New Defender News

[Todd n Natalie]

I can't speak for everyone but when I was offered glass coverage, it was only a couple bucks extra a month in terms of premium, but I would have to pay my deductible annually. Since my screen was only $300 and my deductible was $500, it would only be useful if I went through two screens in a year. Truthfully, I definitely do go through more than one screen a year if it's just a matter of rock chips, but I usually don't replace my screen often or just for a rock chip -- for me it's always been more a matter of time/convenience than anything else. I usually only replace after the cracks have spread/it's collected enough stone chips or sandblasting wear to obscure vision. So, the $500 deductible made it not good value for me.

Yep, it's the Alberta way. Haha. I think every 2nd car on the road has a cracked windshield here.

 

[Carson G]

Your comment made me go look at the Jalopnik comments- found this jewel in the comments section of the Defender article-

"Expedition Portal is full of rich people that like to set money on fire to fuel their obscure offroad fetish."

That’s my favorite as well. Not to mention I’m a LR owner so that makes me a masochist as well. Lol ?

 

[soflorovers]

I'm not sure this is a good assumption. I work in a production environment and while things have certainly slowed down both build and supply chain, there's no direct tie to quality problems (that I've seen, metric based).



LOL way to trigger me with the tesla comment. For me it's not about charm/personality - it's just use case. Nobody else makes a supremely comfortable but off-road capable vehicle designed in the last decade (sorry Toyota) and under 100k (sorry G wagon).

What are the issues for the suspension? I haven't been up on this other than seeing endless regurgitation of the TFL saga.

Yes, that. I'm referring to TFL's issues where they were receiving air suspension faults on their blue D110.

 

[Carson G]

2020 Defender in particular seems to have suffered from quite a few teething flaws. Some of these things are expected/acceptable (Loose window trim, constant OTA updates, temperamental infotainment, etc...) whereas some of these issues are downright unacceptable (air suspension faults - I mean cmon, hasn't JLR perfected this system already? It's been two decades now). I guess it's the price you pay to be an early adopter of an entirely new vehicle and an entirely new engine line (Ingenium i6).

Not to be "that" guy and draw parallels, but Land Rover owners are very much like Tesla owners - many of us are willing to put aside a vehicle's flaws for the "charm"/ personality of the brand. I'm not blind to the issues of the platform, and frankly I don't think we should be dismissive of many of these issues as minor. It's one thing to go full "rage/hate" in here in defense of the New Defender because it's an incredibly capable machine, but I still believe we need to be honest with ourselves and the entire community. To have this many issues for a new vehicle is unacceptable, and JLR should know better. That said, I personally would still buy a New Defender despite the flaws...in 2022 once they've ironed out most of them.

My money is on it being the compressor on TFL’s Defender. I’ve heard of another one that had to have the compressor replaced.

 

[JeepColorado]

The New Land Rover Defender Is the Real Deal

The sleek design and unibody architecture may make you think it’s gone soft. It hasn’t.

www.roadandtrack.com

 

[ChasingOurTrunks]

The New Land Rover Defender Is the Real Deal

The sleek design and unibody architecture may make you think it’s gone soft. It hasn’t.

www.roadandtrack.com

Great article. I especially liked this:

It got stuck only once, when after kicking up a massive aquatic shockwave blasting through a puddle, I was asked to do it again so we could catch it on camera. Turning around in the worn-down trenches carved by other off-roaders was an amateur mistake, as became clear when I landed both sets of wheels in straight-walled mud depressions. I rocked it for a solid 10 minutes, eventually triggering a transmission overheat warning. Head down in shame, I called in Chris Duplessis, Monticello’s Director of Fun. The former factory rally driver and current Tank Experience leader/rally teacher took the wheel and broke it free in about 15 seconds, proving the failure was a one of skill and not machinery.

