New Defender News

[nickw]

Haha I hope you know that I was joking about Tacoma pulling Land Rover, my Tacoma is gutless POS, I am serious,

It was struggling to tow land cruiser, I had to be on second or 3rd gear at all times.

This is why I don’t believe in ratings or fake tow capacity numbers.
In a real world things are totally different.

Moving the trailer weight and actually safely towing it are absolutely not the same
.but who cares anyway, 99% of defenders will not be used for towing the weight supposedly it can tow.

The Tacomas are horrendously gutless. I've driven a modern Tacoma back to back with a my Ranger similarly loaded down +/- 1000 lbs payload (2 motos, 2 dudes, gas / gear / food / beer) over similar road conditions, absolutely night and day difference. Both got it done (which is the important part), no questions, but the Ranger handled it much better. While they are in a similar class when it comes to tow rating and payload - the reality of doing it is very different.

I expect the 2.0 in the Defender to be every bit as capable as my Rangers and the Defender platform should be more capable, towing, load carrying and offroad capability.

 

[REDROVER]

The only good thing I can say about my Tacoma is reliability,
fuel economy is bad, hood is huge and impossible to see up front, window line is on the chest level, ( Land Rover is belt line), if you try to look the out the window to avoid anything large rocks you can’t see, because of door panel being 1ft thick for no reason.

You are welcome to drive mine off road before you decide to buy a Tacoma,( unless is only for extra transportation)
I am available every weekend, let’s hit the trails near red rock canyon off of 14 freeway.

let’s see how the defender does, maybe it will be amazing vehicle and all those Coachella valley kids will trade back in for something newer and certified preowed model will be available for a good price.

 

[REDROVER]

I am telling ya the only thing that keeps Tacoma on top of the segment is the reliability, anything else is underdog, stereo system as bad as it can be, I get 14mpg at best, and I drive easy it’s 6speed manual,

What makes Land Rover amazing is the belt line window level, try to go off road in a 3rd gen Tacoma, you will hate your life.
From the radiator to front bumper ther is 1 ft empty Space, pure plastic empty place,

I sold my 80 series land cruiser for this and I thought this will be as good, holly moly was I wrong,

If defender is as reliable as LR4 then it’s a game changer.
We will see.

 

[nickw]

The only good thing I can say about my Tacoma is reliability,
fuel economy is bad, hood is huge and impossible to see up front, window line is on the chest level, ( Land Rover is belt line), if you try to look the out the window to avoid anything large rocks you can’t see, because of door panel being 1ft thick for no reason.

You are welcome to drive mine off road before you decide to buy a Tacoma,( unless is only for extra transportation)
I am available every weekend, let’s hit the trails near red rock canyon off of 14 freeway.

let’s see how the defender does, maybe it will be amazing vehicle and all those Coachella valley kids will trade back in for something newer and certified preowed model will be available for a good price.

You hit on the two things I couldn't stand about the Tacoma or I'd probably be in one too, front visibility and "belt line", both which drove me nuts. I don't care how reliable it is if it sucks to be in. If i wanted utmost reliability, along with capability, I'd get a 1/2 T or 3/4 T with a N/A V8....

 

[nickw]

I am telling ya the only thing that keeps Tacoma on top of the segment is the reliability, anything else is underdog, stereo system as bad as it can be, I get 14mpg at best, and I drive easy it’s 6speed manual,

What makes Land Rover amazing is the belt line window level, try to go off road in a 3rd gen Tacoma, you will hate your life.
From the radiator to front bumper ther is 1 ft empty Space, pure plastic empty place,

I sold my 80 series land cruiser for this and I thought this will be as good, holly moly was I wrong,

If defender is as reliable as LR4 then it’s a game changer.
We will see.

My buddy has a RRC and the dash is literally at belly button level. The LC 40/60/80/100's are all great too (have not been in a 200). Spent 5 min in a Tacoma and there is no way I could do it.

 

[REDROVER]

If I had to do long distance travel, Tacoma would be the last vehicle I will choose,

So I am not the only person who thinks, front is huge and you can’t see out the window.
Because everyone else tells me, this Tacoma will go anywhere, I give huge huge credit to Toyota to creating this image out there that it’s unstoppable.

It’s very very stoppable and in fact very easy stoppable.

 

[REDROVER]

Classic Range Rover is holy grail of most fun vehicles to take out in the wilderness, visibility is as good as riding a hose, except horse is 1000 times more reliable lol

Has anyone been on the new defender? How’s the window line?

 

[voodoojk]

Great visibility. .. and the rear seat comfort is amazing ( odd statement but its true) as well as the fronts of course.

