New Defender - Land rover micro site

Cowabunga · Jul 25, 2019

Forage Trader said:
Dont have a clue what it is . Apart from Diesel and a stuppid gear stick .it is a bit underpowered

If it is a diesel then it is not the 0.9 DCe as shown in your snapshot, which is a petrol. The diesel will be some version of the Renault K9K 1.5 litre four cylinder, which then probably badge as a DCi. It may be anything from 85hp to 110hp, depending on what they choose to put in the little car.

Renault gearboxes are generally very nice to use, but you may not like any manual any longer. There's nothing at this level that offers a really nice automatic though. You've got to go up a model or two to be offered one of those. Avoid the CVT versions of Renaults and Nissans, because they have a dreadful reliability reputation.

Peugeot have a nice automatic at reasonable cost. Avoid the twin clutch 'powershift' and try the latest torque converter conventional version. There is an excellent dealer down the road from the Aber Renault dealer. Not that I'm trying to put you off a Renault, because they make some excellent little cars. I think your Aber Renault dealer can source Kia as well.

Drillman · Jul 26, 2019

sure I heard on the wireless yesterday that JLR are losing money hand over fist.

If it carries on the new Defender could be there swan song!

Farmer Roy · Jul 26, 2019

Their . . .

JP1 · Aug 8, 2019

New Land Rover Defender ride review
10

10
8 Aug, 2019 3:30pmJohn McIlroy

Our first experience of the new Land Rover Defender shows that it’s ready for off-road action – and plenty more besides
Verdict

The new Land Rover Defender has the potential to be the general family do-it-all that the Discovery 4 used to be, not just an agricultural workhorse. That could make it even more significant than first anticipated.
The all-new Land Rover Defender is not just one of the 2019’s most eagerly awaited cars; it’s a vehicle that enthusiasts have been dying to see for the best part of a decade, ever since it became clear that the original version’s life was coming to an end.
The full reveal of the car isn’t expected until next month’s Frankfurt Motor Show - but Auto Express has been allowed behind the scenes at JLR’s Gaydon test base to sit alongside engineers in a late prototype of the vehicle, codenamed L663.

Of course, the Warwickshire facility isn’t the only place where Defender testing has taken place. Indeed, the engineers present - whose focus is on the durability side of the project - inform us that development mules of the car have racked up a combined total of more than 750,000 miles of testing, everywhere from the frozen Arctic to dusty South African plains.

Image 2 of 10
Land Rover Defender - rear

Image 2 of 10

Our car for the day has an unstamped passport, however. It’s what’s known as an Extreme Events Sign-off Vehicle - which could mean lots of things for a Defender but in this case basically encompasses the sort of prangs that occur when you’re taking avoiding action in suburban rat-runs - or thudding along rough country tracks. So our prototype has been based at Gaydon and driven into kerbstones at all sorts of angles, and thrown, at speed, across bigger gaps than any of the world’s widest bridge expansion joints.
“It’s basically impacts that are just below the threshold of the airbag cutting in,” Andy Deeks, the Defender’s Durability and Robustness Team Leader, tells us. “At least, they’re at that point in a Defender; some of its rivals don’t react in the same way.”
Do they put competitors’ cars through the same test, then? The engineers chuckle. “Oh yes. If you look hard enough in the bushes here you’d probably find the remains of a Lexus that didn’t like it very much.”

