Thread: New 2018 Defender to share D5's Aluminium monocoque body.

Simple answer for 5 v4 star on troopies is middle lap belt in 5 seats.
Pickles, IF the 99 td5 had patched in the D1 Airbag setup ( abs was available on defender from 99)it would have owned the mining market(toymota troopies only got those in the last 4 years) AND still be sold in the USA which would have resulted in double if not triple the sales.
The ranger was going to be the defender base but that marriage broke up before it went through. 130in chassis, U.K. Origin td5 , clamshell bonnet aka RRC, smaller diesel for Europe, etc the only thing missing from the ranga is a swb version and a 2.25 petrol 4cyl!

Originally Posted by Avion8

Toyota's latest MY2017 70 Series pick up now has airbags & with other modifications achieved a 5 star ANCAP, but it is only the pick up, the troopie & wagon for some reason did not achieve the 5 star rating. I'm sure Land Rover could have done similar with the Defender! They will have lost a lot of business in the 2 year gap until the new Defender is available.

Land Rover no doubt looked at the Defender safety issues with the "new" dash in 2007 (remember that this was the first truly new dash since 1971!).

The issues I can see are 1) Chassis design (no crush cans/ location for them) and 2) minimal internal space. The second is the insurmountable issue - the space between the firewall and outside of the dash has not changed since 1958, when the dash was simply a metal shelf with metal instruments bolted to it. Arguably it didn't change a lot even then. It's not too surprising that they couldn't work 21st century technology into a 1950's dash design, when that design was "no dash."

I own an early Defender, with "factory" aftermarket AC - meaning the passenger door window winder handle cannot be held through 360 degrees. The AC outlet could either fit in the dash space taking away the vents (a la British cars and the Countys) or under the dash, taking away knee room and making winding a window difficult.

It needs to be remembered occasionally that the Series/County/Defender vehicles were designed to be built, by hand, from WW2 surplus; and that the core of the body design changed little from the mid-1950's to 2016. While there are plusses (such as fitting almost any age door to almost any age vehicle, with minor work) there are minuses, such as fitting new tech to your 50-60 year old design.