 

[Victory_Overland]

The Tacomas are horrendously gutless. I've driven a modern Tacoma back to back with a my Ranger similarly loaded down +/- 1000 lbs payload (2 motos, 2 dudes, gas / gear / food / beer) over similar road conditions, absolutely night and day difference. Both got it done (which is the important part), no questions, but the Ranger handled it much better. While they are in a similar class when it comes to tow rating and payload - the reality of doing it is very different.

I expect the 2.0 in the Defender to be every bit as capable as my Rangers and the Defender platform should be more capable, towing, load carrying and offroad capability.

All of those are great topics of discussion; glad I was not the only one to feel the visibility sucked in the Taco and had to open the doors to see if I was actually buried to the frame. Driving around the dunes up/down was not a fun experience although the traction control was quite nice.

I was going wait a bit to hope the Ranger would get a diesel but not sure that is going to happen. I drove diesel rangers overseas in Afghanistan and they were fantastic so I had hopes and maybe I need to look into those for options cuz I've seen some really nicely equipped Rangers tooling around SoCal.....the Chevy Colorado I think is the competition and believe it does have a diesel option.

I too feel that the 2.0 Defender is going to be enough if its sole purpose is daily driving and then loading up for overlanding trips. It would be exactly how the above review recommendation would be; base model on steelies with a 2.0 and hope I can get ALL of the TC and Locker configurations. A dedicated overland vehicle I do not know but I would honestly not be using a brand new vehicle for 100% of either when I have a fully kitted out LR3 that is awesome on the trails. I would be using it how my LR3 started; a DD and then slowly converting its life to no interior and dedicated overland years down the road as a new vehicle options trickle in.

Great points gents.........good to see this discussion back on the civilized track!

 

[nickw]

All of those are great topics of discussion; glad I was not the only one to feel the visibility sucked in the Taco and had to open the doors to see if I was actually buried to the frame. Driving around the dunes up/down was not a fun experience although the traction control was quite nice.

I was going wait a bit to hope the Ranger would get a diesel but not sure that is going to happen. I drove diesel rangers overseas in Afghanistan and they were fantastic so I had hopes and maybe I need to look into those for options cuz I've seen some really nicely equipped Rangers tooling around SoCal.....the Chevy Colorado I think is the competition and believe it does have a diesel option.

I too feel that the 2.0 Defender is going to be enough if its sole purpose is daily driving and then loading up for overlanding trips. It would be exactly how the above review recommendation would be; base model on steelies with a 2.0 and hope I can get ALL of the TC and Locker configurations. A dedicated overland vehicle I do not know but I would honestly not be using a brand new vehicle for 100% of either when I have a fully kitted out LR3 that is awesome on the trails. I would be using it how my LR3 started; a DD and then slowly converting its life to no interior and dedicated overland years down the road as a new vehicle options trickle in.

Great points gents.........good to see this discussion back on the civilized track!

I'm no diesel expert, but I owned a 2012 VW TDI w/6 spd manual along with several N/A V6 and V8's. I'll single out the Ford engines since that is what I own and have experience with (I'm guessing the majority of the modern, small displacement, turbo engines designed for 4x4 use would be similar) but the Ecoboost engines have many of the characteristics of diesels and are a far cry from N/A engines. They pull from low RPM, have broad power curves and especially with the 8+ speed trans, can get great gas mileage and are pretty sporty at the same time.

I have an Airstream, ~4k lbs +/- and the Ranger pulls it just fine. It's less about power and more about chassis stability IMO. The slightly heavier 110 along with the support of air-bags will do just fine towing, as long as expectations are reasonable....which for most people with modern diesels, their views are skewed.

 

[Victory_Overland]

Read this the other day which provides more justification on the success of the smaller Ford engines.........Oh and it's nice to see that "Return to Baja" on the Bronco too; really hope to see LR build a race spec or run DAKAR in some version.

Potential Bronco Powerplants

 

[roving1]

What makes Land Rover amazing is the belt line window level, try to go off road in a 3rd gen Tacoma, you will hate your life.
From the radiator to front bumper ther is 1 ft empty Space, pure plastic empty place,

I absolutely hate this about newer Tacoma and 4Runner fronts. I have always wanted to take a giant bandsaw to one and show how much you can chop off before hitting anything important. I wish someone would just saw the whole front off including the lights and do a super minimalist but functional build from there. I mean it could not get any more ugly anyways lol.

