Thread: Why have Land Rover only made minor changes to the DEFENDER over the years??

The following news article says 2017 for the new Defender. However, not a priority ATM.

http://m.carsguide.com.au/news-and-r...83344_20140428

Originally Posted by Reads90

No your right but Land Rover mentality " If it ain't broke don't fix it " :-)

Problem was and is that LR knew It was broken in the mid 90's as the US and" eventually EU wanted aairbags as well as ABS that's why they stopped NAS spec exports. How long did it take for the opposition to get both? All those fleet and export sales gone.
They went from making about 40,000per year in the 90's to the last few years of 12,000.

Originally Posted by Reads90

But they did try something's :-)

I knew a bloke who worked at one of the biggest airbag manufactures in the Uk and he told me in the 90's Land Rover talked them with putting an airbag ina. Defender. They were all up for it until Land Rover Handed them the steering wheel and then they laughed and handed it back. Land Rover weren't willing to change anything around the steering wheel they wanted them to just fit an airbag into the existing steering wheel. End of test.

By 1995 they had airbags in the disco and RRC. Their steering wheels weren't too far different.

Toyota spend millions fitting airbags to series cruisers but are still going to discontinue the model,there is only so much you can do with an old design.The Defender and Cruiser are from the same generation and both really show their age compared to new makes and models,as mentioned defender sales are declining but so are LC sales,the troopy and more so the dual cab sales are so slow you have to pre order them,the reason is you can buy a dual cab from VW,Isuzu,Ford etc that are half the price but give twice the performance with a third of the fuel use and are comfortable,trayback LC sales are mostly fleet sales but even that is going to stop as they don't meet mine specs now.The Defender replacement will be a clean sheet design from scratch with all the current safety/pollution regs built in,not added later and IMHO LR will nail it,LR aren't silly,they know all too well that Defender owners are long time LR buyers that have owned previous models,they have not forgotten were LR came from. Pat

Pat,
Hope your right

Whoever gets a new gen utilitarian work horse to market first could win big. I have seen nothing about Toyota or Nissan pursuing this niche when their current models expire.

Toyota are replacing the LC with the Hilux,it is compliant with all the regs. Pat

Originally Posted by frantic

Problem was and is that LR knew It was broken in the mid 90's as the US and" eventually EU wanted aairbags as well as ABS that's why they stopped NAS spec exports. How long did it take for the opposition to get both? All those fleet and export sales gone.
They went from making about 40,000per year in the 90's to the last few years of 12,000.

Yes my point exactly. Now if they'd pulled their finger out, they'd still be at 40,000 + units per year.

In South Africa, the guys love horsepower. Nissan V9Xs and Toyota V8 TDs get chipped straight off the factory floor. A 2.2 van engine just doesn't hack it. Ford 3.2 T6 is becoming very popular. So if LR ZA slapped a 3.2 Durotorq engine with the uprated MT82 into the Defender, they'd instantaneously double their sales.
If LR ZA offered a Defender with say a nice 3.6 Petrol V6 @ around 190kW, they'd TREBLE their sales. Get the picture?

Originally Posted by PAT303

Toyota are replacing the LC with the Hilux,it is compliant with all the regs. Pat

The next hilux or the last of the current?