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Thoughts and musings on the new defender


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Now, now.

We depend on them to buy this stuff, so, when they move on to the next shiny thing, we can afford them.

Growing up on the farm, we were always amazed that the 4x4s in London didn't have hitches, simply couldn't understand why you'd buy a truck without a hitch.

 

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Just to add to Scotts90's comments I know several farmers that run older D3s and a couple with Freelander 2s. None of them seem to have any issues despite the hard life they give them. I have a D3 with 168,000 on the clock and whilst it isn't perfect it does the one thing my 90 couldn't, long journeys without feeling knackered at the end. I'm sure they are questionable for the sort of use the military need but for most people the vehicles being made recently (relatively) are far ahead of any older models. There are D3s that have undertaken serious overland expeditions such as Kiwis in Africa so they obviously can do it. 

As an aside I've read that the reliability stats are derived from warranty companies and the cost of individual claims for a model so the higher upnthearket the higher the costs and thus the further down the league a car goes. 

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7 hours ago, Ratty43 said:

As an aside I've read that the reliability stats are derived from warranty companies and the cost of individual claims for a model so the higher upnthearket the higher the costs and thus the further down the league a car goes.  

Some maybe, but the most authoritative ones are done by survey, including what car and the ones linked to above earlier in the thread.

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12 hours ago, Ratty43 said:

Just to add to Scotts90's comments I know several farmers that run older D3s and a couple with Freelander 2s. None of them seem to have any issues despite the hard life they give them.

 

Same here, a local agricultural contractor has an 05 Disco he has owned from new and now has 150k miles on it. It looks worse than a builders van inside and out and has not generally been treated that well but he has had no major issues with it.

Yes it has had bushes and ball joints etc changed but it probably does 1/3 of its miles on fields

 

He has been ready to change it for a couple of years but does not know what to get - not keen on the look of the new Disco, no idea what the new Defender looks like and if it meets his needs (Changed from a Defender last time as wanted more comfort), does not want a pickup, currently considering a Porsche 4x4 but put off by the wheel/tyre options

 

This is exactly the sort of client base the new Defender should be aiming for  - they just need to hurry up and release it so more people don't leave the brand

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  • 5 weeks later...
On 1/8/2019 at 10:56 AM, Happyoldgit said:

:hysterical:

 "Everyone, please feast your eyes on my new £2500 steering wheel that replaces the 3 month old £1500 earlier version. Shall we discuss my Patek Phillipe watch in the picture too?"

Lol, you may have been closer to the truth than you realised.

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/new-land-rover-defender-interior-leaked-ahead-unveiling?page=1

Of course it could easily be a marketing stunt and nothing like the real thing. If it's real then I suppose it could have been a lot worse, it's hard to make utilitarian not look dated. The centre seat's interesting and I wonder if that's real as I could imagine that being difficult to get through crash testing.

No obvious diff lock or low range selection makes me wonder how the manual version will work. I can't imagine how successfully getting in with mud on your hands or soaking wet you would be able to select the low range or other functions without filling the switches up with mud but I'm sure they thought of that. 

 

On a separate note, this link from the comments is interesting about JLR in China and reflects much on what many here are saying about quality.

https://europe.autonews.com/automakers/jaguar-land-rovers-china-problems-stem-lax-quality-control

 

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Simplistic, modernist, cheesy tat.

Similarly, I can't stand when supposedly professional energy supply firms start using cheesy phrases to sound hip and cool. Recently I changed energy firms, and when complete I got an email saying: 'Welcome, you are now a bulberino!'. Grates so badly with me, and wears thin extremely fast, as always, style over substance

Also, how long before the 'Go' pedal no longer does.

 

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"Go" pedal lights up and changes to "No Go" when the electronics fail...

I can't decide if I hate the inside already, or it might be bearable. It doesn't look to have nearly enough controls to be real/final so could be a concept model. Initial thoughts reminded me of 200Tdi Discovery and old Daihatsu/L200 - as in a bit square and cheap looking, and the probably fake rivets/metalwork on the steering wheel are irritating.

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10 hours ago, Jamie_grieve said:

On a separate note, this link from the comments is interesting about JLR in China and reflects much on what many here are saying about quality.

https://europe.autonews.com/automakers/jaguar-land-rovers-china-problems-stem-lax-quality-control

The writer says "Weak product quality has long been a problem with JLR, dating to the time when the UK luxury automaker was still in the hands of Ford."

Clearly not old enough to remember the cars built in the days of BL then ...

 

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