Thread: Photos of new Defender

Geez, why don't they at least give us the option of a motor with some serious grunt.

Can someone tell me is the 2007 fender as pictured above an update and not a whole new design and when is the whole new build design due 3, 4, or 5 years?

Originally Posted by ak

Can someone tell me is the 2007 fender as pictured above an update and not a whole new design and when is the whole new build design due 3, 4, or 5 years?

The one pictured is an updated version of the existing model (new engine, dash).

The new model (which is meant to be based on the D3 platform) is still years away. I think 2009-ish?????

Thanks Noddy.

They keep changing the dates, but the latest figure I have seen is 2010 with the caveat that they will keep selling the existing one as long as it keeps making money, raising the possibility that it may continue alongside the replacement, possibly with production moved elsewhere.

A new design replacement is unlikely to be anything like the current Defender for several reasons - The current design's most important features that differentiate it from all other cars, such as alloy body, bolt together construction, flexible body type etc, were set by the original Landrover design in 1947, to meet criteria that no longer apply - it had to use available materials (i.e. alloy not steel as much as possible) and use a minimum of tooling (hence bolt together and flat panels). These have now become liabilities from the production point of view as the material is more expensive and the assembly labour intensive and hence more expensive. Any completely new design I expect to be simply another four wheel drive carrying the Defender name with perhaps vestiges of its styling, and almost certainly heavily based on the D3 so as to share as many components as possible. The possible alternative of a seriously improved Defender (same basic design but for example more space in the front, airbag capable etc, and all the niggles fixed - e.g. along the lines of the Perentie project) I think is VERY unlikely, as the development and tooling costs would be so high compared to the alternative above.
Fitting a much more powerful engine in the existing design is, I think rather unlikely, as it would attract criticism and possible liability risks by raising the on road performance, which is already quite respectable for a utility vehicle, to levels that would be pretty high for what already has over 50% more power than the original designs most powerful option (derated V8 in the 110) , without adding things like airbags and triple circuit brakes. It would also, particularly in Australia (apparently Australians drive faster for longer on rough roads than anywhere else - other places have just as bad roads, but they drive slower or for shorter distances!) show up weaknesses that only become apparent with the higher power and hence greater ability to both overload and travel faster, such as chassis cracking and perhaps mechanical problems.

I reckon there's a little bit too much fuss being made over the vents thing. After all, the County didn;t have them (with air con) and few people here would knock back one of those I'm sure.

Me too - I'd happily lose the vents for more front passenger leg room and a proper air-conditioning/heating system. How about recirculated warm air even?

I guess. the vents are one of those iconic touches, but if you want fresh air there is still the window