Thoughts and musings on the new defender

[Naks]

 

[Happyoldgit]

^^^"Have you guys done any off roading before?" Asks the instructor. "Yeah I've done a little bit on an old Defender in Tuscany" says the guy in the brand new looking suede hat.

...I lasted all of two minutes of that. I just find these kind of videos so bloody irritating.

Bah humbug.

[deep]

Cringey commentary aside, that was interesting.  At least you could see the ground clearance of the one in front and could get some idea of how stiff the suspension is when it's pumped up.  No body creaks, nice engine noise, still no idea how to operate the handbrake.  Interesting that the driver uses a Nikon Df camera - another item that pretends to be old-school but is totally electronic!  The big question, however, is why would you set your air conditioning for 65 degrees??  Brrr.

[KrisDR]

On 1/21/2020 at 5:22 PM, Stellaghost said:

In a heartbeat if I could afford it but sadly that will never happen there's a lot of tooing and froing in these 73 pages a lot of slagging and not so much in the way of defence the fact is in MHO that 90% of the modern world want technology in everything after all the new defender is like the new  I phone or androids and I  dont hear many complaining about their latest technolgy I'm going to make an assumption here and apologies if I've got it wrong I think the vast majority of us like to potter on enjoy projects etc and like me at or accelerating past middle age we come from a generation of doers and with all due respect maybe not fully upto speed with the latest tech I think part of the endearment with the land rover brand is we can fiddle, improve and personalise we hate and love them at the same time unfortunately the new generation dont want to do that it's all about the computer side of the world we live in I  have 4 sons and not one of them would be interested in looking in my garage let alone use the resources in there all my equipment is just so much scrap to them and unfortunately that's the reality I  may not like it but  I'm a dinosaur in there world and likely to be extinct in about 20yrs or so I  cant blame landrover wanting to go for that market us dino's will just have to like it or lump it regards Stephen 

Stephen nails it. Exactly my experience, to the letter almost  

As far as the new Defender is concerned, I like everything about it except its price. 
The discussion Here is almost copy/paste of the heated debate I participated in back in the day when Porsche decided to abandon the air cooled engine. I am, was actually, a long time air cooled driver but I can also accept that continuing with the old concept would have been suicide. I still love the smell and the noise of the old generation but I also realize that the new 911 is better in every aspect. 

[Badger110]

11 hours ago, KrisDR said:

Stephen nails it. Exactly my experience, to the letter almost  

As far as the new Defender is concerned, I like everything about it except its price. 
The discussion Here is almost copy/paste of the heated debate I participated in back in the day when Porsche decided to abandon the air cooled engine. I am, was actually, a long time air cooled driver but I can also accept that continuing with the old concept would have been suicide. I still love the smell and the noise of the old generation but I also realize that the new 911 is better in every aspect. 

‘The same happened when I worked for Harley Davidson, the water cooled V rod was the start of something very different for the company.

Turned out that it didn’t follow the same story with being better than the air cooled V twin, you just can’t replace that.

 

It also cost me my training spot in Milwaukee, but I wasn’t bitter and left the company a year later...but that’s another story.

[FridgeFreezer]

16 hours ago, KrisDR said:

I still love the smell and the noise of the old generation but I also realize that the new 911 is better in every aspect. 

They still haven't worked out putting the engine at the right end though, maybe they'll get round to that in another 50 years

[Ex Member]

"What are the take away features?"

"Well, you can put your gloves here on the dash.  And it has wireless charging...."

The discussion of the TC coming on makes me laugh.  It reminds me of the day I was at the end of a trail with a friend and bunch of lifted, heavily modified FJ Cruisers showed up.  They were all excited and told us how they really felt the TC working coming in.  We laughed (later) as we were still in high range.

[Anderzander]

23 hours ago, KrisDR said:

I am, was actually, a long time air cooled driver but I can also accept that continuing with the old concept would have been suicide. I still love the smell and the noise of the old generation but I also realize that the new 911 is better in every aspect. 

To be fair the analogy would be more accurate if  Porsche had made the next 911 water cooled and a family estate too.

[mmgemini]

On 1/24/2020 at 10:51 AM, FridgeFreezer said:

They still haven't worked out putting the engine at the right end though, maybe they'll get round to that in another 50 years

I remember just after AUDI had intruduced the QUATRO sitting on Mull for the ferry after the Tour of Mull where we were didcussing the Quatro and its performance until somebody said " Unless you drive a rear engined rear wheel drive car, you do not know the meaning of traction"

[FridgeFreezer]

2 hours ago, mmgemini said:

" Unless you drive a rear engined rear wheel drive car, you do not know the meaning of traction"

Original cause of Yuppie Flu - Porsche flu' backwards through a hedge

[mmgemini]

3 hours ago, FridgeFreezer said:

Original cause of Yuppie Flu - Porsche flu' backwards through a hedge

Yep our Imp went over the hedge after hitting ice  lol

 

[FridgeFreezer]

Interesting:

https://jalopnik.com/suzuki-will-pull-the-jimny-from-europe-for-failing-to-m-1841211048

Suzuki Will Pull The Jimny From Europe For Failing To Meet 2021 Emissions Regs

Quote

The Jimny, believe it or not, has been tested to emit as much at 170 grams of CO2 per kilometer. The new European standards are given a sliding scale based on the weight and size of the vehicle, allowing larger vehicles a dispensation for more CO2 emissions. Manufacturers also get allowances for more emissions depending upon how many electric vehicles they sell, called “super credits”. This is why Mercedes can still sell the G-wagen, while Suzuki has to get rid of its tiny rugged Jimny. As a manufacturer producing small cars and not offering any pure electric vehicles, Suzuki is badly positioned to weather this new set of regulations.

