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Thoughts and musings on the new defender


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WTF is with the paint effect chequer plate, 😱 now that it is a design step too far.

It also encapsulates what the Defender has become for LR, essentially a Discovery with Defender design cues, and the branding that embodies adventure and all that is cool and great about that. 🙄

Interesting to see whether it results in incremental sales for LR or just eats into Discovery 5/Sport and Evoque sales. You kind of feel that with a price tag of £40K plus it won’t stack up against the competition from other manufacturers, so it will have to sell mainly on image. Something the Evoque has done well for LR.

Expect to see a lot of Defenders on the school run and in Cornwall throughout the summer months 😉

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Check out the lines of those front wings, a very narrow bonnet opening as the wings appear to go all the way up and over - its an interesting looking thing, I need to stare at it some more, but I think it looks alright.

 

Apparently the photo is from the set of the new Bond movie being filmed, so could be slightly pimped for "Bondness".

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The wing/bonnet-lines I rather like - at least there are flat surfaces for antenna-mounting (which is something you can~t do with a 'clamshell' style bonnet).

The one shown in the photo appears to have totally-opaque rear door glass/side windows. '"Commercial" version???

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1 hour ago, SteveG said:

WTF is with the paint effect chequer plate, 😱 now that it is a design step too far.

🙄

😉

Perhaps it is a rubberised patch with tread plate pattern to allow you to stand there without landing on your backside :)

Or maybe just added for 'bondness'!

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My initial thoughts were

1) The front end looks dated already. Just something not right with the lights.

2) Quite like the discreet winch mount and will be disappointed if we find that it's a stuck-on gimmick for the Bond film....

3) It's basically what it looked like under the covers - why they were pretending it was going to be completely different is a mystery.

4) There's way too much low down plastic to be a serious off-roader in any environment that features a thing called a 'big ditch'. No doubt it will do well within its capabilities and be best in class for SUVs, because they all have the same issue now, but that wasn't the point.

5) Tyres are still too small for soft ground and no amount of terrain response helps if you are sitting on the floorpan.

If that had been the new D5, it would have cleaned up in that market. It might result in extra sales, on the basis I might consider it to replace the Shogun, if the price makes sense, whereas I wouldn't buy a D5 under any circumstances. The sticky point will be price, and if anybody from Land Rover is interested, my new Shogun in 2015 was just under £25k, so take note that £40k would be silly.

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