First post here, but I just finished reviewing the new Defender for an upcoming Wheels Afield magazine. I own a 1984 Defender 110, so I retain great fondness for the original. With that said, I realized from the first rumors on that the new one would be a different vehicle. There was no way JLR was going to build another bolt-together oxcart, which had been steadily losing market share for two decades or more. Likewise, they were never going to retire the Defender name. That's too bad in a way, because if they'd named this vehicle anything else Land Rover fans would have greeted it rapturously, I think.
It's really not just a re-bodied Disco. The extra bias toward off-road capability was clear to me, yet it retained 90 percent of the Disco's (or Range Rover's) pavement manners. The cargo area is ideal for packing full of gear, and the weight capacity is hundreds of pounds greater than that of the Jeep Wrangler Unlimited. While it might not quite match a fully locked Rubicon on trails, in Rock Crawl mode it went over everything I pointed it at. Believe me, I didn't want to like the thing (the styling still leaves me cold except for the utterly brilliant interior), but both my wife and I agreed we'd happily have one . . . as long as we could keep our '84 110 as well.
