feniksss wrote:

OK folks, finally had a short test drive of the DEF...

short because we got stuck... Yes we got stuck where any stock car with stock tires would get stuck. But to me thats the whole point, what I got away is that the DEF is no better than any other non-purposeful vehicule in serious conditions, and as such, I am thinking, whats the point...

Now, i did get about 10mins experience on tarmac and I have to say it was very much at home there, bulky, big and feeling Jeepy, but really good to drive. I had the D200 only, but the pull at low speed is great (surely the engine is tuned this way).
Then we got to the muddy offroad bit and it started sliding and going all over the place, but in a fun way (you can add power and control it that way). Then the manager offered some electronic mode for mud and suddenly all the fun was gone, all power is cut, it would slide all the same just you feel as passenger the vehicule, not a pedal operator anymore. Then for some reason we went to the side road which was pure mud, super slippery and I swapped myself out of the seat because there was no way in hell we would get out of there, steep falls on bothe sides of the road. One impressive thing was body control, id did look like the car could topple over at one point and electronics did the magic and it stabilised itself. I have the whole thing on video and cant help scrolling to that moment every time I watch.

Conclusions, I was left disappointed. One, because my test was cut very short. Two, because I dont get it why dealers sell there offroad tires to a customer to get stranded on regulars in mud (and tell their clients to go there).

Sitting in the recovery disco sport later, which is a very nice car compared to the one it replaced, would I want to own the the DEF just to find myself in the same situation in my own car. Then i remember a deep snow test I did a long time on Land rover testing ground. That time the defender went a few meters further than our test FFRR, and all 4 cars were pretty much neck in neck. I would go as far as saying that RRS or FFRR as pretty darn close and would challenge anything a 110 can do offroad apart from angled stuff, people just dont venture that far usually. But then, costing similarly, for someone who doesn't go offorad as a hobby, I reckon it has to be the new full fat or nothing.

PS I really like the looks and would fancy a used 90 at some point, but I doubt I would use it for serious offroad. Even the Wrangler seems more appealing for that. The old DEF with big tires has to be the man for that job, new DEF "TO ME" is very much a fashion statement, fecking cool but also useless compared to bigger brothers if you consider the price...

feniksss wrote:

test drove a touareg 3l diesel
not sure what makes it play in the same league as x5 for similar money

much more sedan-like feeling compared to land rovers, but without much fun attached, makes you wanna cruise quietly, which isnt a bad thing