Waiting, waiting.....

[Janne]

I am all very excited as it will happen soon. It is well overdue.
Not only me, but a large part of the World, but specially people in Britain.
Expectations are high, how will it look like?

Will it be large? Or small?
I am not sure if it was conceived in UK, or India, but that does not matter.

What? What is Janne talking about?


The new Landrover Defender of course!
I hope they make it ‘screwdriver friendly’ but I suspect it will not be.

Anybody else planning to have a good look on it when it hits the showrooms?

 

[Alan De Enfield]

Anybody else planning to have a good look on it when it hits the showrooms?

 

[MartinK9]

After a continuous run of 67 years production finally ended on 29 January 2016 when the last Land Rover Defender, with the number plate H166 HUE, rolled off the production line, with lights flashing and horn blasting.....














It took mechanics 3 hours to find the fault.

 

[Jared]

Thought they were being made in Poland by Land Serwis, at least on this side of the planet.

 

[Woody girl]

Will they be doing a matchbox version? That's about the only way I'd ever afford one..

 

[Janne]

I think they will be made in Slovakia,
The workforce there seems to be motivated, happy to work and to do a quality job.

They already have a factory there.
The quality of the product should be excellent. As long as the design and engineering is.

 

[Erbswurst]

The best would be to produce them in the Magna Steyr factory in Graz.

 

[Broch]

The best would be to produce them in the Magna Steyr factory in Graz.

Really? It would then be twice the price and it's already coming out expensive.

JLR have invested millions in the factory in Slovakia; I am confident it will be well made but, as Janne says, I wait to see what the design is really like.

I have just been out with land Rover trying one of the baby discos off road and, I'm reluctant to say, the various electronic traction modes are phenomenal. It could go anywhere my Defender can go and it was on road tyres! At one point all I was doing was steering and it was like being in a robot - every decision was being made by the car over some quite extreme terrain. Not exactly my idea of 'off-road' driving but it was very impressive. The new Defender will have all these electronic modes and, hopefully some good reversionary or limp-home modes as well

 

[Erbswurst]

No, I'm just joking.

I love the old Defender.
My brother owns one. And of course it was round about half the price of the Austrian.

I really hope that they will construct a real 4x4 and in the old size of the 110 or even a bit longer, and will offer a hard top with three doors too, where even tall people easily can sleep in.

But to be honest, I expect a piece of plastic, looking like a soap and flat like a Jaguar.

In the end Mercedes and Toyota will produce the last expedition cars...

 

[Janne]

From the spy pictures I have seen, it will look like a square Discovery, with ‘old Defender’ styling cues.
If they remove the chassis - then I am not interested.

The G wagen is a fantastic product. Incredibly well engineered, incredibly well built.
The chassis alone - 100% better quality than the Defender chassis.
The only design frature we found that gives us a bit of a headache is that the longitunal rails of the chassis are built from two halves, one fitting slightly inside the other ( to get maximum welding area contact) which mean the right half is of a differrnt profilr than the lrft one.
Both rails are the same, not mirrorred.
Very tricky to compensate the new mounte ( engine, gearbox, axlrs, suspention, everything!) for correctness.

Everything else is incredibly well built too.
I learned from my now halfway process of taking one to components, and together with a mechanic building a heavily upgraded one.
Still love the Defenders though!

 

[Erbswurst]

The Defender was constructed as a farmer's car, the far younger Mercedes G was built as a military car from the beginning.

And we lost the war, because we got stuck in the Russian mudd, don't forget it.

 

[Janne]

Yes, but even a farmer should have a vehicle where the chassis lasts. Defender chassis flex and are very badly rust proofed
Those two factors make them rust. You can buy garvsnized heavy duty replacement chassis which cure this problem though.
The G wagen we work on is a 1991 ex Wehrmacht vehicle.
Apart from one rusty rear suspension mounting ( which we do not need anyway) no rust areas.

If the new Defender has a chassis, I hope they do it properly. I guess though all panels will be welded to create a unitary body.
If they create a modern vehicle I guess the British Armed forces will start using the G wagen, like most European countries ( plus many more) ?

 

[Erbswurst]

I found a spy photo.

It doesn't look like a military car.

They will loose a lot of clients, if the new Defender looks like the car at this picture.

 

[Janne]

But Puch /MB will gain lots!

It is a much better car. I have never driven it off road, but I guess it is excellent just as a Defender.

 

[Erbswurst]

Off course the G professional is far better than the Defender in the field in heavy conditions.

That's a totally different construction.

The G has three differential locks.
Steyr Daimler Puch had know how, Mercedes too, Unimog as well.

The result off it all is the G.

There is a reason, why it's so expensive.

 

[Janne]

The rear top spring turrets are crap. Trap dirt, rust.

But as my mechanic is totally redesigning the vehicle, we are using adjustable double spring all around. So we cut those away.

PM me your email and I will email you some pics. The engine is a dream. The gearbox a wet dream!

 

[Broch]

The G has three differential locks.

But, you no longer need the very high cost of mechanical diff locks. True, modern technology is 'reactive' not 'predictive' but it goes anywhere mechanical diff locks will take you without all the mechanical stiffness in the system that makes manoeuvring difficult.

 

[Erbswurst]

I agree. For most civil users electronic little helpers are OK. We usually don't drive diagonal over a field.

 

[Janne]

We are using new Dana 60 axles. No difflocks.
The only off road experience I plan is the sandy parking at Governor’s Beach car park!

 

[Broch]

I agree. For most civil users electronic little helpers are OK. We usually don't drive diagonal over a field.

The electronics is more than capable of dealing with cross-axle situations. It judges and applies exactly the right torque to each individual wheel. On a sophisticated system like on the new Land Rovers (whichever model) the engine mapping, brake response, throttle response gear change are all re-mapped to suit the conditions you're driving in. I get to drive a lot of different makes and models of vehicles in what I do, from pure mechanical with front, rear and mid diff-locks to pure electronic, and, I hate to say it, but the electronics versions are now superior in every respect - as long as it's working of course.