We choose instead to have a quick look around our Defender for the morning. It’s still not possible to discern the finer details of the L663’s styling - they’re still masked by bits of cladding and the eye-fooling patterns - but several key points do become clear. It’s sitting on 20in alloys but the tyres are 255/60s, allowing usefully tall sidewalls - and the Land Rover engineers say this is true even on the largest 22in items. The smallest wheels, 18-inchers, should be very squidgy indeed.
The spy pics so far have shown a car that looks perhaps slimmer than the classic Defender shape but up close, this is a chunky vehicle. The bonnet is reassuringly high, the suspension clearance in the arches clearly visible and the blunt rear end unmistakably Land Rover. It already feels safe to say that while this car will not be a pastiche of the old model, it will display clear lineage. We feel reassured, too, when we’re told that the air vent on the car’s front wing is “fully functional” - a sign that as it should with a Defender, form has, at the very least, been intertwined with function.
We make a final note as we climb up and into the car, which sits idling in the Gaydon test track car park: it is clearly powered by a petrol engine. And a sticker in the window points out that it has hybrid technology on board. We can’t discount the possibility that there’s a plug-in charging flap hidden under the disguise somewhere but our gut feeling is that this five-door example is a 110 with 48-volt electrification. Quite a technological leap, then, from the old model.

Image 3 of 10
Land Rover Defender - front action

Image 3 of 10

You climb up into this Defender, just as in its predecessors, but even amid the yards of disguising fabric over the dashboard, and the extra buttons required for prototype work, it is immediately evident that once you’re aboard, this vehicle will be a much more civilised environment than what’s gone before.
We glance across at our driver for the day and he’s sitting in an entirely conventional position, with the steering wheel adjusted to the correct angle and, it would appear, enough space around him to avoid brushing elbows on the bodywork as he squirrels the Defender out of the confines of the Gaydon car park. He has reassuring amounts of steering lock for the first few yards, too - helped, of course, by electrical power assistance. These are all new developments for Defender devotees - but they already show how this new generation will have broader appeal than before.
Time is tight, so the Land Rover team make a beeline for the area of Gaydon’s off-road course known as ‘Developing World’. It’s not the harshest of environments, we’re told, but rather stretches of road where you can get up to the sorts of speeds where potholes, dust, mud and water can present immediate threats.

Image 5 of 10
Land Rover Defender - off-road

Image 5 of 10

The route to there along Gaydon’s access roads reveals more about our car. The engine has four cylinders, so based on the information about the vehicle that’s already leaked, it’s a P300 Ingenium turbocharged petrol, producing 296bhp and 400Nm. As with all new Defenders, the gearbox is an automatic, accessed by a stubby, short lever in the lower centre of the dash.
And even five minutes along some of Gaydon’s broken tarmac is enough for us to tell you that this Defender is a world away from the car it replaces. It is comfortable, complaint - easily on a par with many a family SUV, in fact. And the Ingenium is remarkably refined by any car’s standards, let alone those of a Defender.
On the gravel, the Defender feels even more at home. We’re doing north of 40mph on a pretty rutted road and yet our car’s air suspension is soaking up the high-frequency stuff, keeping all but the worst judders away from the cabin occupants. It’s deeply impressive - especially when this is the area where the Defender probably faces the biggest crossover with ‘conventional’ capable SUVs.

Image 7 of 10
Land Rover Defender - water

Image 7 of 10

We ask how the car compares with previous Land Rovers in the really boggy stuff. “Well, look at it this way,” Deeks tells us. “We’ve had to reprofile the off-road development route at Eastnor (Land Rover’s UK facility) because it wasn’t enough of a challenge for it.”
Air suspension seems like a potential weak point on this most analogue of automotive badges; has it given any problems during development, we ask? “Not really,” Deeks tells us. “The system had already been developed strongly for use in Range Rover and Discovery, so we knew its fundamental strengths. The chassis has required modifications - different bushes and ball joints, and we made the front lower control arms thicker and changed the material too.
“We also beefed up the electric power assisted steering,” he adds, “but for durability; it’s a gen-two rack so we knew it was fine in terms of performance.”

Image 8 of 10
Land Rover Defender - static

Image 8 of 10

Radio chatter tells us that snapper Nick Dimbleby is waiting at the far side of the Developing World’s biggest water hazard. We increase our pace at the last minute, slapping this L663 into the murky liquid at an awkward angle.
Water pours down through the upper door seal, soaking my notepad and making my scrawled notes even harder to read than usual. I giggle, but the engineers aren’t amused. They pause for a brief confab, then someone jumps out to inspect the passenger door. It turns out that the aerial lead for our temporary radio set has been fouling the seal.
With the set-up tweaked, I’m told to expect a repeat run through the water, with even greater commitment. This time we build up speed long before the water, and stay dry long after the sort of splash that would stop many 4x4s, let alone soft-roaders.

