New Defender News

[toylandcruiser]

Generally speaking humans don’t like change, doesn’t matter if it’s in food or product or anything.

I am ready to go back to horse,
Unlimited economy
Excellent visibility
Never pay for fuel
And reliable
It Can go places no vehicle can.

Absolutely agree. Hence the whatever generation of truck you own is the last of the real truck you own.

 

[Victory_Overland]

lol, the irony.

What irony; we are talking about the G-Wagon being a staple of reliability like so many think it is and it's not. Nobody has the reliability numbers for any of these vehicles related to off-road; including yourself. I surely was not talking about the new Defender because that remains to be seen and many of us feel over the years that reliability is way up on new tech and wish the success of innovation on the new Defender.

Stick behind your keyboard until we see anything you drive and some evidence you actually have off-road experience outside of your login to a site; still providing zero relevancy to any post.

YAWN , back to cleaning the dirt and mud off my LR3 from this weekend's trip to the border and Imperial and planning the next one.

 

[EricTyrrell]

What irony; we are talking about the G-Wagon being a staple of reliability like so many think it is and it's not. Nobody has the reliability numbers for any of these vehicles related to off-road; including yourself. I surely was not talking about the new Defender because that remains to be seen and many of us feel over the years that reliability is way up on new tech and wish the success of innovation on the new Defender.

I liked the part where you said "premier global mall crawler". Good chuckle that. I mean there's an entire line of cars that takes the cake for global mall crawling, and G is only second.

Mechanical reliability has improved. Unfortunately, they kept finding new ways to inject that classic Lucas charm.

behind your keyboard

As we all should be, for the moment.

 

[Victory_Overland]

As we all should be, for the moment.

COVID survivor, antibody positive and donating plasma like giving out candy at Halloween. On that note, I'm still staying physical distant and doing my own thing. Was out this weekend in the hills by myself and didn't see a soul outside of aircraft flying over.

 

[naks]

 

[naks]

 

[DieselRanger]

Hmm...maybe a Defender SVX in the works, since the Discovery SVX was canceled?

https://www.autoblog.com/2020/04/24/land-rover-defender-spied-v8-engine

 

[mpinco]

A naturally aspirated V8 should be lower cost than the MHEV I-6.

 

[naks]

Odd, as JLR are stopping all V8s for the next gen RR/RRS and using BMW turbo engines...

 

[naks]

New Land Rover Defender X P400 review: https://www.evo.co.uk/land-rover/defender/202375/new-land-rover-defender-x-p400-review

... This P400 mild-hybrid is currently the only straight-six available in the Defender, although a diesel will arrive soon enough, with the 3-litre unit featuring both a conventional twin-scroll turbocharger and a 48V electric supercharger. There’s also a belt-integrated starter motor in lieu of an alternator, with a 48V lithium-ion battery that stores recuperated energy as the car slows.

Combined, these two elements produce 394bhp and 406lb ft of torque, making this the most powerful Defender in the company’s history. The quickest, too, with a 0-60mph time of 6.1sec and a 129mph maximum if you go for the optional 22-inch wheels, otherwise you’re pinned back to 119mph.

There’s a claim of 29.4mpg, but we did struggle to get out of the teens on our drive. Perhaps a longer run on a motorway would help rather than a mad dash across the Fosse Way in the Cotswolds. ...

What's it like to drive?
Nothing like a Defender of old, which some of you will be more than happy about while others will head straight outside to hose out the interior of their ‘real’ Defender. But it’s 2020 and having a car that drove like it was designed to survive being dropped from a plane makes for a lovely piece of nostalgia, but not such a great car.

In the new Defender you’re driving a car that works on road as well as it does off it. It doesn’t lurch around or pitch itself into a corner or around a motorway slip road curve with the grace of an elephant on skates. It drives like a normal car. It drives better than most car-based SUVs.There’s a suppleness to its ride quality that puts the Discovery 5 to shame and its body control is superior, too. It certainly responds to being hustled along better than the 5, and aside from the slightest evidence of vagueness from the steering around the dead ahead when the optional off-road tyres are fitted, you find yourself travelling quicker than expected.

The thump from the straight-six helps considerably here, neither troubled by the 2443kg kerb weight nor aerodynamics that probably raised a snigger from the wind tunnel operators. Its step-off from stationary is instant, the mid-range punchy and responsive beyond all expectations, and it even enjoys troubling the red line. Unlike its predecessor and so many of its ilk, it lets you set the pace rather than dictate it. For those long road trips and too far away places that Defenders are drawn to, the road part will no longer be a chore.

Your overriding impression of the new Defender is just how complete it feels. How nothing has been compromised or sacrificed and every need has been catered for. It will still crawl up a rock face or submerge itself in a bog and haul itself out the other end, but crucially it will no longer suck the life out of you when you need to travel any distance on a road. ...

 

[Keanan]

This is very well curated video, I like that it makes me think the Defender can go anywhere and do anything, except climb that muddy hill...

It's a track made to show the strong points of the vehicle. I would really like to see a D2, LR4, Wrangler, Land Cruiser and 4Runner follow along on the course. Give them all the same model of tire and compare which one does better in each situation.

