Thread: All New Defender - what form and is the current shape the last true one?

Originally Posted by isuzutoo-eh

IWorking from the ground up will result in a better overall package than trying to shoe-horn modern tech and safety necessities into a 60 year old chassis and 50 year old body.

One thing is certain - it will not be designed from the ground up. It is almost certain to be based on the D3/D4/Sport platform, although there is a slight chance that it will be a completely new platform, but if this happens it will share it with other vehicles.

Another point that is certain is that it will not use the meccano-like construction that has defined Landrovers for over sixty years. This style of construction is simply too expensive to build today. And unlike Landrovers for the last fifty years, it is very unlikely to have any parts that can be interchanged (like S2 doors will fit a Puma!) with earlier models. I am uncertain whether the body will be aluminium - costs say no, but emphasis on fuel economy says yes!

I expect it will be a worthy successor to the Defender - but will it be a Defender? My view is that it will not, although it almost certainly will bear that name.

It will be interesting to see what market(s) Tata aim it at - it may be aimed like the Wrangler purely at the recreational market, or it may attempt to regain the market that Landrover lost in the seventies and eighties, or even both. I would not be surprised to see it produced in India or China as well as the UK.

John

Originally Posted by JDNSW

...It will be interesting to see what market(s) Tata aim it at - it may be aimed like the Wrangler purely at the recreational market, or it may attempt to regain the market that Landrover lost in the seventies and eighties, or even both. I would not be surprised to see it produced in India or China as well as the UK.

I can't see Land Rover shifting the Defender away from the commercial market. Commercial model variants make up most of its product line even though they probably sell more station wagons than anything else. Surely Land Rover are well aware that if they bail out of the commercial off-road market altogether that gives it pretty much entirely to Toyota.

I would hope they are aiming to keep the new Defender in that segment with improved manufacturing processes, quality and costs to make it a real alternative to the 70 series. The Puma saw a huge spike in sales for the Defender here in Australia - so much so that they reintroduced the full range. Surely they won't be ignoring that market response.

And I agree that they cannot be making a loss on the Defender. Sales of 20,000 plus units a year with minimal R&D and hardly any change to their manufacturing process. Holden & Ford have managed here with only that number of sales for the Commodore & Falcon, and they have heaps more advertising and new models regularly.