Gives a few clues about the difficulties that manufacturers can face - and how Mercedes are still churning out V12 GWagens.

Can't imagine JLR are faring better on the emissions credits than Merc who have a lot more small/eco models to flog.

[Ex Member]

Sweet.  Maybe this is what they need to start selling in North America again.

[Ex Member]

So how does Land Rover get by?  They can't have a better fleet CO2 level than Suzuki.

Edited January 27, 2020 by Red90

[Anderzander]

Surely Suzuki can just put a different engine in it?  It’s a brand new mode that’s got high demand and great reviews ... it would seems bonkers if they have to pull it for sale of a different motor ? 

[Bowie69]

1 hour ago, Red90 said:

So how does Land Rover get by?  They can't have a better fleet CO2 level than Suzuki.

Hybrids, and diesel engines - jimny is petrol, I believe. 

[Cynic-al]

You can trade 'green credits' in a similar way to carbon trading with other businesses. Tesla make money by selling theirs to other manufacturers. Aston Martin also rebadged a citroen c1 as an Aston to help their average figures. Land rover were claiming to plant enough trees to offset your carbon footprint when you bought a new one, not sure if they still do. 

The Jimmy isn't exactly aerodynamic or well geared so not sure how good they can make it but the domestic market has a smaller turbo petrol engine so they have an option. Depends if it's worth it I guess. At the moment the queue is that long that second hand ones sell for more than new ones. 

[Ex Member]

But Suzuki sells many small cars.  Land Rover only sells huge things.  Something does not add up.  The Jimny itself has less fuel consumption than everything Land Rover sells.

[Bowie69]

Not about fuel consumption. 

[Mo Murphy]

It's about corruption, tax loopholes for big companies and governments helping manufacturers to avoid their own laws.

Call me a cynic.

Mo

[Happyoldgit]

Cynic 😁

[Cynic-al]

If you make hybrids or electrics you can offset the bigger cars from your range. You also get a bigger co2 allowance for a bigger car. There is more profit in a mini SUV than a hatchback and they get a bigger co2 allowanve so that's what they push down the line. 

It's the same old with politics in the uk, the people making the rules understand neither the problem or the real world. How one can go from being in charge of health, then the army then education is beyond me. They are only interested in the next few years. Anything that takes longer reflects on their successor not them so there is no motivation for them to lay the foundations for something sustainable. 

[deep]

18 hours ago, Mo Murphy said:

It's about corruption, tax loopholes for big companies and governments helping manufacturers to avoid their own laws.

Call me a cynic.

Mo

No, won't call you a cynic.  Just observant.  Over the last year or two, I've watched the law being massively twisted to allow big dollar projects to go ahead in places where the law has been highly restrictive on what ordinary people can do.  There was a news headline last week that suggested New Zealand was the least corrupt country in the world.  God help the rest of the world!

What it all means, though, is that even laws designed to do crucial things, like protecting the environment that has to sustain life, are not immune to being influenced by the very rich (anywhere on earth, as far as I can see).  There is a lot of money tied up in car manufacture...

[Badger110]

7 hours ago, Cynic-al said:

It's the same old with politics in the uk, the people making the rules understand neither the problem or the real world. How one can go from being in charge of health, then the army then education is beyond me. They are only interested in the next few years. Anything that takes longer reflects on their successor not them so there is no motivation for them to lay the foundations for something sustainable. 

Sums up climate change attitudes of those with wealth to a tee 🤬

[Cynic-al]

15 hours ago, Badger110 said:

Sums up climate change attitudes of those with wealth to a tee 🤬

The other things that annoys me about environmental matters ... whilst we are off topic ... is the number of individuals who won't do easy things to reduce their consumption. We have had kerbside recycling for some years yet people won't wash tins out, pull the plastic window out of card packages etc etc. Then moan that they don't have enough space in the general waste bin and drive bags of rubbish to the tip or pay for extra collections. Also people who drive 10 miles to work, take a plastic bottle of water and get a drive through coffee on the way in a throw away card cup. Have one at home or take one in a reusable cup. Don't buy clothes from Primark because they're only a quid, wear them once then throw them away because they were only a quid. Buy something well made that will last. It's not hard but people just don't see it or don't care. They will protest for someone else to fix it but it doesn't matter what the government do if 65 million people (or 7bn for that matter) can't be bothered with really basic stuff then it's all meaningless anyway. Anyway... back to the car...