That muddy hill at 5:50 looked bad, I assume they had to winch out of it. On mild AT tires most vehicles would have trouble on a muddy hill like that. They made it up somehow because you can see the tire tracks and the area where the belly scraped on the mud.
I don't see why any modern 4x4 would have trouble in their oval wading pool, unless it is excessively deep. The stair step climb should be easy for any 4x4, the cross axle break over berm could be tough without lockers or good traction control.
The side hills are not impressive unless we know the angle of the hill, if the competitors flop at 30 degrees and the Defender can handle 45 degrees it's impressive. If everyone can handle a 50 degree side hill it is not impressive.
A base Subaru Outback could probably handle the rocky track 2:40 into the video. At 4:00 the center of the muddy track looks smooth, I can't tell if it's water covering it or it's smooth cause the belly of the vehicles are all rubbing on it and keeping it the same height.

Promotional videos like this are interesting but I take them with a grain of salt.

 

[DieselRanger]

This is very well curated video, I like that it makes me think the Defender can go anywhere and do anything, except climb that muddy hill...

It's a track made to show the strong points of the vehicle. I would really like to see a D2, LR4, Wrangler, Land Cruiser and 4Runner follow along on the course. Give them all the same model of tire and compare which one does better in each situation.

That muddy hill at 5:50 looked bad, I assume they had to winch out of it. On mild AT tires most vehicles would have trouble on a muddy hill like that. They made it up somehow because you can see the tire tracks and the area where the belly scraped on the mud.
I don't see why any modern 4x4 would have trouble in their oval wading pool, unless it is excessively deep. The stair step climb should be easy for any 4x4, the cross axle break over berm could be tough without lockers or good traction control.
The side hills are not impressive unless we know the angle of the hill, if the competitors flop at 30 degrees and the Defender can handle 45 degrees it's impressive. If everyone can handle a 50 degree side hill it is not impressive.
A base Subaru Outback could probably handle the rocky track 2:40 into the video. At 4:00 the center of the muddy track looks smooth, I can't tell if it's water covering it or it's smooth cause the belly of the vehicles are all rubbing on it and keeping it the same height.

Promotional videos like this are interesting but I take them with a grain of salt.

The track where you see ladders, off-camber transitions over concrete rollers and the like are common test courses that allow automakers to tune things like traction control, suspension performance, throttle mapping, etc under controlled, repeatable conditions. Much like a closed track for road cars. The part where they drive on trails is one of their Experience Centres in the UK and it looks like they were having one of the early press engagements for "first impressions" with the factory drivers in control.

 

[naks]

A kiwi review: https://www.driven.co.nz/reviews/giving-the-all-new-land-rover-defender-the-beans-in-namibia/

Pros
Instant icon: first new Defender in 72 years
Impressive new Terrain Response system
Subtle but clever heritage styling cues

Cons
Premium product so premium prices
High-tech might put old-school 4x4 people off
Still haven't driven this new model on the road ...


... The Defender ate it all up, notwithstanding a few consumables. We got three separate punctures on two different cars for example, but that hardly dented Land Rover’s stock of 120 spares for the event. There are some big rocks out there.


The 18-inch painted-white steel wheels on the expedition D240 models are not only a fashion master-stroke, they’re more practical for off-roading. “I prefer them,” says lead Experience driver David Sneath. “Alloys can break. With these, they bend and you can just tap them back into shape and carry on.”


Genuine problems are few. We get a power steering warning at one stage, possibly due to so much water being forced under the bonnet at high pressure as we rage through riverbeds for hours on end. We also lose a piece of sill trim after being instructed to attack a river crossing with “passion”. Could be considered corporate littering, I suppose. Once these cars get back to the UK, they’ll all be stripped down, inspected, analysed and rebuilt. And no, they won’t be resold; all are destined to work as support vehicles for Land Rover Experience events.


Defender is a fascinating blend of heritage design and the very latest in Land Rover’s off-road technology. Petrol or diesel? I love the earnest clatter of a Defender with a compression-ignition engine, but this is a heavy car at 2.4 tonnes and it’s the grunty six-pot petrol that gives it truly engaging performance, whether you’re creating a rooster tail of sand or not.


This was an exhausting trip, but not an exhaustive test of course. It was a chance for the Defender to establish its credentials in the harsh environment that helped create the legend, before heading out into the wider (urban) world… and a much broader customer base than the previous model could ever hope to attract. Also, a great chance for us to really give it the beans.

 

[naks]

 

[EricTyrrell]

The moment he complains about the old one's road handling, you know he doesn't have a clue. Of course he then takes the common erroneous position that if it wasn't the same as the original, everyone was going to hate it. This rampant binary stupidity asserts that the new fashion Defender was the only possible solution, as if no other vision of the Defender could have come to fruition. The obvious refute to this is the existence of the INEOS project, which seeks to produce a more authentic successor, but it also isn't the only vision of what the Defender could have been. Even the new Bronco seems to share more in common with the real Defender, and if it were the green oval'd successor, I'd wager far fewer would be disappointed.