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

**ozscott** · 8th March 2011, 07:27 AM

Hi all,

Always been a fan of County and Deefer. My brother has a County and it was a great truck in 3.5V8 form and is now a beast with a 400+hp Chev and 36 inch tyres but thats another story.

I see that Tata has plans for a 2012 Defender all new. It will likely be wider than current Defender, lower and longer (than the 110) ad will be based on the D3/D4 running platform. It will likely be available with the 2.7 V6 TD which seems tried and tested (the 3.0 TT seems to have some teething problems..).

Does anyone know anything more about the likely build - I assume it will not have air suspension, but perhaps that will be an option. I dont know how they will set it up without air suspension though in that a stock D3/D4 with air suspension would be likely better off road than even a slight higher clearance vehicle using the same platform but without the benefits of simulated live axles that the D3/4's have.

If it has air suspension then that is a big move away from the low complexity less to go wrong, less is more, traditional defender.

So...will the current Defender be the last of the true Defender's - true to the LR roots with live axle and simplicity?

My bet is that there will be a few people who go and buy a Puma, the last run of, or otherwise (and this would be my preference) the best of the second hand last run of TD5's and will hang on to them...and they would likely keep their value it seems to me...unless LR do some amazing things with the independent set up of the new Deefer to make it Hummer like (doubtful but we will see) and therefore very capable without air and all the fancy auto traction aids, with just manual locking centre and manual locking front and rear diff options or availability, traction control for those who dont take up one or both lockers, and perhaps hdc.

Keen to hear what you think.

Cheers

**ozscott** · 8th March 2011, 01:04 PM

Interesting...so far when writing this post 70 people have viewed my first post and no one has commented...can it be that you guys are so happy with your deefers and can see no future in the new one...or that you think the new one will happily and faithfully continue the tradition of the current one...or is everyone apathetic about it (or is there simply not enough info about it yet to comment?)?

Cheers

**GEK064** · 8th March 2011, 01:42 PM

More info required but check this out:

2012 Land Rover Defender

My wife is eyeing off the new Evoke...

**one_iota** · 8th March 2011, 02:16 PM

Originally Posted by ozscott

Interesting...so far when writing this post 70 people have viewed my first post and no one has commented...can it be that you guys are so happy with your deefers and can see no future in the new one...or that you think the new one will happily and faithfully continue the tradition of the current one...or is everyone apathetic about it (or is there simply not enough info about it yet to comment?)?

Cheers

I quite like driving an anachronism.

Series/County/Defender owners are radical conservatives....like being different but don't like change.

"We" each think that the Series/County/Defender we drive is the last true one in that venerable line stretching back to 1948.

The new one (and nothing but rumour and press hype so far) when and if it appears will have it's work cut out convincing us.

**VladTepes** · 8th March 2011, 04:28 PM

If it looks anything like the pics on that link

then nobody wll buy it.
Looks ike a Hummer' FJ Cruiser wannabe.

**zuno555** · 8th March 2011, 05:53 PM

There is absolutely nothing "defenderish" in those pics at all. Horrible.

**solmanic** · 8th March 2011, 05:58 PM

Well since that illustration is from the website's own artists, then you can pretty well assume it will look nothing like that.

This is Land Rover, not Toyota. Don't forget they did a pretty darn good job of reimagining the original Range Rover to give us the current shape (although they did have a bit of a fail with the P38A in between). I have high hopes that they can pull a rabbit out of the hat with a reinvention of the Defender.

But if they can't, then there's always the G-Wagen...

**PAT303** · 8th March 2011, 06:20 PM

The Puma is the last defender which is why I bought one.The next one is a rebodied disco. Pat

P38ace · 8th March 2011, 06:57 PM

+1

What he said.

**solmanic** · 8th March 2011, 07:25 PM

Originally Posted by PAT303

The Puma is the last defender which is why I bought one.The next one is a rebodied disco. Pat

I wouldn't be surprised to see Tata knocking out the current Defender in years to come for the central Asian market - a'la Santana.

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