Thread: Won’t be retro...

I hope there is enough length behind the rear wheels to give a decent amount of luggage space.
I was looking at a Jeep Wrangler five door yesterday and how much shorter it is than my Defender 110.
One of the mistakes LR made with the D1 was it was too short in the back and they had to lengthen it for the D2.
Looking at the spy shots of the new Defender it looks fairly short behind the rear wheels. I hope this is just caused by the camo.

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

I hope there is enough length behind the rear wheels to give a decent amount of luggage space.
I was looking at a Jeep Wrangler five door yesterday and how much shorter it is than my Defender 110.
One of the mistakes LR made with the D1 was it was too short in the back and they had to lengthen it for the D2.
Looking at the spy shots of the new Defender it looks fairly short behind the rear wheels. I hope this is just caused by the camo.

For sure, I think it depends where the rear seats are, there is certainly a lot of room in the rear seat area with the apparent rear door it would seem too much like an LSE.
Many people with an LSE Range Rover classic say that it would be perfect if the rear seats were moved forward 4 inches, allowing more storage space in the back and 4 inches more legroom in the front.

With the Range Rover classic short wheel base you received amazing ramp over angle but the compromise was that there is not much legroom compared to say a patrol or a cruiser.

It's a delicate balance if you want to have incredible off-road credentials, which it has according to alloy and grit.

It looks like, by the height of the roof, and the large side opening rear door combined with boxy look, it would have more rear luggage space than a Range Rover classic imo, but maybe not as much as the last Defender unless the rear seat is further forward then it seems.

I went and checked out the Suzuki Jimny for storage space and came away thinking it would be very difficult to tour in from a storage point of view for any more than 1 maybe 2 people, even then it would be very tough. To me it seems like more of a weekend play thing, and a very good one at that.

I think by the looks of it they have again met in the middle with providing just enough space to still allow a great ramp over and departure angle.

With the air suspension they are able to run a higher height off road than the Range Rover classic that also allows them to move more of the luggage towards the centre of the vehicle so basically running a long wheel base without compromising ramp over.

Assuming in the picture attached that the front seats are in the rear most position, we could assume the rear seats are in the position shown. Then storage would be sufficient. (Approx only took 10seconds)

The more I think about it the more the job of redesigning the new Land Rover Defender was an epic job and one that would have amounted to a huge amount of sleepless nights from a huge amount of people. So far from what we've seen they have done an incredible job, however it is still earlish days.

I think the biggest shock for some will be going from a flat panelled square box to a slightly more rounded boxy shape. Some people for some reason link rounded body shapes with bad off road capability. In reality the main reason rounded body shapes are used is for fuel economy, case in point the new 2017 onwards Disco, this body was designed amongst other things for low drag, fuel economy and low emissions. They achieved this amazingly well and at the same time improved it's off road capability from the previous model.

I see the same happening with the new Defender and I don't have a problem with that at all.

Found another shot of a higher profile tyred pilot snow testing, anyone work out what profile this would be?

If the new Defender is going to be so similar to the Discovery why build it at all?

Originally Posted by Zeros

If the new Defender is going to be so similar to the Discovery why build it at all?

Who said it was?

Wow, this guy got a scoop!

YouTube

New Hybrid Defender testing in Moab.

I think we can all but confirm the second fuel flap is for the electric plug.

Also steering wheel looking similar but not identical to leaked pics, remember JLR confirmed leaked pics are older pre-production photos. Looks like wheel has white plastic camo on it plus black wrap around buttons.

Looks like they are trying the performance version in MOAB as 1 has twin Exhausts & 20s on it and big brakes like ring pilot. However still has a 60 profile and looks like there is plenty of space for bigger tyres again as noted in vid. Like 275/65R20 (34s)

255/60R20 MS shown in vid.

Stock 32's either way, so that's great news for people that still want the performance version, it looks like off-road performance won't be compromised.

Jeff in vid doesn't at the time realize due to the camo the second time he see's the mules/pilots they are completely different vehicles, that's why the second 110 doesn't have rear spare.

He later corrects this and says that the first vehicle is a short wheel base and most likely a 2 litre turbo diesel and mentioned to me that he could hear the diesel ticking, the long wheelbase is a hybrid.

4 LR vehicles in vid.

1st two: SWB RRS Defender 2020 Mule (maybe coil SWB mule as seen testing on roads) & SWB Defender 2020 (non hybrid)

2nd two: maybe 2020 RRS pilot of some kind and hybrid 110 defender 2020

Bulging fenders, lots of clearance above the 32s.

Rear window down for first time, however part of it seems covered

Rear solid recovery point seen for the first time. Was soft version at the Ring.

Rear huge airbag(according to Jeff) and can be seen in vid.

Stance in an off-road setting with the 32s looks very good!

Edit: I removed screenshots just incase due to copyright

Edit Edit: Asked for permission to use vid and screenshots for the LR community here and approved, Jeff was very kind in doing so and asked if you like vid please subscribe. YouTube

I still think it looks too short behind the rear wheels to match the rear storage space of a 110.

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

I still think it looks too short behind the rear wheels to match the rear storage space of a 110.

100% I don't think it will match old defender length wise for rear luggage space, I wonder if it will have the full length side box sections or not, or will some of that space be storage in new one like RRC or where 6th and 7th seat are in D2, its for sure got the height.