Yep,with Portals[wink11]
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Cavil comments are easier than admitting there's no way one could afford a new vehicle.
All the brands now design for city use first and off road second. None of the current crop for any brand are as good for off road touring as the previous model. This is fact not speculating. The volume sales which keep these brands alive are to people who will never even drive on an unsurfaced road.
Even Toyota has said that there will not be a replacement for the current troopie. It will die when either the already decreasing volumes finally fall too low or legislation requires changes that the low volumes profits cannot adsorb. No doubt this was a big part of why the Defender replacement was not a Defender
We are on the verge of the age of EV cyber trucks where global satellite connectivity presumes global vehicle charging and global EV recovery insurance. The days of pragmatic, egalitarian, independent self-supported remote vehicle travel as we know it are almost over.
We have entered what will be seen in the future as the obsolete cross-over era when ICE vehicles became the generic urban monotype SUV designed not for freedom, but for conforming to the limitations imposed by ICE/EV cross over taxes, EV charging network taxes, fossil fuel restrictions, corporate and government regulation.
Until solar glass and vehicle roof panels are able to independently and adequately charge the new generations of EV, new vehicles in the second quarter of the 21st century will be tethered to the EV charging grid. Fossil fuels will be too expensive to buy.
This ‘new’ Range Rover will be seen as the last of the dinosaurs, hampered by the strangely over complicated combination of fossil fuel burning mechanical lubricity and fragile digital technology combining to provide the last gasp of old tech lumbering along under the weight of impending change.
Between now and sometime between 2030 and half way through the 21st century, any new vehicle that is not an EV will have a very short half-life. Within ten years, this last of the ICE dinosaurs will be worth nothing without a conversion to an electric motor at all four wheels and a solar charging skin. Otherwise it’s dollar value will be scrap.
After 2030 independent travel will be difficult and require ICE exemptions, or huge towable battery packs. The clearance under the pumpkin will be irrelevant.
But there is something more awesome and more independent coming…
By 2050 there won’t even be a network of EV charging points because all vehicles will be truly autonomous, self powered, interdisciplinary, variable ride height cyber vehicles. EVs of that time will be the most reliable (few moving parts), capable, versatile and independent vehicles we’ve ever seen. …unfortunately most of us dinosaurs won’t be alive to drive one. Until then we need to make the most of the bush-ability travel freedoms we have.
The new Range Rover is a dinosaur and was extinct before it was born - four wheel steering and 30cm ground clearance or not. I won’t ever be buying another new ICE car.
So your defender does only have 215mm of ground clearance?
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Pumpkin 25cm - but good old live axles mean it moves up and down with the TALL tyres on my wheels. 30cm under the Range Rover sump with no live axle protection is an accident waiting to happen.Quote:
Originally Posted by Vern;[URL="tel:3117368"
Hmm strange, i run larger tyres and come in at 245mm. Anyway, they are pretty well protected under there that they shouldn't rely on diffs to protect them, and i must say with my ifs/irs 4wd, its great to not have to plough my way up tracks like i do with my beam axle landy.
It has clearance - you lift it by selecting the mode.
Traction is just rubber - easy to change - we do on most vehicles.
With the suspension it’s got, it’s less likely to rattle loose on the Gibb than most other brands.
I’ve seen the result of a Prado on the Gibb - dash had broken free….