 | Home > General & Technical (L663) > Mcgovern and cufflink enginering ethos |
 
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| NMBRPL8 Member Since: 07 Jul 2015 Location: Australia Posts: 145  
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13th Aug 2017 10:34am |
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| ericvv Member Since: 02 Jun 2011 Location: Near the Jet d'Eau Posts: 5816  
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Think our existing Defenders are pretty stylish. More so than an Eewok or new Discovery.
And probably more so than the new still being designed Defender too. 
Eric You never actually own a Defender. You merely look after it for the next generation. http://youtu.be/yVRlSsJwD0o https://youtu.be/vmPr3oTHndg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GtzTT9Pdl0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABqKPz28e6A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLZ49Jce_n0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvAsz_ilQYU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8tMHiX9lSw https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dxwjPuHIV7I https://vimeo.com/201482507 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSixqL0iyHw |
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13th Aug 2017 11:12am |
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| milesr3 Member Since: 12 Feb 2013 Location: Suffolk Posts: 873 
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You can't argue with the financial result of taking the Freelander2 and morphing it into the Evoque and Discover Sport. The FL2 was one of the best cars we owned. However the Evoque and DS were too impractical and too expensive for what they are.
I am impressed with the Discovery 5 though. It seems to be a cut-price and more practical Range Rover. I may well end up in one of these if the new Defender is too stylish for me. |
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14th Aug 2017 8:38am |
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| blackwolf Member Since: 03 Nov 2009 Location: South West England Posts: 17373  
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I think that the fact that someone even considers a Disco 5 as a replacement for a Defender is indicative of how far the Defender market has moved, and how far JLR has managed customer expectations already.
The (outgoing) Defender was a commerical vehicle, a working vehicle, which somehow "morphed" into a "lifestyle" vehicle. and its successor will almost inevitably be a "lifestyle" vehicle from the start. As a person who uses his Defender for the purpose for which it was conceived, this to me is an absolute disaster. If, however, like so many later buyers of a Defender (and like many on this forum, and no criticism is intended) you bought it as a lifestyle choice, it is probably great news. I suspect now that the one-time majority who bought the Defender because you can tow plant trailers, fit cherry-pickers, locust-suppression equipment, or snowploughs, carry tools to remote places, and so on, and now the tiny minority, and also that the limited and finicky market for such a vehicle makes it something in which JLR simply has no interest - it won't provide sufficient ROI. McGovern is undoubtedly a brilliant asset for JLR and from the point of view of the company's owners/shreholders is doing all the right things, but I suspect that he is the death knell for the original Land-Rover concept. It goes without saying that I hope to be proved wrong. |
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14th Aug 2017 10:31am |
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| Ramajama Member Since: 28 Jul 2016 Location: Heartland, ‘Murica Posts: 109 
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We have a little experience with the LR2 as we seriously considered one at one time. To each their own I guess but honestly, out of the 32-ish combined cars, trucks, SUVs and Jeeps my wife and I have owned between us over the past 25 years, the Discovery Sport is easily one of the top 2 most practical vehicles we've owned. Thats saying something....however it is also top 3 most expensive. All 3 being within a few thousand $ of each other. |
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15th Aug 2017 5:26am |
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| oneten110 Member Since: 02 Jul 2011 Location: Wish I was still in France Posts: 741
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Absolutely the greatest thing about the Land Rover and the Defender was that it was a genuinely universal vehicle which said little or nothing about the driver/owner. From queenie all the way to people like me, via the military, emergency services, the AA and numerous others.
I very much doubt the replacement will be anything like as broad in its appeal |
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7th Sep 2017 11:11am |
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| X4SKP Member Since: 29 Nov 2013 Location: Berkshire Posts: 2295 
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Hello oneten110
I absolutely agree...I remember reading somewhere that when you see a Defender you don't know whether its driver owns the land, or works it... Classless maybe, but because of that it has huge class, so often understated, its not trying too hard. I loved the 1st comment at the end of the article... ''Great cars, very comfortable. But in a big country like Australia, its more important how reliable the thing is rather than how it looks. Its a long way between LR dealers once you get out of the capital cities''. As the Aussies say if you want to go into the Bush take a Land Rover... but if you want to come out take a Land Cruiser. The Article concludes... 'The take-out from this is that the next Defender will be stylish in ways that the original Land Rover never was… but it will still be ‘a Defender’'. Oh dear... 
