Yes, but from the photos and the spec that were released the new Defender clearly is the new D4! It's actually the real D5, not the current one, which is clearly just a large Evoque. [bigrolf]
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I have pointed this out before - when the 110 was introduced in 1983, it was essentially a Rangerover chassis with a Series body. In other words, a very similar concept to what is probably coming with the new Defender, only using the D3/4 chassis/.
And yes, there were many who saw it as the end of the Landrover as a real working vehicle. When I got my County I found out (some years later) that my extended family referred to it (behind my back) as "the Yuppymobile"! It could not possibly be a working vehicle with coils rather than leaf springs.
I remember when the D3 came out going to a Landy club meeting where we all sat around muttering about how the D3 was not a true Landy and had gone soft and wouldn't be capable to be taken off the bitumen and it was the end of civilisation as we knew it.
Now we're saying the D4 is the last true Discovery and the D5 isn't a real Landy and nothing will replace the Defender.
I also remember when I was a kid on the farm where we had Landys and my dad bought an ex-Army Jeep which shocked the neighbouring farmers, who reckoned it would be useless.
It goes round and round...
Can't wait till the Hover Landy gets introduced, wont the proper 'off roaders' be complaining then.
Problem is Mick, replacing Defender with a D4 clone is an entirely different matter from introducing a new model. If this is effectively what’s happening, Defender is not being replaced with anything.
As good as a D4 is, it’s in a different category to a Defender. ...and if that’s where the market has gone, as it seems it has, current Defenders are truly the last.
All the info i have come across says the next defender will have an alloy monocoque. If thats true, then even if the body shape has similarities to the D4, it will have significant differences to the D4.