Dmmos with the transit engine the defender puma should meet emission laws BUT the pedestrian impact laws are a major problem for any 4x4 as the height of a vehicle increases the impact area up towards the head and why if you look at many cars coming out of europe their noses and bonnets are getting lower and in some cases SOFTER( one of the hondas from memory) to lessen the impact upon a lattae sipping tech head with an iPod in 1 ear and their mobile in the other wandering out into city traffic!
The new defender will first and foremost need to be of military compliance.The Mod and many others buy defenders and LR would be silly to let the G wagon have all that market. Pat
Pat LR had a perfect vehicle to go up against the pinzgauer 4x4 and 6x6 but failed to develop it enough in the guise of the follow on for 101: 1986/7 with the hope of winning a contract from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to replace its existing fleet of Land Rover 101 gun tractors. Heavily based on the contemporary Land Rover One Ten, the Llama was intended to be sold on both the military and civilian markets. However, the MoD did not choose Land Rover's design and without the security of these sales Land Rover was unwilling to risk putting the Llama on the market.
But the big fail was investment into the prototype,there are two of these still floating round Solihull today.
Wonder if Tata have the guts to put the money up to develop defender into a hybrid of yankee appeal the big market! ...what a thought better start storing parts up for ya pumas guys they could be on short parts runs.
I would be very surprised if the G-wagon made an impact over there they have looked at it before for the MOD but they were not takers!
Regarding all this talk about making the Defender comply with future safety requirements. Does this requirement apply to commercial vehicles too like Ford Transits and all the Japanese vans running about? If it is only for passenger vehicles Land Rover could keep the Defender and concentrate on the commercial end of things. Perhaps this would not be as profitable as I am sure that the passenger versions sell with a higher profit margin. If Land Rover could keep the Defender the only changes they would need to make to make it the world beater we know it has the potential to be, is to enforce very strict quality control on it's construction and on the parts they are supplied with.
I would say yes.....as go back a few years and look at what the tranists used to look like. they never had a bonnet...
when the pedestrian safety regs came in they had to redsign them to encorparte a bonnet....infact I believe a lot of them did this like the sprinters etc.
Our Land Rover does not leak oil! it just marks its territory.......
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