Thoughts and musings on the new defender

[steve b]

600kg of ECU's and bull

[deep]

2 hours ago, Ozzy50 said:

Why does it weigh 2.4 tonnes ??? 

All that aluminium makes it half a ton heavier than a basic, original 110!  More mass than they lost moving the old Range Rover and Disco designs over to monocoque.  Considering most of the extra on the new Defender is gimmicks, gadgets, big brother stuff and other excesses, it's a clear statement of how the market has changed since 1983.  Personally, the only bit of that weight I'd consider genuinely useful are the weather sealing and soundproofing (which might actually add up to quite a lot of pounds).

I've loved this particular thread but, over the many months it's been running, I've come to realise just how much I hate the mega-complexity and "big-brotherness" of modern car design and how much I value my scruffy old car.  I just feel old and a bit sad now.  Though grateful to have been around in the golden era of motoring, where things worked very well, while being so much simpler (which is how good design should be!).

[deep]

11 hours ago, Chicken Drumstick said:

First Defender in 72 years.... I think it's bollox like this that tinkles me off more than anything else really. What utter nonesense.

You should have read further, where the author elaborates on that very point:

"That’s the idealised view, but still essentially correct. The Defender name wasn’t introduced until 1990 (the same year South West Africa became Namibia), to differentiate the model from the then-new Discovery. There were many reboots from 1948 until then, including Series I-III and the change to Ninety and One Ten models in 1983, when the chassis gained a lot more sophistication and comfort (thank you Range Rover)."

[Chicken Drumstick]

13 hours ago, deep said:

You should have read further, where the author elaborates on that very point:

"That’s the idealised view, but still essentially correct. The Defender name wasn’t introduced until 1990 (the same year South West Africa became Namibia), to differentiate the model from the then-new Discovery. There were many reboots from 1948 until then, including Series I-III and the change to Ninety and One Ten models in 1983, when the chassis gained a lot more sophistication and comfort (thank you Range Rover)."

I don't see how reading further would make it any better. In fact it is worse!

The S2 wasn't a reboot ffs, what a complete load of utter bollox. In fact the S2 was quite a different vehicle and update to the S1 and while it shares the design ethos, most of the parts are changed. Some quite radically so.

The S3 might have been more evolutionary. But still, as the model had not been out of production at all, none of these were sodding "reboots".

90/110 was again a massive jump forward and apart from a few minor fixings they actually share very few bits with a Series.

[Chicken Drumstick]

14 hours ago, deep said:

All that aluminium makes it half a ton heavier than a basic, original 110!  More mass than they lost moving the old Range Rover and Disco designs over to monocoque.  Considering most of the extra on the new Defender is gimmicks, gadgets, big brother stuff and other excesses, it's a clear statement of how the market has changed since 1983.  Personally, the only bit of that weight I'd consider genuinely useful are the weather sealing and soundproofing (which might actually add up to quite a lot of pounds).

I've loved this particular thread but, over the many months it's been running, I've come to realise just how much I hate the mega-complexity and "big-brotherness" of modern car design and how much I value my scruffy old car.  I just feel old and a bit sad now.  Though grateful to have been around in the golden era of motoring, where things worked very well, while being so much simpler (which is how good design should be!).

Interestingly a brand new 2020 Wrangler Unlimited (so comparable size) weighs over 400kg less and not far off a traditional 110.

[Ozzy50]

I’m amazed they’ve built it so heavy ,especially after all that’s gone into make range rovers  and discos so much lighter 

[Happyoldgit]

Come on lads, 97 pages and counting, surely we can make the 100 without someone here saying they've ordered one 🤣🤣🤣

[Mo Murphy]

20 hours ago, Happyoldgit said:

Come on lads, 97 pages and counting, surely we can make the 100 without someone here saying they've ordered one 🤣🤣🤣

You mean someone is going to buy one ?

Mo

[Happyoldgit]

7 hours ago, Mo Murphy said:

You mean someone is going to buy one ?

Mo

I have a suspicion that's what JLR are hoping...

[Mo Murphy]

Curious, you'd have thought they would have designed a utility vehicle.

Mo

[Ex Member]

Is their factory in operation?

[Ex Member]

Just now, Mo Murphy said:

Curious, you'd have thought they would have designed a utility vehicle.

Mo

Have you seen their head designer?

[Mo Murphy]

I think that's where they've been going wrong, designing heads instead of utility vehicles !

Mo 😆

[Ex Member]

They are a designer of lifestyle vehicles for the wealthy.

[Happyoldgit]

2 hours ago, Mo Murphy said:

Curious, you'd have thought they would have designed a utility vehicle.

Mo

Eeeew, horrible mucky things, just not what we like to see in between the potted plants, leather sofas and coffee machines in our showrooms now.

[Mo Murphy]

7 minutes ago, Happyoldgit said:

Eeeew, horrible mucky things, just not what we like to see in between the potted plants, leather sofas and coffee machines in our showrooms now.

I think we both know a forum where it will be popular 😊

Clay bar and tailpipe polish anyone ?  😂

Mo

[Happyoldgit]

1 hour ago, Mo Murphy said:

I think we both know a forum where it will be popular 😊

Clay bar and tailpipe polish anyone ?  😂

Mo

 

Hmmmmm, claybar, polish ...for my my precious!

[steve b]

...........not just any clay Mo , this was gathered under the light of a new moon by cleansed hipsters on a managed adventure  .

The daft thing is if this had come out as a D6 or even in place of the D5 I'd be thinking great new version - well apart from the appendages hanging off the sides  (kahn influenced ??) - it really comes down to firmly tagging it to the Defender brand ( I've also hated that name since it got puked up by an over-rated marketing agency ) . 

 

....Oh and the utterly ridiculous price , not Utility in any way

 

Steve b 

[Happyoldgit]

Is a managed adventure a bit like extremely safe sex? 😆

[HampshireHog]

1 hour ago, Happyoldgit said:

Is a managed adventure a bit like extremely safe sex? 😆

Bloody hell , is this one of those furlough stories

[Snagger]

18 hours ago, Red90 said:

Have you seen their head designer?

Best viewed through a sniper’s scope.

[Snagger]

On 4/30/2020 at 5:03 PM, Happyoldgit said:

Come on lads, 97 pages and counting, surely we can make the 100 without someone here saying they've ordered one 🤣🤣🤣

As in DC100?  The universally reviled piece of carp that they dropped a few years back and then introduced to critical acclaim because they bought all the journalists with a fancy launch?

[Snagger]

On 5/1/2020 at 1:46 PM, Mo Murphy said:

You mean someone is going to buy one ?

Mo

 Not anymore, with a huge recession affecting every business and almost every member of society.  I said it before the crisis that the costs of this car and how it only competes with Discovery could kill JLR.  Now I’m convinced.  JLR are toast.

[Gazzar]

28 minutes ago, Snagger said:

 Not anymore, with a huge recession affecting every business and almost every member of society.  I said it before the crisis that the costs of this car and how it only competes with Discovery could kill JLR.  Now I’m convinced.  JLR are toast.

Maybe Jim Radcliffe could buy JLR?

[Bowie69]

29 minutes ago, Snagger said:

 Not anymore, with a huge recession affecting every business and almost every member of society.  I said it before the crisis that the costs of this car and how it only competes with Discovery could kill JLR.  Now I’m convinced.  JLR are toast.

I disagree, China will continue to manipulate their currency, lie about everything, and have many more multimillionaires by this time next year, queuing up to buy them.