Thread: Thoughts on the D5

The gas struts in my D3 are starting to go and I've hit my head on the top tailgate a number of times.

Its waay worse if its at access height.

Originally Posted by Tombie

Care to explain?

Don’t hear of a phenomenal amount of Commodore or Falcon wagon injuries, nor any of the Korean offerings!

Or for that matter any other full size tailgate.


I have however, given the old nuts a mighty hit on the lower tailgate of the D4! And knocked my head on the top half a few dozen times!

It's the auto remote function opening that can be dangerous, especially the sharp corners. Stand clear all.

Again, I haven’t seen any evidence of people knocking themselves out on one in a Cruiser etc...

We can’t account for inattentive people

The sensors on them are very good though.. if it feels the slightest impediment it reacts..

The corners are no sharper than the D4 (which is a thinner section btw). The curves on the D5 tail are reasonably broad by comparison.

Originally Posted by Zeros

Yes my Defender enjoys parking next to a tree. 👍😊

But the shift from that actually being the priority, to buying the 'image' of doing it, is blatantly obvious as JLR's new priority.

With JLR reportedly considering buying Aston Martin and a Gold Coast JLR dealer building a new 9 million dollar showroom, as just two examples, the whole notion that Land Rover would cease to exist if it didn't focus entirely on the urban luxury top end of the market is entirely spurious.

I don’t think it is spurious at all. If they don’t build vehicles that will sell in sufficient numbers to turn a profit they will cease to exist.

JLR’s priority is to make a profit and grow the company. To do this they need to build what the market wants. As a low volume niche player they also need to concentrate on vehicles with high margins and this means prestige vehicles. Defender can never do this as it needs to compete against high volume, low margin vehicles like Hi-Lux. JLR just do not have the capacity to build these high volumes. This may very well change in the future of course.

The 4WD market has seen huge growth over the last decade or so but it has also become very fragmented. Whereas once Discovery could cover a large part of the market LR now need to make more specialised models to compete in more market segments - just look at how many new models have been released in recent years. Bringing a new model to market takes a lot of work so they can’t all happen at once. Also, to maintain any sort of economies of scale these vehicles need to share platforms and engineering with as many other models as possible - more difficult for a low volume manufacturer.

Even if all their new models had been ready for release they still have the problem of production capacity. They have been making significant investments in new production facilities to cope with the increasing volume - the new Ingenium plant in Wolverhampton, the new assembly plants in China, Brazil and now Slovakia, as well as well as re-organising production at Solihull, Castle Bromwich and Halewood.

They have clearly stated they have a three family strategy - Range Rover, Discovery and Defender. Being a relatively small company with limited capital available they have had to prioritise investment in the most profitable vehicles, so Range Rover was dealt with first as it is the high-end luxury family with the highest margins.

The Discovery family is aimed at the “lifestyle” market. The strategy they have chosen with D5 is to position it to compete with the likes of X5 and Q7, which in reality have already become it’s main competitors. They could have called it something else but they chose use Discovery, no doubt to take advantage of the off-road cred the name has.

Now the Range Rover family is pretty much complete (much of the Velar work was done developing the F-Pace platform) and the main Discovery models are now released they can move to Defender.

The Defender family will be aimed at the utilitarian market and will effectively replace both the previous Defender and what we perceive the previous Discoveries to be, namely your more “practical” type vehicles. Despite what people think the design of the new Defender is well advanced and the legacy of the previous model is being taken very seriously. I think we need to wait until this model range is released before we judge them.

The point I’m trying to make with all of this is that the world has moved on and JLR are now competing in a very different and far more sophisticated (and crowded) market than when just making a Land Rover and a Range Rover was good enough.

Cheers,
Jon

And we all know how practical the rear door is on a Defender.

Funny thing is, when I went from a D2 to a D3 I hated the split tailgate and missed the the door of the D1 & D2. Now I’ve gone from a D4 to a Defender I miss the split tailgate.

Go figure.

Originally Posted by Nicky

The difference is your Toyota bus tailgate was manually operated, and you were in charge of the kids. So are the other one piece tails, all manual. It's the remote function that is dangerous. Sit on the offset tail in a D4 with your tea maker beside you and look at all our beautiful scenery. Now try carrying long timbers with that tail open in the D5, good luck with that. Easy in a D4 with the glass half down. Not negative just practical.

I didn't realise my DS was manual. Perhaps we should stop using the remote or the button on the door or the kick to open function if it is manual! Also, the door goes up slowly with electric linear actuators to raise it, so there is no issue with a sudden hit in the face. My wife who uses the DS every day carting grandkids around laughed when I showed her these statements about the remote operated tailgates hurting people.

Good luck with the law and other safety hazards carrying stuff with an open tailgate! I would never ever do that in my D4, full stop. That is not a practical reason at all unless you are on a farm and don't care about OH&S.

Originally Posted by Nicky

Sit on the offset tail in a D4 with your tea maker beside you and look at all our beautiful scenery. Now try carrying long timbers with that tail open in the D5, good luck with that. Easy in a D4 with the glass half down. Not negative just practical.

IMHO,the D4 has the best tailgate set up of any vehicle in its class.
It is extremely versatile,and very handy.
Standing on the tailgate with the top door down to access anything on the roof is one thing that won't be able to be done with the new model set up.


I can't see the foxwing i have fitting the D5,as the rear door raises up way too high,another after market accessories that won't fit the this new model.

Mcgovern,or what ever his name is,said to the media,the old set up was prone to rust and these days,you cant get away with rear panels not fitting correctly.

What a load of garbage.

What he really meant was the target competition vehicles in the market we are aiming at have this set up so thats the way we have gone.
And it is probably easier and cheaper to manufacture.