G wagon hopeless

**lardy** · 29th October 2012, 09:14 AM

I concour with Ron, simplicity of vehicles that have past were a wonderful thing allowing rudimentary mechanical skills to keep vehicles on the road.
And the realisation that we are in a different world of ecu and driver unfriendly packaging is just the way it is.
Land rover has not learnt much from the days when Leyland got broken up and lr had the opportunity to go it alone.
Then they had an arrogance of knowing that the products available were loved by the consumer for their 'character' and at the time military contracts kept land rover afloat but hardly evolved, lr really did no innovation for years just sat back on their laurels watching pennies trickle in when it could have been pounds
Maybe Tata will be good for LR, the realisation that Defender has cooked its goose, it sadly makes sense to bin it.
And maybe although Defender was a good enough seller at the time maybe they should have transitioned away from it sooner !
Lr are building around chassis platforms that give a million and one body styles off one or two chassis, which should see some version of lr moving forward into the future in different markets other than military or an expedition one?!
We are all driving modern antiques !

**Ausfree** · 29th October 2012, 09:16 AM

Wow, an expensive accident!!!

**Turtle61** · 29th October 2012, 10:10 AM

Originally Posted by newhue

I think Lots of Landies is wright, Land Rover didn't even show for the fight. If this is correct then it's just another nail in Defenders coffin. Our beloved Defenders are becoming extinct as the needs and wants of modern consumers, be it civilian or armies is changing. A Defender doesn't cut it anymore no matter what we think, know, or want.

Years ago (can't remember the year 2009-ish?) when ADF asked for tenders for the green fleet Land Rover did not put a bid in at all. The reason is, AFAICR, is that at that time the owners of Land Rover - Ford - wanted to kill the Defender platform by end of 2011 and therefore did not want to spend the money on a bid and a vehicle which would be discontinued. Fast forward a couple of years and Ford sells off Land Rover to Tata - another British icon sold off to the colonies - and Tata, in their practical wisdom, decided to keep the Defender as it suited their market and customer profile. Meantime Merc got the contract...

**ugu80** · 29th October 2012, 10:49 AM

Land Rover were interested in the tender but one of the tender requirements was a guarantee for long production of the model (ten or more years). That alone disqualified Land Rover from the bid.

**Lotz-A-Landies** · 29th October 2012, 11:01 AM

Originally Posted by lardy

<snip>We are all driving modern antiques !

You can still buy brand new Morgan +4 with the same body as they had in 1950.

**wagoo** · 29th October 2012, 11:54 AM

Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

Originally Posted by lardy

<snip>We are all driving modern antiques !

You can still buy brand new Morgan +4 with the same body as they had in 1950.

There's no such thing as 'the same' body on any Morgans.

The body panels are hand formed with tolerances that make a Defender seem as precise as a Swiss watch, and all panels end up just a little bit different to all the others.
Bill.

**Lotz-A-Landies** · 29th October 2012, 12:16 PM

Originally Posted by wagoo

There's no such thing as 'the same' body on any Morgans.

The body panels are hand formed with tolerances that make a Defender seem as precise as a Swiss watch, and all panels end up just a little bit different to all the others.
Bill.

Thanks Bill

We are splitting hairs here aren't we?

"You can still buy brand new Morgan +4 with the same body shape as they had in 1950. However the hand formed body panels may be slightly different between cars.

You can even buy a brand new galvanised Morgan chassis for your 1950 +4 direct from Morgan".

Does that make you happier?

Diana

**460cixy** · 29th October 2012, 12:24 PM

That's some pretty special driveing

**rick130** · 29th October 2012, 12:42 PM

Originally Posted by ugu80

Land Rover were interested in the tender but one of the tender requirements was a guarantee for long production of the model (ten or more years). That alone disqualified Land Rover from the bid.

Ford must have had a late change of heart as when they first took over Land Rover they canned the Military Vehicles engineering section here.

At that stage LRA were developing the TD5 to repower the Perentie, and under BMW stewardship Australia was going to be the engineering centre for military vehicles, South Africa military production and Solihull civvy vehicles.

Ford stopped the whole lot, instantly.

Ford (PAG) were only interested in luxury car sales, and Ford wanted to use the F series for military vehicles worldwide. they had no interest in the Defender at all.

That was straight from the blokes involved at the time, and I'll be seeing a couple of them in about three weeks.

**JohnF** · 29th October 2012, 12:47 PM

Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

The whole argument is moot.

Mercedes won the contract that Land Rover Australia didn't tender for and given that the Land Rovers currently in the sand pit don't go outside the base we maybe should have bought Toyota HiLux off the showroom floor.

After all the HiLux is used by more military forces than any other vehicle in the World.

he RFS in NSW ordered some new Toyota cab/chasis [do not know which Toyota, I think landcruiser] to be converted to Cat 9 mop up fire trucks. the first thing they are doinfg is sending these to melbourne to get their Chassis re-inforced [on a round Australia Trip my brother snaped the Chassis on his brand-new 4wd dual cab, but that may have been his Nissan which he replaced with a Toyota. He has had about 4 New 4WDs, and is getting another one now after blowing up his Toyota Deisel, just out of warranty.]

So the RFS sees the need to reinforce the Toyota Chassis' before putting these into service.

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