig trailer, all the employees of the local agricultural suppliers would come out to laugh at my attempts at reversing.

 

[ronan]

Its not aimed at the builder, gamekeeper or farmer like the old ones were, a cross between a tractor and a car. Its being aimed at the school mums who wear wax jackets and green wellies, even though they live in a well off suburb. I see it all the time at the nieces school.

 

[snowcat]

Yes, but not the dog bowl.

My take on the new Defender as a Land Rover enthusiast of 40 years is this:-
I wanted it to be true to its roots as something for the farmer, industry and so on, with power take off's & winches front and back, offered with a choice of 27 body styles as standard from the factory as it was back in the Series days, for the advertising to say 'the worlds most versatile vehicle' again. I knew that it wasn't going to be like this however and I'm still disappointed that it isn't!

Hopefully the utility version will tick the right boxes and be priced competitively with the Japanese etc vehicles are. It's needed as when I was at the forestry show last year I couldn't find my L200 when I returned to the car park, as it was lost in a sea of pick-ups and vans. Then I was struck at how LR had lost out on this sector of the market.

I have a feeling the utility version will still be for office boys who play with 5 acres at the weekend.... Iv remarked before that the market is crying out for something better than the jap pickups we use l200s but there a massive compromise, Like many of my colleagues though Id almost have to be given a LR to use for work as there reputation for there love of tilt and slides is now legendary.... That's without factoring in that I could go out and buy 5 l200s for the price of one defender.....

 

[R-D-R]

When I searched for tow bars, all I could find was an electrically retractable tow ball for a grand and some automated towing reversing app for a trailer which I felt wasn't really aimed at seasoned utility users.

The latter sounds good though, when I first started towing the short single axle pig trailer, all the employees of the local agricultural suppliers would come out to laugh at my attempts at reversing.

the configurator is messed up at the moment you can get a proper fixed multi height towbar my dealer confirmed today. the tow assist stuff is brilliant i have it now.

 

[sako243]

I think this is a good read
https://www.evo.co.uk/opinion/22767...that-the-new-land-rover-defender-needs-to?amp

Although around this neck of the woods a utility version wouldn't go amiss if it's up to scratch. The local Western Power guys still run a fleet of Defenders. I remember years ago chatting with them and they actually installed a weigh bridge at one of their depots because VOSA kept pulling them for being I overweight. They said that often by the time they'd loaded the HSE equipment they'd have another van with the actual stuff for the job . I remember asking about their setup and they all run huge hydraulic winches on the front, not for recovery (quicker to find the farmer with a tractor), but for pulling cables through runs. The jap pickup stuff while comfier just gets stuck too easily. Another acquaintance who has a friend who works for Western Power over England way said they also keep they've got a cherished fleet of cherry picker variants. They tried jap pickup based ones and had real issues with chassis snapping because of the extra load.

Mind you, down here people are sensible . The local councils and firebrigade don't deal with flooding, like I witnessed in the SE. They simply have some funds set aside to cover the red diesel for the local farmers / contractors. They've got nothing that can compete with a several hundred horsepower tractor attached to a slurry pump .

Remember years ago when this all started off the local river rose up 10s of feet and broke its banks into a field next to a church. Firebridage turned up a started shoring up the banks with sandbags and started pumping the field back into the river downstream. Local farmer turned up with slurry pump, drove into the field, dropped outlet into the river and left the tractor ticking over, problem solved. Since then the council just keep the contact details of the slurry pumps to hand.

 

[Moose McAlpine]

Its not aimed at the builder, gamekeeper or farmer like the old ones were, a cross between a tractor and a car. Its being aimed at the school mums who wear wax jackets and green wellies, even though they live in a well off suburb. I see it all the time at the nieces school.

Exactly this. Even a lot of the last Defenders were sold to people who want the image or a status symbol. And the price of them was outragous for how rubbish they are and their dreadful ergonomics and cheap nasty cabin. The new one is the polar opposite, selling the Defender image to LR's target market but with much better equipment, quality and comfort.

Much like the G-wagen, although that was always better built than the Defender, i'm sure they'll sell loads. I see load of G63s and they're about £120k new.

 

[Beeezer]

Rather have a lada niva Cossack, brilliant things as capable as any proper defender.

 

[mpats]

Rather have a lada niva Cossack, brilliant things as capable as any proper defender.

I've actually been looking at them since the better half wrote off the RAV4 the other day. If I could find one at a reasonable price I would be hard pushed not to try to convince her to try it out.

 

[armalites]

We can all go on about how unreliable and badly made LR but that won't make any difference. I've said this before but good business isn't all about making the best products, the best business will always be making the things everybody wants/desires whether they are the best or not. LR seem to have had a hold on that market for long time.

Whether is nostalgia or not doesn't really matter there are many people out there that "Have always wanted a LR".

They were holding millions of pounds in deposits from people who had no real idea what the new Defender was going to be like and that proves how strong the market share is. You've also got to hand it to them for managing to keep everything under wraps for so long.

They dropped the ball in the D4-D5 transition and and numbers are already dropping to the point where they are selling just over half as many D5 as they did on the early D3 years. I suspect a luxury Defender will fill that gap.

It would be interesting if/how they plan on making the platform usable for things like cherry pickers,tippers, utiltiy vehicles etc.

I saw a Western Power 110 yesterday that was an 08 plate, there is no way they would have been running them at 10 years old previously.

 

[stuvy]

I can’t wait to see it in the flesh and one of the first things I will be doing is laying underneath for a poke around

 

[ronan]

"You can order panniers for items you would rather not have in the car." Thats the transport for the MIL sorted then.

 

[Farside]

"You can order panniers for items you would rather not have in the car." Thats the transport for the MIL sorted then.

It doesn't look TOO bad from the side, but the front and rear look like it's fallen off the ugly tree, hit every branch on the way down, and landed in a barrel of monkeys' rissoles.

 

[dobbslc]

^^^ bit like the new Discovery's **** end then.

 

[stuvy]

The new disco 5 looks awful with its back to disco 1 offset number plate

I personally hate the floating square and can see that and the A pillars getting painted black very quickly by owners

 

[Robbie260]

The new disco 5 looks awful with its back to disco 1 offset number plate

I personally hate the floating square and can see that and the A pillars getting painted black very quickly by owners

Its an option thankfully. That hopefully no one will have the bad taste to select.

 

[armalites]

The new disco 5 looks awful with its back to disco 1 offset number plate

I personally hate the floating square and can see that and the A pillars getting painted black very quickly by owners

There were people doing centre number plate conversions pretty early on. Every Disco before has had an offset square number plate but it looked right, it looks totally wrong on a D5 and it's always intrigued me how these things get to the market when that is one of the most universally disliked parts of the vehicle.