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Thoughts and musings on the new defender


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Very interesting tech comparison from https://jalopnik.com/what-i-found-when-i-crawled-under-the-2020-land-rover-d-1838080009

I just crawled under the 2020 Land Rover Defender—the unibody, independent suspension-equipped successor to a legendary body-on-frame, solid-axle off-road brute. What I saw didn’t appear to be an SUV built on a special off-road platform, but rather a machine quite similar to other vehicles in the Land Rover lineup...

...I was surprised to see that, instead of giant sheets of heavy steel or even aluminum skid plates, the belly pan appeared to be made of a fibrous material, not unlike the aero covers that you might find under sedans, crossovers, and pretty much any type of modern vehicle...

...While we’re back there, we may as well have a look at the suspension, which, on the Land Rover Defender, is an integral link setup with air springs—the same suspension type found on the current Land Rover Discovery. And, in fact, if you compare the two, as I did on the Frankfurt Auto Show floor, you’ll notice quite a few similarities. ...

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4 hours ago, Anderzander said:

Further up the thread there is a quote from Land Rover along the lines of ‘its not just a D5 platform - it has bigger ball joints...’

If it was a tyre I think it would 80/20 road bias - what do you think?

In other words, it’s just a D5 platform with bigger ball joints...

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12 minutes ago, FridgeFreezer said:

Whereas the old Defender is just a Range Rover platform with... less power and comfort.

Before the Range Rover flipped from being fundamentally an off road capable design with overlaid luxury to a luxury car with electronics to give it off-road capability.

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15 minutes ago, FridgeFreezer said:

Whereas the old Defender is just a Range Rover platform with... less power and comfort.

Yep, but with more adaptability and a much, much lower price tag new than its contemporaries.  And the old Defender never pretended to be “all-new”.

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36 minutes ago, FridgeFreezer said:

Whereas the old Defender is just a Range Rover platform with... less power and comfort.

Your memory is failing you.  When they came out you could get the same engine and gearbox for the Range Rover and 90/110.  It was a RR with a heavier frame, stronger axles and a simple Land Rover body.

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the panel on the upper side is Optional on the 3 door which can have a full window, but on the 5 door it covers the outer face of the C pillar, I reckon they could of made a better job of the C pillar, making it narrower & increasing the glass size, but possiblly it has a big part to play in roll over protection.

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2 hours ago, Bowie69 said:

I can bet you one thing, in the defender 3.0 that stupid useless square of plastic blu-takked to the side will be the first thing to be gone.

I don’t understand the styling choice of why they did it that way.  Just have a black pillar or body colour pillar,  not this daft floating square that looks like something stuck on for no reason.

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10, 20, 30 or 40 years ago I might have been able to get enthused or irritated with the new model but pah, in the grand scheme of things it's just another vehicle full of gizmo's and marketing BS to enable the great unwashed to believe they can conquer vast tracts of wilderness while sitting on their arses. 

It's just another car FFS

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On 9/14/2019 at 8:28 AM, Naks said:

Yes, that "fibrous material" is probably stressed controlled-deformation cellular composite - precisely what I would hope /expect to find in the underlying platform of any third-millennium 4x4.  It's there to yield in a collision and absorb the energy of the impact - so my legs/pelvis don't have to absorb the loads.

I **want** my cars to be squashy-and-deformable! Because as an ageing mammal I'm a lump of flesh who is day-by-day becoming not-so-squashy-and-deformable.

Cars are cheap; I'm expensive.

I'll enthisiastically accept a car that's full of crumple-zones airbags safety-restraints and deformation-areas if it means I can walk away from  crash.

I only get one life; I can pay for loads of cars.

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22 hours ago, jeremy996 said:

A US view of the new Defender I wasn't quite expecting.

Doug DeMuro comes up with a few opinions on the new Defender, suggesting the US pricing, positioning and styling will ht the sweet spot it may have missed in the UK.

 

Nice to see a positive viewpoint, though the fact he is considering one as a replacement for his Mercedes station wagon, rather than his Defender, is telling.  Also .... is 400 horsepower really not enough??!!

My favourite part of the video is seeing a '97 Defender with the same (terribly brittle plastic) dashboard as my '87 110.  How long before he reinforces it with bits cut off his mum's old microwave, like I did?

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