Hi all
Does it really mater what they do with the defender or even if they no longer make them ?
In the days when all farmers owned a landrover it had a huge market and fitted in well with the period. Now people are becoming soft and delicate and they want to reproduce there cosy home enviroment in there vehicles, which the poor old defender cannot provide. So hence the boom in SUV sales which can give them their creature comforts. Could anyone imagine landrover building a freelander twenty years ago, it would just not have fitted into the company profile or been accepted by the public, but now when not all men are men and human rights allow terrorist to roam free on our streets it fits in well. Take a closer look at some SUV drivers and you will see a pattern !
Ok the basic design of the defender is very good for what it was designed to do and I think the design peaked with the 300Tdi, but now is on the slope to nowhere. It always had it's faults but then because of it's capabilities these were just accepted as part of it's character. If you want a good workhorse that can take you anywhere and one that you would trust your life with then landrover never made one. What they gave us was the main ingredients that with it's basic mechano construction allowed anyone to make it go wherever they wanted it to go or do with some work.
I think one of the great things about a defender is that its so basic and is why I would not buy, own or use a TD5 because I do not want engine or transmission electronics or gimicks like heated mirrors or electric windows.
So Landrover as an OEM has to comply with legislation and therefore has it's hands tied as far as design, so they have to go with the flow. We can just step aside and let landrover go wherever it is going knowing we already own the best products they ever produced and apart from some parts we can continue to enjoy our landys without them.
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