 

[naks]

https://www.whatcar.com/land-rover/defender-new/estate/review/n21198

"... The automatic gearbox is less impressive, exhibiting a tendency to shuffle down through the gears unnecessarily at the merest brush of the accelerator. We’d prefer it to make use of the engine’s impressive 317lb ft of torque to haul the car along without changing gear. However, you can work around this foible by using the manual mode to select gears yourself. ...

For such a tall vehicle, the Defender is surprisingly enjoyable to command on a flowing country road. The steering doesn’t overflow with feel, but it’s light and accurate and makes it easy to place the car exactly where you want it. And, while there’s bit of lean if you hoof it into a corner, the body is otherwise beautifully controlled in its movements and gives you plenty of confidence. Of course, more road-biased SUVs such as the Audi Q7 and BMW X5, are sharper still, but compared to cars with a similar level of off-road ability (namely the Jeep Wrangler and Toyota Land Cruiser), the Defender is in another league.

Speaking of prowess on the rough stuff, as we discovered on Eastnor Castle’s legendary trails, the Defender’s ability to keep going when the going gets rough is quite simply astounding. With the Terrain Response system activated and the car in its highest off-road suspension setting, it powered over deep ruts, clambered through offset ditches and climbed up muddy hills without breaking a sweat. And, despite our initial worries about it having a more vulnerable belly than the Wrangler or Mercedes G-Class (both of which retain an old-school separate chassis like that of the Defender’s predecessor), not once did we ground out. And if the car does think you’re about to scrape its belly, it’ll even automatically jack up its suspension by an extra 70mm on top of the car’s default off-road ride height of 75mm. ...

Fans of the previous Defender will love the lofty driving position; it feels significantly higher than most of its rivals'. ...

Thanks to the Defender’s boxy proportions and high set driving position, it’s remarkably easy to judge its outer extremities when threading it through car parks or down narrow country lanes. However, the combination of the Defender 110’s sizeable length and chunky rear door-mounted spare wheel makes it tricky to see out of the back. Thankfully, all models get front and rear parking sensors plus a 360 degree camera as standard. ...

The Defender will also prove more expensive to run than many alternatives. Even the entry-level 2.0-litre diesel officially emits at least 234g/km of CO2, and fuel economy is far from impressive. After a day of mixed driving, our D240 test car recorded fuel consumption in the mid-20s mpg. In comparison, we’d expect an Audi Q7 45 TDI to manage a figure in the low 30s. ...

Reliability
This isn’t usually an area of strength for Land Rover. Indeed, the brand finished rock bottom (out of 31 manufacturers) in the 2019 What Car? Reliability Survey. Fingers crossed, then, that this latest model will prove considerably more dependable than its brethren, and buyers won’t have to call on its three-year, unlimited-mileage warranty too often. ...

4/5 stars
The Defender is far from cheap, but if you want a rugged, five-seat SUV that fuses amazing off-road ability with accomplished road manners, it's effectively in a class of one: no small feat. Perhaps this really is the rebirth of an icon.
+
Exceptional off road
Accomplished on-road driving manners
Plenty of interior space
-
High list price after options
Fuel economy and CO2 emissions are poor
Gearbox is a little dim-witted"

 

[Victory_Overland]

https://www.whatcar.com/land-rover/defender-new/estate/review/n21198

The Defender will also prove more expensive to run than many alternatives. Even the entry-level 2.0-litre diesel officially emits at least 234g/km of CO2, and fuel economy is far from impressive. After a day of mixed driving, our D240 test car recorded fuel consumption in the mid-20s mpg. In comparison, we’d expect an Audi Q7 45 TDI to manage a figure in the low 30s. ...

Reliability
This isn’t usually an area of strength for Land Rover. Indeed, the brand finished rock bottom (out of 31 manufacturers) in the 2019 What Car? Reliability Survey. Fingers crossed, then, that this latest model will prove considerably more dependable than its brethren, and buyers won’t have to call on its three-year, unlimited-mileage warranty too often. ...

4/5 stars
The Defender is far from cheap, but if you want a rugged, five-seat SUV that fuses amazing off-road ability with accomplished road manners, it's effectively in a class of one: no small feat. Perhaps this really is the rebirth of an icon.
+
Exceptional off road
Accomplished on-road driving manners
Plenty of interior space
-
High list price after options
Fuel economy and CO2 emissions are poor
Gearbox is a little dim-witted"

Did you guys have any access to Petrol 4cyl specs and usage?

 

[A.J.M]

I can’t wait for a farmer to buy this and treat it like anything else they have.
The greeting faced Luddites will be beside themselves with rage.

People cut up the other models interiors to fit stuff. Don’t see why this won’t be, either brand new or in the passage of time like all models get.