v8bobber wrote:

Not sure if everyone has seen this but makes some interesting watching and gives a different design perspective from someone a bit more down to earth than McGovern.



Watching it made me realise that I have been biased against the new Defender partly because of my dislike of McGovern, and watching this you can see a bit more why it looks the way it does. Saying that I still don’t like the way it looks and has been referred to before, it’s not “Defendery” enough, and even in its own right it’s not particularly attractive. I’ll stick with the D4 for everyday use and the 110 for when I want to get to my destination with wet feet

couplands wrote:

22900013A wrote:

I actually think most folk acknowledge the new model had to change, they/we just feel it did not have to change quite so much nor grow in the direction it did.

I think the idea of change being opposed at every turn is not much more than a myth, all the complaints about electronics, td5, tdi etc I have no memory of from the times they came out.

When I read things like "everyone opposed the TD5 when it came out because of electronics/complexity" I think - where was this, because I never saw it?!

The new one I'm afraid has caused such opposition because it doesnt really have any obvious connection to the old either in vehicle type or intended buyer, and especially in the styling. The fact the "influencers" have to keep reminding us of its strong DNA link etc etc only serves to confirm it doesnt have any.

I went to the launch event at Gordon Lamb, Chesterfield. I was completely underwhelmed by the Defender 110. It was very similar to my D4, but narrower, less room, poor 3rd row seat space and way more lower door/bumper plastic.

The switch gear next to the gear stick seemed very poorly laid out and I’ve no idea how you’d operate it when driving over tough terrain.

The rear load space was covered with very flimsy panels and the 3rd row seats were equally flimsy.

A D4 would be a much better Defender than this new Defender.

So sad....

Cheers

Simon

Quote:

That was a seriously depressing video. He knew (you can hear) he was selling an Edsel. Listen, LR: this is a buyer for two cars in the next 18 months to replace MY16 D4 HSE and MY16 RRS HSE.

I stood in the showroom last week. All BLING BLING. Nothing - from FFRR down - appealed. Glass smudge zone everywhere in the cabin. A world away from the design ethos of the D3 yellow tabs for range change, etc. Sure, they’re great off-road cars if you want to go off-road, but not cars I want to take off road. (I have plugged mud in NW Europe, sprayed sand in Northern Sahara).

Mud-plugging, sand driving not your target buyer? I assure you we are. We mostly drive the shopping / school / family run. And we have the money to buy again, and again, and no more.

NoDo$h wrote:

Any wading at these kind of depths is about as edge-case as it gets for a production standard vehicle. While you may consider driving 2 or 3 feet of slow-flowing or static water where the base condition is known, add movement into that and you're in a whole new world beyond mere wading.

Worth remembering that any defender regularly and effectively wading at these depths has been modified. You might get lucky doing it once or even twice with a factory standard one, but after that you're tossing a coin every time.

If this comes out with wading of 1m that's pretty much class beating. Anyone asking for more needs to ask themselves if there's another route available