Image 10 of 10
Land Rover Defender - interview

Image 10 of 10

If this is the sort of abuse that our car has received, then I’m inclined to feel a pang of sympathy for it. But on-road action is only part of the story. Land Rover also has a jig that tortures a car in half a dozen directions, 24 hours a day and seven days a week, for up to eight weeks at a time.
All too soon, though, our time with VN68 MZD is up and it’s time to return to Gaydon’s control tower for a quick debrief. In a way, we’d expected the car to be able to plunge through water and to soothe out the pock-marks of a gravel road - and it did these easily. What has impressed us more during this brief flirtation with next-gen Defender is how rounded a car it is - how much extra breadth there is to its abilities.
Indeed, we could already see how, in longer-wheelbase 110 form, it has the potential to be not just an agricultural workhorse but also, whisper it, the general family do-it-all that the Discovery 4 used to be before it went even more premium for the current generation. And that, crazy as it seems, could make the all-new Defender an even more significant car than expected.
Key specs

Model: Land Rover Defender 110
Price: TBC
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo petrol
Power/torque: 296bhp/400Nm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto, four-wheel drive

0-60mph: 8.5 seconds (est)
Top speed: 120mph (est)
Economy/CO2: 30mpg (est)/225g/km (est)
On sale: Early 2020

New Land Rover Defender 2020 review | Auto Express

The new Land Rover Defender is one of the most anticipated new cars in a generation, and it doesn’t disappoint

www.autoexpress.co.uk

Y Fan Wen · Aug 9, 2019

I saw this vehicle entering the Porthmadog bypass about 1pm today heading South.

Drillman · Aug 9, 2019

JP1 said:
New Land Rover Defender ride review
10

10
8 Aug, 2019 3:30pmJohn McIlroy

Our first experience of the new Land Rover Defender shows that it’s ready for off-road action – and plenty more besides
Verdict

The new Land Rover Defender has the potential to be the general family do-it-all that the Discovery 4 used to be, not just an agricultural workhorse. That could make it even more significant than first anticipated.
The all-new Land Rover Defender is not just one of the 2019’s most eagerly awaited cars; it’s a vehicle that enthusiasts have been dying to see for the best part of a decade, ever since it became clear that the original version’s life was coming to an end.
The full reveal of the car isn’t expected until next month’s Frankfurt Motor Show - but Auto Express has been allowed behind the scenes at JLR’s Gaydon test base to sit alongside engineers in a late prototype of the vehicle, codenamed L663.

Of course, the Warwickshire facility isn’t the only place where Defender testing has taken place. Indeed, the engineers present - whose focus is on the durability side of the project - inform us that development mules of the car have racked up a combined total of more than 750,000 miles of testing, everywhere from the frozen Arctic to dusty South African plains.

Image 2 of 10

Image 2 of 10

Our car for the day has an unstamped passport, however. It’s what’s known as an Extreme Events Sign-off Vehicle - which could mean lots of things for a Defender but in this case basically encompasses the sort of prangs that occur when you’re taking avoiding action in suburban rat-runs - or thudding along rough country tracks. So our prototype has been based at Gaydon and driven into kerbstones at all sorts of angles, and thrown, at speed, across bigger gaps than any of the world’s widest bridge expansion joints.
“It’s basically impacts that are just below the threshold of the airbag cutting in,” Andy Deeks, the Defender’s Durability and Robustness Team Leader, tells us. “At least, they’re at that point in a Defender; some of its rivals don’t react in the same way.”
Do they put competitors’ cars through the same test, then? The engineers chuckle. “Oh yes. If you look hard enough in the bushes here you’d probably find the remains of a Lexus that didn’t like it very much.”

