Thread: How can i persuade the wife that we need a D3?

How to persuade the missus you need a D3? Easy! Just tell her about oil consumption, vibrations in the steering and clunks in the driveline of LC 200 and no bull bar available, no provision for auxiliary fuel tank and high maintenance cost of ML 300/350. Cheers!!

Originally Posted by FifiLámour

As far as I'm aware, you can't put child restraint seats in a Defender. At lease that's what the Landrover Salesperson told me the other day when I was oggling one.

Sorry, but the salesperson was talking BS (surprised???). It is just that he/she can't sell you the child restraint. However plenty of other places can.


And RMP - see the thread about defender safety. Defenders TOP real world accident safety stats from the UK. Equal best with disco and LC.

I did see that thread, and it needs context.

The Defender is simply not a safe vehicle by today's standards. That doesn't mean to say it is *unsafe* -- relative to modern vehicles and in particular the D3/D4, it is less safe and that is a fact.

The Defender lacks - any sort of airbag including side, crush cage, roll cage, pre-tensionsing seatbelts....the list goes on and on. That's just passive safety. It also lacks stability control and advanced ABS for active safety.

Simply, all else being equal, you're safer in a D3/D4 before and during a crash. That doesn't mean to say you're going to die in a Defender, it's just a relative measure, like saying a car that does 10L/100km is more fuel efficient than one that does 13L/100km. You may not care about the difference but it's there.

Also, when viewing stats about crashes you need to bear in mind the sort of people that drive the car and what they do with it. This is why sports cars are over-represented in crash stats -- the itself is safe, but driven in an unsafe manner. Defender drivers tend to be slower, safer and more experienced and thus crash less.

Note: I own both a Defender and a D3, and have been involved in a major accident in a Defender and have had friends who have rolled and otherwise smacked their Defenders up. Put it this way I still own my Defender and take my family in it, but I feel better knowing that most of the time they're in the D3 and that's about the safest car I can afford to put them in.

Of course, the best safety is a skilled driver. That's where advanced driving courses come in, but only those that teach observation and road skills, not those that focus on car control which actually have a counter-productive effect.

OMG!!! So excited!!! Picking up my Disco 3 TDV6 HSE 2005 today, from a dealer in Sydney.

Thanks all for the advice!

Now i just need to pimp it out and learn to drive it properly

Spoke to a few audio people so far and looks like will have to go the Kenwood system route as want bluetooth/ipod/reverse camera/gps in one. the Hitv option only does gps.

Will have to go through the forum now for some 4wd drive training (mainly sand).

We here must all complement your wife on showing such good judgement. While one can celebrate, one must still display some care.

Incidentally, rather than pimp, we suggest the term "outfit"; which speaking of outfit, you might consider a little something of that nature for your wife before you get in too deep with the 3.

Something about treading responsibility, or it carefully?

Whenever my wife makes disparaging remarks about driving my D3 HSE, I threaten her with a tweed coat and cap (aka Dr Harry) as a fitting outfit to wear whilst being conveyed in such a vehicle.

How can i persuade the wife that we need a D3?

Buy a Lada

Originally Posted by rmp

The Defender is simply not a safe vehicle by today's standards. That doesn't mean to say it is *unsafe* -- relative to modern vehicles and in particular the D3/D4, it is less safe and that is a fact.

Also, when viewing stats about crashes you need to bear in mind the sort of people that drive the car and what they do with it.

The above "FACT" may be what NCAP tests show, but not what the real world stats show - which are irrefutable. At the time the UK study was conduced, LC and Discos (which both had equal scores to the defender) had airbags and the defender didn't.

While I agree the D1/D2/D3/D4 has a lot more safety features, and is "inherently safer", none of that seems to make a difference in real world crashes.

If you were going to crash both vehicles into an immovable object, then sure, the disco would be the obvious choice, however how likely is that in a real world scenario.

In the UK, defenders are like hiluxes and landcruisers here - so used by a very wide demographic (including yobs and hoons no doubt! (especially the V8s)). I can't see that playing a part in the stats.

I think the biggest issue appears to be, that in most "real world" crashes, it helps if you have mass and a nice solid chassis on your side. Which was noted in the UK stats - as when a LC/disco/def (the three safest) crashed into another vehicle, the chance of serious injury to the driver of the other vehicle increased.