I'm sure I've done unnecessary wear and tear on some of my older vehicle's transmissions either rocking as described or towing heavy loads. The warning is a nice feature and it's one of those features that has a direct connection to reliability that is not discussed widely. If the vehicle's fancy electronics tell you when to take a break and you do, it means you're a lot less likely to break stuff long term. It's a lot easier for the driver to stay within the design limits of the vehicle when it has warnings for when you exceed those parameters, the end result (in theory) being a more reliable vehicle long-term (assuming all else is designed as it should be, and despite the teething pains, the evidence suggests that this vehicle has been designed with the intent to be robust for the long-term)

 

[TexasTJ]

Wow. From a safety standpoint I was hoping these would hold together a little bit more like an LR3 or 4 in a bad wreck. Seriously not trolling. Just shocked

 

[TexasTJ]

Thank good ness the driver walked away with his life.

 

[T-Willy]

Is it a US thing where you don’t have screen cover with car insurance?

I had my heated screen on my Disco 3 changed and it was only £80 excess for the Pilkinton glass.
Are you having to pay full price for a screen change?

As for the scraper thing, being a tad vertically challenged at 5,8 on a good day.
I would have to climb on the tyre and reach in to get the middle. Which was a pain when trying to wash it...

My policy covers windshields. I've replaced several; well worth it.

 

[ChasingOurTrunks]

Wow. From a safety standpoint I was hoping these would hold together a little bit more like an LR3 or 4 in a bad wreck. Seriously not trolling. Just shocked
View attachment 636517

On the other hand, consider the energy it would take to crumple a vehicle like the New Defender (which we know can get a few feet of air and not be worse for wear) like that, and the fact that the fella driving it survived with apparently only 66 stitches.

I can always buy a new, New Defender after all. Other things are not so easily replaced.

 

[TexasTJ]

On the other hand, consider the energy it would take to crumple a vehicle like the New Defender (which we know can get a few feet of air and not be worse for wear) like that, and the fact that the fella driving it survived with apparently only 66 stitches.

I can always buy a new, New Defender after all. Other things are not so easily replaced.

yes but was anyone other than the driver going to walk away from that? If I remember right this LR3 rolled at 55 plus MPH. I'm sure that Defender was going much faster though.

 

[A.J.M]

Do we know if that 110 was cut up though to get at the driver?
The cabin looks to have held U.K. but panels seem to have been cut up and then thrown back onto the car to tidy the scene.

is there any info on what he hit?

 

[Blaise]

Wow. From a safety standpoint I was hoping these would hold together a little bit more like an LR3 or 4 in a bad wreck. Seriously not trolling. Just shocked

The Defender got top marks in crash testing. Period. You can't just grab a random photo of a crash and assume that it doesn't hold up as well as an LR3. Crash simulation and structural analysis methods have only gotten better (in a serious way) as computing power has gone up. Thankfully, in addition to these structural improvements, there's also been things like stability control, ABS, and auto-braking.

I'd put my family in a 2020 anything over a 2005 anything, assuming similar vehicles from said era. Unfortunately, with folks paying less and less attention to driving, this is especially critical lately (and can seen by highway fatality statistics).

 

[TexasTJ]

@A.J.M Just that he fell asleep and ran off the road.

@Blaise this is true. I'm Sure the driver would not have survived in a different vehicle.

 

[soflorovers]

My money is on it being the compressor on TFL’s Defender. I’ve heard of another one that had to have the compressor replaced.

Awesome. So what have we learned? Land Rover continues to make the same dumb mistakes every single time they produce a vehicle. Why does a new vehicle with delivery miles need a compressor replaced? I remember working at JLR Main Line in Philly during college (Circa 2014) when the L405's were still hot items. Our service bay was downstairs and required that you drive down a ramp with two speed bumps. I distinctly recall 10+ early L405's with clunking control arms and the trucks all had very low mileage; I'm pretty sure this later became a TSB. Wasn't this a known issue from the L322 and LR3 by now? Why do the same issues keep popping up on new vehicles? I'm almost CERTAIN my 2020 RR Evoque loaner had bad control arms - sure enough I Google'd and there was a TSB for the control arms. My patience is starting to wear real thin... I'll always love this brand, but it's becoming harder and harder to justify purchasing a new LR. I'm OK with issues if I'm getting a break on the vehicle up front due to depreciation, but it's unacceptable to drop 80k on a New Defender just to hear it needs as much work as my 175k mile LR3.