Land Rover Engineer Requires Info

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Originally Posted by Jamo

I don't see the need for LR to have the biggest selling 4WD.

I want to drive the best; and in no field is the best necessarily the most common.

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Sure. A lot more people buy Britney Spears records than they do Tom Waits. That doesn't make it better music. But I want to buy a vehicle that's truly designed to operate in the bush. Currently Toyota has that market all sewn up and Land Rover continue to shy away from it. What does this mean for future models? Vehicles with extreme off-road ability for city people? More Land Rovers in the bush would mean better parts availability, more people with Land Rover mechanical knowledge, and a much more attractive landscape.

I too think they are the best, and I've never said I want them to be the most common. Who wants to be common? The point is that currently in the bush, where they should be, they are virtually non-existent. And Toyota reaps an awful lot of credibility from that presence.

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Originally Posted by wally

Sure. A lot more people buy Britney Spears records than they do Tom Waits. That doesn't make it better music. But I want to buy a vehicle that's truly designed to operate in the bush. Currently Toyota has that market all sewn up and Land Rover continue to shy away from it. What does this mean for future models? Vehicles with extreme off-road ability for city people? More Land Rovers in the bush would mean better parts availability, more people with Land Rover mechanical knowledge, and a much more attractive landscape.

I too think they are the best, and I've never said I want them to be the most common. Who wants to be common? The point is that currently in the bush, where they should be, they are virtually non-existent. And Toyota reaps an awful lot of credibility from that presence.

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Exactly, this pretty much sums it up I reckon. Good post.

I live in the city, and drive an off road vehicle with extreme capabilities. Do you really need a vehicle with 'extreme off road capabilities' to drive on dirt roads? Are you confusing 'tough and reliable' with 'extreme off road ability'?

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Originally Posted by Jamo

I don't see the need for LR to have the biggest selling 4WD.

I want to drive the best; and in no field is the best necessarily the most common.

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Land Rover have proved with the current range of vehicles and ALL the awards for the D3 that they are back on track. One can only hope that Tata will open up many more dealers around the country and also work on the 'reliability' image that Land Rover have. They would of course be a Land Rover/Tata dealer selling the Tata range as well so there is much scope to get the Defender back to the bush also. :)

Well, as my D3 is up for replacement in 18 months, can we have a TDV8 in them by then please? :)

(Not that I'm expecting the above if the 3.0l TDV6 in 2009 talk is true...)

Oh, and while you're at it, can we then have the TDV6 in the Defender, and can you get LRA to bring the bloody 90's back over here please?

On the D3, can we have a manual override for the auto-lowering of the suspension at speed for the outback roads here, and can we have a manual way to get into extended mode from the ride height switch (and by all means make all this dealer configurable if you don't want to have it available out of the box) please?

Plus, can we get the electric diffs as an aftermarket fit too please, purely because I couldn't get a car with them in at the time without a 6 month wait! :(

Finally, can you fit a sensible OEM tyre size to the D3 on 18" rims so I can have more than one A/T tyre option please? ;)

Oh, and as others have said, tell your sales & marketing lot we'd like a dealer network here similar to the UK one I'm used to, or match what ToyoNisSubishi have locally at least.

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Originally Posted by boggo

I live in the city, and drive an off road vehicle with extreme capabilities. Do you really need a vehicle with 'extreme off road capabilities' to drive on dirt roads? Are you confusing 'tough and reliable' with 'extreme off road ability'?

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That depends on the dirt road. Personally I need one with both extreme off road capabilities which is tough and reliable, then again I don't live in the city.

well,after 29 pages of replies& everone has had their say,i wonder what is mr lawerence is doing

has he printed them all out & gone through them all with his work collegues?:):):):):):):):)

bet u he hasent:(:(:(:(:(

anyway we all tried our best

a return reply from mr lawerence would be fantastic:):):)

cheers paul

Simpler, less cramped engine layouts would be good. Too often engineers design things (not just cars) without any thought to how easy something is going to be to service/repair. This is a source of frustration for home mechanics and adds significantly to the cost if outsourcing as items often need to be removed to get to things that need to be repaired (the D2 Td5 engine bay was definitely designed by someone with a sense of humour) - and worse, many mechanics just don't want to work on these things! I couldn't believe it when it took a mechanic 5 hours to replace the ECU harness on my D2 Td5 - I was expecting about an hour! [Don't get me started on the fact that virtually every example of the Td5 has had to replace injector/ECU harness without any assistance from LR due to oil ingress resulting from fundamentally poor design]

I realise it's trendy to build things with a minimum of fasteners showing; however, for a utilitarian vehicle such as 4WDs, I think most owners would be comfortable with exposed fasteners and a modular/logical way of taking things apart with common tools. Not only would this make access easier for repairs, but it would also mean that small faulty parts could be replaced rather than having to replace a large integrated unit at considerable expense.

Some people will say that all modern vehicles are like this, but the current Hilux is a good example of a vehicle which has a modern frugal, powerful TD, but an engine bay that is still easy to work in. Toyota operate on the KISS principle which LR seem to pay scant reference to... Despite this, we continue to drive LRs because they have great ambience and are very capable on and off road...when they are working :(

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Originally Posted by feraldisco

Simpler, less cramped engine layouts would be good. Too often engineers design things (not just cars) without any thought to how easy something is going to be to service/repair. This is a source of frustration for home mechanics and adds significantly to the cost if outsourcing as items often need to be removed to get to things that need to be repaired (the D2 Td5 engine bay was definitely designed by someone with a sense of humour) - and worse, many mechanics just don't want to work on these things! I couldn't believe it when it took a mechanic 5 hours to replace the ECU harness on my D2 Td5 - I was expecting about an hour! [Don't get me started on the fact that virtually every example of the Td5 has had to replace injector/ECU harness without any assistance from LR due to oil ingress resulting from fundamentally poor design]

I realise it's trendy to build things with a minimum of fasteners showing; however, for a utilitarian vehicle such as 4WDs, I think most owners would be comfortable with exposed fasteners and a modular/logical way of taking things apart with common tools. Not only would this make access easier for repairs, but it would also mean that small faulty parts could be replaced rather than having to replace a large integrated unit at considerable expense.

Some people will say that all modern vehicles are like this, but the current Hilux is a good example of a vehicle which has a modern frugal, powerful TD, but an engine bay that is still easy to work in. Toyota operate on the KISS principle which LR seem to pay scant reference to... Despite this, we continue to drive LRs because they have great ambience and are very capable on and off road...when they are working :(

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Agree with all of that.

Where is Lawrence?

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Originally Posted by boggo

I live in the city, and drive an off road vehicle with extreme capabilities. Do you really need a vehicle with 'extreme off road capabilities' to drive on dirt roads? Are you confusing 'tough and reliable' with 'extreme off road ability'?

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Sorry, boggo, I'm really not sure where you're coming from here. But to clarify, I was simply musing about Land Rover's current target market and what this might mean for future models. I suppose what I'm saying is I want Defender to remain a rugged, no-frills, versatile, workhorse type vehicle and not become an H3 style bling machine targeted at urban buyers. I certainly have no problem with people in the city driving 4wds if that's what you're thinking. ..And I wasn't just talking about dirt roads.