New Land Rover DEFENDER Tested & (Lions)

[Peterng]

We will get bombarded with the "Gushing" media reviews...
It is a very competitive market the Defender is aimed for and it is using some of it old "history" to spring board off with its marketing..better reliability, better off road ability..yadda yadda.
It is a different design, more softer, more of an everyday vehicle with a shed load of bling and electronics..
It might be water proof to some extent...
Can its electronics cope with the Australian outback corrugation and dust?
Only time will tell..

[littleriver]

https://www.carsales.com.au/editorial/details/frankfurt-motor-show-new-land-rover-defender-finally-revealed-120475/

[BruceandBobbi]

Here we go again.


Towing capacity 3,720 Kg.

[littleriver]

https://mr4x4.com.au/2020-land-rover-defender-110-pricing-revealed/?utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=2020+Land+Rover+Defender+110+Pricing+Revealed+%2B+2020+Isuzu+D-Max+Revealed&utm_campaign=PC+Newsletter+%23283+%28Weekly%29

[littleriver]

https://www.carsguide.com.au/car-news/land-rover-defender-2020-pricing-leaked-this-is-how-much-you-will-pay-for-the-new-off-road

[Dicko1]

Here we go again.


Towing capacity 3,720 Kg.

hahaha...soon we will have the super bush version....towing capacity 4200kg.....we certainly live in a bullshit world..

[dhula]

Here we go again.
Towing capacity 3,720 Kg.

hahaha...soon we will have the super bush version....towing capacity 4200kg.....we certainly live in a bullshit world..

Pretty sure back in the day Disco's had a 4500kg tow capacity so long as it was under certain conditions so can't see why the new Defender can't have a 3750kg tow capacity.
Had 2x Defenders years ago and the user manuals were quite specific regarding towing limits, had a on road and a off road limit (off road was 1000kg IIRC)

[BruceandBobbi]

According to RMS on a normal car (C) licence you are limited to 4.5t GVM in NSW. No idea about other states.


C licence.

Vehicles up to 4.5 tonne Gross Vehicle Mass (GVM). Vehicles that seat up to 12 adults, including the driver. A Class C licence allows you to drive cars, utes, vans, some light trucks, car-based motor tricycles, tractors, and implements such as graders.

[pharb]

According to RMS on a normal car (C) licence you are limited to 4.5t GVM in NSW. No idea about other states.


C licence.

Vehicles up to 4.5 tonne Gross Vehicle Mass (GVM). Vehicles that seat up to 12 adults, including the driver. A Class C licence allows you to drive cars, utes, vans, some light trucks, car-based motor tricycles, tractors, and implements such as graders.

Thats the size of vehicle you can drive with a C class licence. You can then tow what ever the manufacturer states as the towing capacity so long as all other figures are not exceeded, such as tow bar capacity, axle mass limits etc.

[littleriver]

https://www.caradvice.com.au/895583/2020-land-rover-defender-110-p400-s-off-road-review/

[littleriver]

https://youtu.be/naQki7o0msI

[Jasonmc73]

$120,000 new design, unknown quantity on the back of a fantastic history of course..
But then again some people have more money than sense or enough money it doesn't really matter.

[Scrambler]

$120,000 new design, unknown quantity on the back of a fantastic history of course..
But then again some people have more money than sense or enough money it doesn't really matter.

Jasonmc73, as a Land Rover Tragic myself I can see why the vehicle became what it is. The design path for the current Defender is the same as the last one, just 40 years later. That path was, on both occasions, to take the current Range Rover running gear and put it under the existing Land Rover body. This time, though, the Range Rover had a squillion fancy bits, and the old body didn't fit. So it's a Range Rover turned into a pastiche of a Land Rover Defender rather than an enhancement of the design from before.

For what it is, it's great. There's been a lot of comment that it's really the current version of the Discovery rather than the current Defender. And given that the Discovery was a 7 seater Range Rover version (ie new body on the first generation RR chassis) then yes, it does fit that pretty precisely.

The Ineos Grenadier strikes me as a take on the Defender but as an extension not of the design path (take A and make it look like B) but the design result. It has 2 live axles, readily available engine, commercial body style. It is the wagon equivalent of a twin cab ute design, except it has as close to a pure off-road chassis design as you can achieve in a road capable car, versus a modern ute design which is compromised in front articulation.

And who started the trend for on-road suspension in off-road cars? The Pajero. Let's not forget that the real market for these beasts was "safe family motoring" with a faint whiff of dirt roads. Now that is achieved with air bags, for people and for suspension.

The real "Outback" cars, the "fix it with wire" cars are dead or dying. They aren't safe in traffic. But then they were designed for isolated places so that's not surprising.

[Jasonmc73]

And who started the trend for on-road suspension in off-road cars? The Pajero. Let's not forget that the real market for these beasts was "safe family motoring" with a faint whiff of dirt roads. Now that is achieved with air bags, for people and for suspension.
The real "Outback" cars, the "fix it with wire" cars are dead or dying. They aren't safe in traffic. But then they were designed for isolated places so that's not surprising.

Thanks for the lessons, appreciated & i reckon they are probably a beautiful car to drive that's for sure.

From what i've seen manufacturers tell us "It's what we need" , thereafter its adopted by the retail customers.

I've never had any problems in traffic, even with 60% brakes, which is due to my driving habits i suppose.

The machinery industry is the same, "Its what we need".

The "New tech", well its a matter of budget & wading through what one see's as appropriate repair & running costs i suppose.

Driving new tech (Pajero) which many would call "Old tech" i get that, compared to an Old Cruiser ute.
I'll take the "new tech" & for me it is more than enough safety gear.
Plenty of safety gear for me personally that is.
An airbag system & well designed safety cell is enough for me actually, with brakes that work, anti skid a bonus, but not a requirement in any way shape or form.

As for $120k + price range vehicles, with whats currently in the market, i cannot justify on my budget such a machine, but i would expect it to be at the pinnacle of reliability if I could & return minimum 400,000 k's without fault, but 600,000 k's wouldn't be below my expectations, even then i wouldn't be happy .
This is because of my budget, depends how much money you have to allocate to motoring i suppose.

[Scrambler]

Jasonmc73, I've owned 2 Land Rovers with coil springs: I count that as Modern :-/ The youngest was a 1992 build.

The new cars -all of them by every manufacturer- are designed to be smarter than me. I appreciate the thinking. People are pretty dumb. But I would prefer a simpler, slightly more dangerous world. A simple hinge can be built by hand. A modern internal cupboard hinge cannot be.

Land Rovers are not always unreliable. Or always reliable. Toyotas are dodgy more recently due to emissions work. All the manufacturers are doing mechanical versions of VW's fancy testing-beating electronics. Things are clean, but only for the first 100,000km. I've had a car (2nd owner) with a 100,000km auto gearbox: the plastics in the box(!) deteriorated after that. Ours got to 160,000km which was a good run. That was not a Land Rover!