I just hope that when the replacement Defender arrives it isn't trying too hard...just do the off-road, on-road thing really well, with up to date safety, and comfort, in a platform that allows the individualist / specialist (including Land Rover) to take this and tailor / customise the Defender to its wider market potential. There must be room in the LR line up for one vehicle to not be just a 'size clone' of those around it, a design 'trap' so many car manufactures fall into. Am I day dreaming with false hope...  SKIP
https://www.defender2.net/forum/topic83242.html Last edited by X4SKP on 7th Sep 2017 2:16pm. Edited 1 time in total |
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7th Sep 2017 11:41am |
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| Huttopia Member Since: 23 Feb 2016 Location: West Midlands Posts: 1972
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"Am I day dreaming with false hope... ?"
I think so. I can't reconcile modern cost efficient production methods and materials with building vehicles that can easily be varied to meet specific user needs.  |
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7th Sep 2017 2:06pm |
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| milesr3 Member Since: 12 Feb 2013 Location: Suffolk Posts: 873
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https://www.autocar.co.uk/opinion/anything...tree-green
"The passing of Aintree Green marks the passing of my love for Land Rover. We have all lost an old friend, a gentleman in a brown warehouse coat that always knew where the half-inch brass screws were". |
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28th Jun 2018 4:21pm |
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| apt100 Member Since: 05 Mar 2015 Location: Derbyshire Posts: 1547 
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^^ that link doesn't work - but this might https://www.autocar.co.uk/opinion/anything...tree-green
The article does say that although Aintree Green (any green) is no longer listed in the configurator, British Racing Green is available as an extra cost. Interestingly my Aintree Green is actually listed as BRG in Topix  |
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28th Jun 2018 7:07pm |
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| JeremyJ Member Since: 16 Nov 2011 Location: Aylesbury Posts: 1758
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BRG is available but very long lead times (as with any SV paint)
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28th Jun 2018 7:34pm |
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| 22900013A Member Since: 23 Dec 2010 Location: Oxfordshire Posts: 3149 
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Sorry but I had to give up half way through. Army surplus paint? HUE is Keswick Green? Hand painted? Matt finish?...
Err....what? 2011 110 USW 1973 Series III 1-Ton 1972 Series III 1-Ton Cherrypicker 1969 IIA 1-Ton 1966 IIA 88" |
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29th Jun 2018 6:14am |
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| DSC-off Member Since: 16 Oct 2014 Location: North East Posts: 1402 
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Oliver Jerome has put into words what many have come to realise over recent years.
Landrover is not the same company, it doesn't build working vehicles, or cater for 'conservative tastes' and doesn't want to. It doesn't even want to sell green colours, that are so significant to the company's past. Time to move on. He and I will both be spending our money elsewhere. It was worth reading through to the end: "Aintree Green is grassroots. Aintree Green was the spirit of the company that gave us the 50th Anniversary Defender V8, the icon that burbled through my Park Lane test drive in 1998, available at an accessible price and accessible volumes. Twenty years on, in this post-green age, we’re given the same vehicle for £150k, to be sold only by appointment. Green-era Land Rover would not have built the Velar, or the Evoque Cabriolet (imagine: would the farmer in Peter Rabbit be seen in such a thing?). The passing of Aintree Green marks the passing of my love for Land Rover. We have all lost an old friend, a gentleman in a brown warehouse coat that always knew where the half-inch brass screws were. After one Freelander, three proper Range Rovers, one Range Rover Sport, two Discovery 4s, three Defender 90s, two Defender 110s and even a Series 1 (yes, all green; the Series 1 even had paint left over from the war, you know…), I am done." |
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29th Jun 2018 2:33pm |
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| 22900013A Member Since: 23 Dec 2010 Location: Oxfordshire Posts: 3149
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Would have been a nice article but for the sheer number of factual errors as I hinted at above. 2011 110 USW
1973 Series III 1-Ton 1972 Series III 1-Ton Cherrypicker 1969 IIA 1-Ton 1966 IIA 88" |
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29th Jun 2018 3:40pm |
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