Thread: Disappointed in the D5 / waiting for the Defender

Originally Posted by tact

The best of your mum's treasured shiny silverware would turn a screw, or scrape paint, without doubt as well as any of the more utilitarian flatware in the kitchen drawer. But what did your mum say when she caught you using her prized silverware, instead of an older butter knife, as a tyre lever on the Malvern Star dragster you had as a kid?!

You mum, like all sensible people here, lets get ****ing real, would realise the folly of throwing an expensive luxury vehicle - a vehicle with carpets and interiors and paint job worth more than a whole defender - into reasonably challenging offroad trails.

Exactly.

"The closest most owners will go to off-roading will be the gravel driveway to their country estate..." Velar - motoring.com.au

Even the base model Velar is more expensive than a Porsche Macan. ...forget the silverware, try prizing your Malvern Star tyre off with your mums diamond ring!

Originally Posted by Tombie

Thanks for the laugh!!! I can hear her now!
(And my wife says similar regularly)

Remember though many can’t afford 2 vehicles - a dedicated traveller and a daily driver... and for a significant portion of consumers most time is commuting rather than travelling.

You're welcome.

Whilst we are a two car family, the other vehicle is used almost exclusively by my wife.

I cannot afford two personal vehicles so my Defender is my daily driver too. (there it is in the exec board carpark at the office in the pic...).

My Defender suits me for the daily commute, in a suit. It does the shopping and school runs on occasion. It handles the harder trails in the bush well enough and - the total cost of 4yrs of jungle pinstriping and other mother-nature inflicted body/chassis/roof damage, as well as the total cost of having water, mud, and muddy water inside the cabin to calf depth.... would cost less to repair/clean/buff-out than the cost of a decent stone chip on a D5/RRS/DS/Velar/FFRR etc.

Yes, the Defender is a compromise in some of the onroad tasks it is pressed into. Thats my compromise of choice.

I do well understand and accept the compromise of choice of those who buy a new "shiny" and don't want to get it scratched.

Originally Posted by rammypluge

So is it officially called the Land Rover Range Rover Velar, or have they realised the error of their ways?

It looks like a somewhat matured Evoque. Talking about the Velar or many LR products these days in reference to offroading, is like talking about a diamond ring's ability to cut glass. Its just not relevant, not optimised for the task, and surely unhealthy for its true purpose.

Exactly

The people buying these types of vehicles,more than likely wouldn't give a rats about how capable the thing is,off road ability,or wading depth would be the last feature they would be concerned about.


LR have decided to move further up market with all their vehicles,that is probably where the money is.Good luck to them.


As for the family touring,go anywhere wagon,which is what the Discovery always was,those that want one will need to move off to another brand.

Maybe the new Defender will fill this void,but who knows.

Why? The new D5 is more capable than the D4, has more load capacity, and better suspension...

How can that require a change of marque?

After seeing Lee's D5 in the flesh I really like it and don't understand the haters, we are well past leaf springs and drum brakes unless you drive a Ranger.

I would no more willingly scratch up a $60k defender and that what an optioned one was worth than my D4.

I can tell you the D4 is as good off road, far better on road, far better towing a trailer, and uses a **** load less fuel.

How do I know because my son had a fully specced MY15 Defender & we used to drive each others car.

The D5 will do all those things better than a D4.

I am sure the new defender will do all those things better than the old one.

Originally Posted by Tombie

Says who? Rivet counters?

They’re more capable than Defenders, they’re more capable than all that preceded them..

If they don’t ‘tickle your pickle’ then that’s fine... but it doesn’t make them no good offroad, nor less useful. They are in fact on many, many fronts more capable...

They’ll offroad, they can fit urban high rise parking, they handle fantastic on AND off the road, quiet, sealed, and can be loaded much more easily than a Defender through the rear door...

Slab sided as the Defender is, cargo is limited to a bit under door width, leaves gaps on the sides where wheel boxes, curves to windows etc are eat up useable space.

And where a slab side may be an advantage it’s also a disadvantage - the top sticks out as much as the bottom! So you scrape branches that may be missed by others! (There’s always a positive for each)

The only thing lacking is a Pick Up / Tray in the current line up. The Defender replacement will likely cross that off.

Agreed - the D5 is potentially a good thing, particularly if the real world fuel consumption is as quoted. BUT, as between the D4 and the D5, from a parent's point of view, the D5 loses out. Why?

• smaller second and third row windows with lower seats = less light, less leg-room and less visibility, especially for kids. There's also less head-room, even for adults
• can't see the corners of the bonnet
• second row seats don't split individually any longer - no idea why they didn't keep that. Being able to separately fold the middle seat is really useful, but on the D5 it's just the back of the middle seat that folds down, not the seat
• split tail gate - it should've been retained
• boxy is actually good if you're carrying stuff

Losing the chassis rails and 400 odd kgs was a good thing, but they seem to have ditched the unique elements that distinguished the D4 and its predecessors.

The new Defender is apparently going to be based on the D5 - but perhaps it'll look something like the D4?

We are considering a used d4 for the mrs. If i had to buy a new family 4wd id pick the top of the range Pajero every day of the week. Its a rock solid platform, reliable, excellent price and id be saving 20k compared to a base d5 at around 70k. Id have no problem pin striping a pajero....id hate to pin stripe a d5. See my logic?