The "you don't want technology" people on here who say that anyone who wants the Defender to be rugged long for the stone ages are advancing a straw man argument. There's nothing wrong with leveraging technology- what's exciting is when a company keeps incorporating new technology into a platform that is firmly rooted in the original soul of the vehicle- what made it great in the first place. And I don't mean staying rooted in it's soul in a superficial, appearance is all that matters, fake diamond-plate sticker kind of a way that adorns the hood of the current Pretender. I mean in a current Wrangler or G-Wagon way- both of those companies- one a high-volume entry level- to medium price point 4x4 company whose vehicle today still passes more than a striking resemblance to the original from 70 years ago all the way to as luxury as you can afford G-Wagon. Both of them showed LR how to do it, but Gerry and his team of fashion designers couldn't help themselves so we ended up where we are. I can't wait for the LC 300 to come up and provide further proof of how LR swung and missed. All the Defender had to do was be at least as capable as a Wrangler, it's not, be at least as reliable as a Toyota, that'd be a first, or as retro-modern as a G-Wagon- and I'd see a place for it- a niche it could carve out to say here's my piece of the market. It hasn't done that- The Defender didn't have to be all of those things, any one of them would have given legitimacy and it appears to have fallen in all categories. The world didn't need another decently capable, rides nice, nod to 4x4s that's basically a rugged cross-over. Once the Bronco comes out, the new LC 300 and what that will mean for the Lexus GX- all come on stage- the Defender sinks further and further into the oblivion of mediocrity no different than the Discovery did.
