Thread: The New Defender

Originally Posted by W&KO

You see 50-100 stock defenders everyday....

Read his claim again, landrovers

Originally Posted by rick130

Oh come on Mike.


I maintain its the true successor to the D4.

Xactly, and a darned good one on first impressions. Looking forward to the 130 reveal.

Originally Posted by Tombie

Even the 70 series has run its course in many industries.

NCAP3 ( dual airbags ) rating has seen to that.

IVECO and the like will take that slice of the work vehicle market.

Originally Posted by blackrangie

Its as much a defender successor as the 200 series is a 60 series successor.

D5 is d4 successor and is more capable, just a more rounded shape

Nope.

60 Series to 200 Series was always Landcruiser's top of the range wagon, a passenger biased wagon akin to the Rangie or Disco.

A Defender was the successor to the Series and always a work/utility vehicle.

This is a D4 successor, as Gerry McGovern had already said they are looking at picking up D4 owners.

Case closed.

Cape Jervis? Thats not much of a challenge Tombie. Oh, I see what you mean.

Originally Posted by Tombie

Agree, our D4 is the least modified Land Rover I’ve ever owned - needed SFA to be fully competent off road.

Our 90, by decree of Mrs Tombie was to remain as stock looking as possible, it has all the gear it needs without the excess of my previous LRs and aside from the extreme terrain I went on in the other vehicles, it can do 90% of that now which is what she wanted (it won’t be doing certain VHC tracks for example) however it will easily do any track in the Flinders without issue.

Our plan when the new one arrives is to take it to the Cape for its shake down run!

One of the many reasons we moved from 15 years with Toyota to the D4 was the LC200. In our eyes a lost opportunity. As well the D4 out of the box offered us a huge saving in fit out which would have normally cost us at least $17k every time we changed cars. I budgeted for 18" rims and have only added a Traxide system, LLAMS which I have rarely used, rear ladder, moved the roof platform from the last Yota and built our custom rear sliding tray. With a big increase in comfort and capability.

In now >113,000km of outback touring and travelling with a camper or camper van on the back and fully loaded roof we've only ever thought that a larger fuel tank would be a "nice to have". We've overcome that by carrying 3xJC on the roof when needed plus 4xJC on the camper as well. This year we covered over 16,000km in a little jaunt from Adelaide to Alice, Tanami, Broome, down the WA coast to a whole lot of really nice beaches and the like and quite a few dirt roads. The track into and out of Ningaloo Station and South Lefroy Bay was to say the least crap. But the D4 and camper did it all with no fuss at all. Our return trip via the Northern Goldfields, GCR and then a big sprint across the Barkley and outback Qld to Caloundra to service the camper then a cruise home was all done in great comfort, safety and fuel efficiency. Despite having the daylights flogged out of us for two weeks being pushed around by 70kph winds for day after day.

Now that is what we like to do. Others use their 4WD for other perhaps in challenging terrain. So individual needs will result in different vehicle setups. For us a couple of weeks in the Flinders or exploring the Limestone Coast beaches is just another way of enjoying the D4's comforts and capability and I have the luxury of being able to do that anytime we want.

So we're very much looking forward to seeing the new Defender up close but have already specced up an SE and HSE for the local dealer to price. Yes I am waiting for the 6cylinder diesel but this exercise will be fine for me to budget and put an order in.

We don't need or want a truck. What we will use, a lot, is something like our D4 and the new Defender seems to fit that bill nicely with nothing even close on the market ATM

Rob

Originally Posted by rick130

Nope.

60 Series to 200 Series was always Landcruiser's top of the range wagon, a passenger biased wagon akin to the Rangie or Disco.

You can trace that back to the FJ45, which arguably created the entire wagon segment, along with the Jeep Wagoneer, although the "top of the range" bit was probably the Jeep. Both were bigger than the RR or Disco though, as are the 60/80/100/200s. These days it's mor the Prado. LC 200s are HUGE. That's one rerason they don't sell them in Europe.

Originally Posted by blackrangie

Im actually thinking the same re:cape.

The rubber interior, IP67 electrics and wading capabilities seem to be very "cape able"

Approach and departure angles take care of Gunshot, and wading depth helps heaps with Nolan's. And I'll bet you won't have the worry of water getting into the seat box....