Thoughts and musings on the new defender

[Bowie69]

4 minutes ago, Mo Murphy said:

True, they were 90, 110 and 130 before that ...

Oh, they're calling them that too ! 

Mo

 

 

By mixing and melding the names they get maximum exposure to the feel good factor of yesteryear, all in the name of marketing of course.

[reb78]

The motoring press and even LR themselves seem to think the series land rovers were manufactured until 2015!

[Snagger]

6 hours ago, reb78 said:

The motoring press and even LR themselves seem to think the series land rovers were manufactured until 2015!

Well, in a way, they were - there is a direct evolution of the 1948 model all the way to the last 2016 model.  You can see each step along the way, and the continuation of the ethos.

[Naks]

 

Yeah, not a single one of these people look like Defender drivers. Most likely actors that LR hired as part of their marketing campaign #lol.
 

 

[reb78]

They dont look like theyve ever struggled to get oil and grime out from under their finger nails or off of their tans or their beige chinos!

[Anderzander]

That is probably the cheesiest advert I’ve ever seen.

[Bowie69]

Horrific advert full of craft ale drinking hipsters.

Interesting to note that the spare wheel appears to be hung on the back door.....

[western]

That was a waste of time. 

[landroversforever]

That was sh!t!!

[BogMonster]

We clearly need to refer to it as the 'Obranca'....

Job done.

[FridgeFreezer]

17 hours ago, Snagger said:

My 109 drove up the Sommelier Glacier, 10,500’, without any trouble at all. Lots of vehicles in northern Scandinavia, Canada and Russia cope with those temperatures, some very cheap and simple. So what does that say about their testing?

It says it's industry standard testing for cold, heat, altitude, etc., although as one of George's videos shows, LR add harder tests / stronger standards compared to others.

[Jamie_grieve]

2 hours ago, FridgeFreezer said:

It says it's industry standard testing for cold, heat, altitude, etc., although as one of George's videos shows, LR add harder tests / stronger standards more marketing compared to others.

There, edited for reality.

[FridgeFreezer]

24 minutes ago, Jamie_grieve said:

There, edited for reality.

Choose your own reality, the video in question is an interview with a JLR dev engineer who specifically says they run some harder tests / set higher standards than other manufacturers, and gives a clear example (ditch-drop test) where JLR uprate things beyond what would be the industry norm.

 

[Naks]

a slightly zoomed out photo was emailed to some people, found this on the Disco3 forum 
 

[Ed Poore]

2 hours ago, Jamie_grieve said:

There, edited for reality.

A number of years ago my professor was doing some work in conjunction with Warwick University and went on a tour up there. They had a rig that had been flexing and twisting a chassis (what was to become the Disco 3 if I remember correctly) continuously for a year. Not heard of any other manufacturer doing that.

[Ex Member]

52 minutes ago, Ed Poore said:

Not heard of any other manufacturer doing that.

Yes.  Land Rover is the only manufacturer that tests their vehicles....  🤣

[Snagger]

The trouble is the inconsistency - they’ll do something like that with the chassis, but then not protect it properly and leave it full of rust traps, or replace smaller items with cheaper versions (ride height sensors on RRC and P38 are a good example there).  They get so much right, which is why we love the vehicles, but then they stuff it up with penny pinching.  Look at how they fixed the body rot on the D2, only to have the chassis fall out from underneath it, even though the D1/RRC chassis we’re pretty resilient.  And who the hell came up with the idea of putting timing or drive belts at the back of an engine, where you can barely access them?

[Ed Poore]

1 hour ago, Red90 said:

Yes.  Land Rover is the only manufacturer that tests their vehicles....  🤣

I meant putting the chassis alone through a stress test / fatigue analysis. The only other manufacturer I have heard of doing similar is New Holland Tractors because then bought an instrumentation system off us to test their tractors to destruction.

[deep]

On 8/30/2019 at 7:37 AM, Mo Murphy said:

True, they were 90, 110 and 130 before that ...

Oh, they're calling them that too ! 

Mo

 

 

Darn, I think I got that wrong a few posts back.  Pre-Defender, they were 90 (93" wheelbase), 110 (110' wheelbase) and 127 (127" wheelbase).  As a Defender, that changed to 90, 110 and 130.  Now it will be 90 (±100" wheelbase), 110 (±120" wheelbase) and 130 (±120"wheelbase).

So, in the same way they will put the Defender name on a vehicle which has no Series/Defender ancestry, they will use wheelbase names for wheelbases which have no Series/Defender/truth ancestry?  On the plus side, 100" is an excellent wheelbase for an off-roader and a long bodied vehicle on a 120" chassis might make a good base for a camper.  Just wish they'd call a spade a spade.

[deep]

14 hours ago, Naks said:

 

Yeah, not a single one of these people look like Defender drivers. Most likely actors that LR hired as part of their marketing campaign #lol.
 

 

Harsh!  Defender drivers seem to be a VERY diverse group of people, not at all identifiable by looks.  Though you might be right anyway - they didn't ask you or me to have a look...

[Anderzander]

47 minutes ago, deep said:

Just wish they'd call a spade a spade.

They don’t make spades though ?

They offer Garden Lifestyle choices.

[HampshireHog]

1 hour ago, deep said:

Harsh!  Defender drivers seem to be a VERY diverse group of people, not at all identifiable by looks.  Though you might be right anyway - they didn't ask you or me to have a look...

Im getting seriously confused about the whole beard no beard thing and which side of the line you fall for having or not having a beard , now after watching the ad , they've chucked a woman into the mix and im now im worried about offending or not offending younger owners than myself and should I call her a woman , lady or cross axle gender , bender defender .

[BogMonster]

1 hour ago, HampshireHog said:

cross axle gender , bender defender .

That would work

 

[Bowie69]

8 hours ago, HampshireHog said:

Im getting seriously confused about the whole beard no beard thing and which side of the line you fall for having or not having a beard , now after watching the ad , they've chucked a woman into the mix and im now im worried about offending or not offending younger owners than myself and should I call her a woman , lady or cross axle gender , bender defender .

I think it comes down to the level of preying that has been involved in the creation of the beard.

A quick trim every now and then = LR owner.

2 hours a week in a barbers chair plus 30 minutes applying various waxes every morning = erm, well make your own mind up

 

[WesBrooks]

The characters pictured are the target market, not us. A manufacturer who thinks design for ease of maintenance means lifting the body off for relatively simple tasks is clearly not targeting people who like to run their own vehicles.

 

The general "We" being discussed here need more decent quality kits and a few builders for those with no time. Landrover seem to be specialising in upselling products whose reliability and general quality don't quite match the price tag. That said their target audience are also on 3 year lease hires, so rust, and 100k+ reliability aren't really their concern.

If environmental issues get studied properly and reported accurately by the media the lease hires will be killed off in favour of running cars into the ground, but that would destroy a lot of business that just bait people into thinking life will be better with this years new model.

 

Edited August 31, 2019 by WesBrooks