The New Land Rover Defender’s Identity Crisis Sweetens The Discovery 5
Imagine being the only person you know who hates the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or the only one who doesn’t like chips. That’s kind of what it feels like to stick your hand up as a motor journalist right now and squeak: “I don’t like the new Land Rover Defender.”
I so wanted to love it. After the slating the 2011 DC100 concept received at the hands of the press and public, I expected something… more faithful to the original. I had high hopes. What we’ve ended up with is so uncannily similar to that concept pariah that I feel like Mugatu in Zoolander.
There are less subjective problems with it, too. There’s the question as to whether the new car really knows what it is. It’s unmistakeably lifestyley, with hidden door hinges and the option of gargantuan alloy wheels with rubber-band tyres. Two wheelbases is a novelty in itself these days, although it’s probably easier just to think of them as a two-door and a four-door.
Don’t get me wrong; the Defender name has cachet and Land Rover won’t throw that away. Whatever else it may be, the new ‘ruggedly solid’ off-roader will be able to monster life on a farm, a commercial stable or the side of Ben Nevis. It should do, anyway, or there’ll be trouble from owners.
But you look at some of the press shots; at the leather surfaces, the easily-scratched touch-screen, the vulnerable wheels and ‘all-season’ road-biased tyres with less knobbly grip than the backside of a cold frog, and you have to ask the question: if this is as capable as – or more so than – the old Defender was off-road, how can it really be a superlative lifestyle choice on the black stuff? Or vice versa?
Let’s not forget that some of these interior frills will be options, and that the base price of a Defender 110 is less than £3000 cheaper than none other than the entry-grade Discovery 5; a car much more openly built for dual-purpose living and one that we know is ultra-comfy and hugely spacious for a family. In short, it’s the Land Rover to choose if you’re looking for strength, comfort, refinement and technology as well as the ability to track mountain goats in their natural habitat. Next to it the Defender… well, it looks a bit like a gimmick, albeit a gimmick with a central number plate.
“But steel wheels!” you cry. “Steelies, you facile contrarian!” It’s true that the vast majority of the CT office has taken an immediate shine to the steel-toecapped Defender. I just don’t see it. For me the only Defender yet revealed that looks great on steel hoops is the commercial version, which I do have a bit of a thing for. That model adds something clearly different to Land Rover’s cupboard and something much truer to the numerous Defenders that, even as you read this, are out there towing bales of hay, trailers full of sheep, caravans or even other cars.
For me the Defender works as a working vehicle alone. The commercial option has a clear purpose and looks cracking with blanked-out side windows and steel wheels. People ask what the farmers will buy? Well, why wouldn’t they buy this? A mid-size John Deere tractor costs about £45,000; why would farmers baulk at the same for a commercial 4x4? Only time will tell whether this Defender is as easy to look after, as easy to mistreat without penalty and as easy to maintain as the old one.
I’m not sure what the new Defender is trying to be, just as the entire world seemed not to know what the DC100 concept was trying to be, other than radically different to the car it was slated to replace. Superficial elements aside, where on earth can it sit in a range that includes the Discovery 5 – a similarly large and capable 4x4 with presumably greater refinement that can easily be haggled down to cheaper than the Defender – and the seven-seat (and vastly cheaper) Discovery Sport?
The product placement issues mooted long before the Defender’s eventual reveal have crystallised. Excellent commercial version aside, what is it for?
Comments
Interior looks nice, but knowing british quality and knowing that it’s owned by the indians, it’s probably not gonna last a week before something breaks or bugs out
Yes
It does have one advantage over the D5. It’s not painful to look at. I shall probably replace my D4 with a 110, when they’ve finished getting all the bugs out of the electronics. In about five years.
Indeed you should. I know a few who think the same
I’d have one of these over a Disco 5 any day. My uncle owns a 4, and waited with baited breath for the 5, expecting to upgrade, but like many Disco 3 & 4 owners, and frankly anyone in that market, he was put off by the way it looked and it’s more Range Rover-y target appeal. Many other owners also seem to really like their Discos, and wouldn’t settle for anything else, so they just kept them. And so my uncle did.
The new Defender reminds me of the Disco 3, and since much of the 3’s function is pertained by the Defender, it would not surprise me if many moved onto it, and indeed they should.
Also with many modern cars converging in quality and unfortunately identity (as manufacturers use the same answer for one question), a car just being ‘cool’, and just having any certain character/heritage at all, is a selling point. Unless said ‘character’ gets in the way of the ‘quality’.
On that note, an awful lot of people in the UK dream of owning Defenders, but wouldn’t buy the old one because, to keep their answers short and crass, they were cr4p. The Defender that the actual public (NOT Farmer Giles and his hypothetical hosepipe) can use will hopefully go down well.
With some fairly poor sales statistics versus the German Big 3 in the past few years, JLR won’t want to release a niche product, but something to cover all bases, which I guess this does (£35-80k asking price, lol). And of course, it probably wants something to reinforce the brand’s image which, again, the revival of the Defender name should
TL;DR I don’t care if it has an identity crisis, I just think it’s cool, and that that’s why people should buy one.
Yes yes!! It has plastic that looks like heavy duty steel plating so that it looks tough. This is pure toughness these days.
I wholeheartedly agree. The Pretender, sorry (not really) Defender with its unibody frame, road car suspension and lack of front locking differential is an insult to the Defender name. I guess it is good enough to get those soccer moms (probably the target audience of the Pretender) out of the occasional mud puddle they might encounter on the way to their girls soccer practice. I’ll take the cheaper Jeep Rubicon (a true off roader) any day of the week. RIP Defender.
Hasn’t it been said the new Defender, sorry (not really, that joke is crap) “Pretender” is more rigid than the OG? Or are we just not supposed to care about the improvement upon a factor that is pretty much the key reason behind the use of BOF on off-roaders because it’s been given the status of requirement by people who don’t really know all that much about off-roading?
I live in deepest darkest Lincolnshire. Farmers here drive Japanese trucks. Don’t really see many commercial land rovers any more. Range rovers still rule the roost for farmer run arounds. Everything that goes in a field is japanese.
I think the problem is that there’s not enough separation between this and the squillions of different posh SUVs JLR already makes, thus begging the question of why it exists at all
As for farmers: Toyota Landcruiser
The old Defender was known for being a proper off-road vehicle for all applications, which meant it was a terrible city driver but that wasn’t the point. The old Defender was meant for the army, rescue and extreme applications other SUV’s couldn’t complete. The new “Defender” is just like every other Land Rover. Amazing off-road capabilities, but able to comfortably drive in the city. It is designed like every other SUV, comfortable, smart and modern, something the old Defender wasn’t which is why it appealed for those extreme applications.
I too am disappointed. This is not a Defender, it’s a deformed D4! I can’t see farmers lugging straw bales around in one of these, or overland expeditions using them. The beauty of the old Defender was the mechanical simplicity and the readily available stock of parts in the remotest parts of the world. The only thing I see this new model doing is further driving up the prices of the proper Defender. And a £40k starting price?!?
Bring me one solid off-roader with more than half its R&D going for less, bar the pint-sized Jimny. One.
FFS, the old one is based on an original design that is over 60 years old. Any, all new model, was going to be radically different. The old one was constantly criticised by journalists for being cramped, uncomfortable and total sh1te on the road. Land Rover have addressed those issues and now it’s too modern!!!! These are the same people who whined about the “new” Mini, and that sold sh1tloads. This one will too. If you want bashed elbows, a knackered spine and sore bum cheeks, then buy a used Defender. If you want to live in the 21st century, then you have this