
Originally Posted by
Sleepy
I would have to agree with Tombie.
Perhaps it is time we kiss the Defender good bye.
Land Rover appears less interested in Military sales and more interested in the luxury branding. Without the military demands, perhaps the Disco4 is the "evolution" of the civilian recreational Land Rover and anything they bring out to replace the defender will just be similar to what BMW did with the mini and Toyota did with the FJcruiser - a TRIBUTE to the original vehicle.
But it should be noted that neither of these in any way fill the function of the original vehicle. They only resemble them in styling, the least important part of any vehicle. The mini was designed for the same market the Tata Nano is today, and the FJ40 as a pure working four wheel drive, originally for the Japanese police.
Maybe what we need is a more practical versions in the D4 range - no carpets, steel wheels, ute version, body protection, ......
I agree that this is the best outcome that is likely. There is no doubt that it is necessary to replace the Defender - it is too expensive to build and has problems meeting many design rules (its continued production today is only possible because of grandfather clauses). Unfortunately, these design rules make it almost impossible to produce a real replacement for the defender, at least at an affordable price.
Not a direct personal concern - I expect my 110 will see me out - I doubt I will be driving for more than another twenty years at the most, and I'm only just now doing the 520,000km service, so plenty of life left in the old girl.
John
John
JDNSW
1986 110 County 3.9 diesel
1970 2a 109 2.25 petrol
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