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Thoughts and musings on the new defender


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14 hours 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...

Abso-fcking-lutely, this thread was already getting on for 45 pages of baseless speculation before we somehow even got into the Daily Mail columnist debate on Civil Servants and the performance of a Main Battle Tank. Now we're judging the new Defender by the way people in the marketing look?! 😂😂

The way that 'off road enthusiasts' in general and Land Rover enthusiasts in specific look and behave is one reason if I'm discussing my build with anyone in real conversation, I avoid drawing myself as being such. I'm just someone that likes Land Rovers, but not part of the Land Rover 'community'.

Short of having a bowie knife strapped to their leg (in case of sudden jungle), a sheep under one arm, a hay bail under the other and a 'One Life, Live It' T-shirt, what exactly would people here have been happy with? Most people work in offices. Livestock in that environment is frowned upon.

I wouldn't say I look like a Land Rover person and definitely not like someone that spends every free minute in the garage, but then I'm quite proud of that. You don't have to wear your hobbies on your sleeve. Let's be honest, most on here own a Land Rover because we wanted one, not needed one. They are a hobby.

What's the alternative? A permanently-affixed pair of cammo trousers and a leather Brokeback Mountain hat? Pretty sure I saw a pair of the former in the video...

Fact is, we can analyse every second of every promo video and get increasingly angry about it, or accept marketing is marketing and they might actually be trying to show the new Defender is for everyone? Sounds like some sort of a sales strategy to me....

Until someone you trust buys one and shows you what it can do, nothing is going to matter. I remember when the TD5 was seen as the most complicated, worst thing to ever happen to the Defender, and now they're holding their value well as an alternative to the TDCIs. The Land Rover 'community' is nothing if not fluid in its beliefs.

Edited by ThreePointFive
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4 hours ago, WesBrooks said:

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.

JLR are in the business of building/selling new vehicles. As such, their interest in what happens to those vehicles when they're 5, 10, 15 years old and onto their second, third, fourth owners [and haven't seen a JLR-franchised-dealer workshop for a service for ages...] is not a large part of their business-model. I can totally understand their mindset here, in that they're not making any money from such legacy vehicles.

For reference, the average age of a UK car at scrappage in 2015 reached 13.9 years..  It was 6.8 years in 2003.  [Source: https://www.smmt.co.uk/industry-topics/sustainability/average-vehicle-age/ ]

 

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30 minutes ago, Tanuki said:

JLR are in the business of building/selling new vehicles. As such, their interest in what happens to those vehicles when they're 5, 10, 15 years old and onto their second, third, fourth owners [and haven't seen a JLR-franchised-dealer workshop for a service for ages...] is not a large part of their business-model. I can totally understand their mindset here, in that they're not making any money from such legacy vehicles.

For reference, the average age of a UK car at scrappage in 2015 reached 13.9 years..  It was 6.8 years in 2003.  [Source: https://www.smmt.co.uk/industry-topics/sustainability/average-vehicle-age/ ]

Ex-frickin'-zactly - LR designers have a design life and as long as the car meets that they would be daft to waste time & money on anything else. And I'm pretty sure their design life is longer than a hell of a lot of other cars out there. In fact I'm pretty sure the video I posted, the guy talks about their design life in terms of years & miles and it's plenty.

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My comment is simply Landrover products have both developed a poor general reputation for reliability and become less suitable for maintenance on your drive or on the field. They are not pandering to what the vast majority on here are after and I sincerely doubt that the private venture mentioned earlier will have a price tag anywhere near what many of us would consider for a toy.

Off road capable kits and kit conversions will always be far more interesting to me and increasingly so the more RRCs/P38s, D1/D2, and Defenders become expensive Classic Vehicle territory.

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from a JLR employee & Defender driver who got a preview today:

Well I went this afternoon had a look...…………...Bloody AWESOME..... Some styling from the old one used in a certain way...The roof, Alpine windows and the rear of it shaped similar to our muched loved models. The rear lights tho been more RR than the old Mini sort.

Plenty of potential for other a commercial version but not to sure on the pick up. We only saw the 90 version with is a 5 seater, plenty of leg room behind front seats but not really a boot. The dash board has style designs from the old RED prototype at Gaydon, with a big long deep tray from dash pinnacle to passenger door. Auto box and nice touch screen in middle of dash board.

Big chunky motor, that....hopefully if we can build them right, will do us good at JLR..

Chatting to a few of the other fellas there, we reckon we should really build it at....THE HOME OF THE LEGEND...




YEAH, had a good look around and underneath front, felt very tough plastic, holes for spot lights and winch . great approach angle




 
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22 minutes ago, FridgeFreezer said:

F***ing touchscreens in cars need to die.

No, that would be bad. You couldn't control anything if they did when driving.

Better not fit them in the first place.

Stick with good old Lucas switches, with all the current for the main beams going through them.

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23 minutes ago, miketomcat said:

Nah the owners normally swerve all over the road before killing themselves in a hedge, ditch or parapet whilst using them. Job done.....

Or, you know, crash into a supertanker: https://www.engadget.com/2019/08/11/us-navy-drops-touchscreen-controls-for-destroyers/

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7 hours ago, FridgeFreezer said:

F***ing touchscreens in cars need to die.

I often have to use a rental car for work.  Some of them have controls via the touchscreen which are just infuriating.  Those stupid screens have brought endless frustration and nothing positive (beyond the GPS part, if fitted).  Definitely a black mark against the new Defender!

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30i hate toucshscreen too, ok for programming a satnav but shouldn't be allowed for anything needed when moving. In my old cars I could find the radio buttons by feel without looking, cant do that with a touch screen. Like the old phones with buttons, I could send a text without looking at the phone... it didn't always make sense but it sent :D

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That bonnet tread panel kinda looks convincingly like proper checker plate?

 

With all that touchscreen technology its a wonder the chap needs to use an "analogue" compass :P

Also looks to be a rear door mounted spare wheel and roof rack too.

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20 hours ago, deep said:

I often have to use a rental car for work.  Some of them have controls via the touchscreen which are just infuriating.  Those stupid screens have brought endless frustration and nothing positive (beyond the GPS part, if fitted).  Definitely a black mark against the new Defender!

The screens at work get covered by fingerprints as it is now so they can’t be read easily when the sun shines on them, and that’s without touchscreen.  In a fantastic “advance” by the MBA f***nuts in Chicago HQ, the new model 777 is going to have touchscreens.  Life just got harder.  And that’s before we try to operate the screens at arm’s length in turbulence.  What could go wrong? 🙄. Engineers these days don’t seem to think about the application of the tech they’re using. 🤬

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