We choose instead to have a quick look around our Defender for the morning. It’s still not possible to discern the finer details of the L663’s styling - they’re still masked by bits of cladding and the eye-fooling patterns - but several key points do become clear. It’s sitting on 20in alloys but the tyres are 255/60s, allowing usefully tall sidewalls - and the Land Rover engineers say this is true even on the largest 22in items. The smallest wheels, 18-inchers, should be very squidgy indeed.
The spy pics so far have shown a car that looks perhaps slimmer than the classic Defender shape but up close, this is a chunky vehicle. The bonnet is reassuringly high, the suspension clearance in the arches clearly visible and the blunt rear end unmistakably Land Rover. It already feels safe to say that while this car will not be a pastiche of the old model, it will display clear lineage. We feel reassured, too, when we’re told that the air vent on the car’s front wing is “fully functional” - a sign that as it should with a Defender, form has, at the very least, been intertwined with function.
We make a final note as we climb up and into the car, which sits idling in the Gaydon test track car park: it is clearly powered by a petrol engine. And a sticker in the window points out that it has hybrid technology on board. We can’t discount the possibility that there’s a plug-in charging flap hidden under the disguise somewhere but our gut feeling is that this five-door example is a 110 with 48-volt electrification. Quite a technological leap, then, from the old model.

Image 3 of 10

Image 3 of 10

You climb up into this Defender, just as in its predecessors, but even amid the yards of disguising fabric over the dashboard, and the extra buttons required for prototype work, it is immediately evident that once you’re aboard, this vehicle will be a much more civilised environment than what’s gone before.
We glance across at our driver for the day and he’s sitting in an entirely conventional position, with the steering wheel adjusted to the correct angle and, it would appear, enough space around him to avoid brushing elbows on the bodywork as he squirrels the Defender out of the confines of the Gaydon car park. He has reassuring amounts of steering lock for the first few yards, too - helped, of course, by electrical power assistance. These are all new developments for Defender devotees - but they already show how this new generation will have broader appeal than before.
Time is tight, so the Land Rover team make a beeline for the area of Gaydon’s off-road course known as ‘Developing World’. It’s not the harshest of environments, we’re told, but rather stretches of road where you can get up to the sorts of speeds where potholes, dust, mud and water can present immediate threats.

Image 5 of 10

Image 5 of 10

The route to there along Gaydon’s access roads reveals more about our car. The engine has four cylinders, so based on the information about the vehicle that’s already leaked, it’s a P300 Ingenium turbocharged petrol, producing 296bhp and 400Nm. As with all new Defenders, the gearbox is an automatic, accessed by a stubby, short lever in the lower centre of the dash.
And even five minutes along some of Gaydon’s broken tarmac is enough for us to tell you that this Defender is a world away from the car it replaces. It is comfortable, complaint - easily on a par with many a family SUV, in fact. And the Ingenium is remarkably refined by any car’s standards, let alone those of a Defender.
On the gravel, the Defender feels even more at home. We’re doing north of 40mph on a pretty rutted road and yet our car’s air suspension is soaking up the high-frequency stuff, keeping all but the worst judders away from the cabin occupants. It’s deeply impressive - especially when this is the area where the Defender probably faces the biggest crossover with ‘conventional’ capable SUVs.

Image 7 of 10

Image 7 of 10

We ask how the car compares with previous Land Rovers in the really boggy stuff. “Well, look at it this way,” Deeks tells us. “We’ve had to reprofile the off-road development route at Eastnor (Land Rover’s UK facility) because it wasn’t enough of a challenge for it.”
Air suspension seems like a potential weak point on this most analogue of automotive badges; has it given any problems during development, we ask? “Not really,” Deeks tells us. “The system had already been developed strongly for use in Range Rover and Discovery, so we knew its fundamental strengths. The chassis has required modifications - different bushes and ball joints, and we made the front lower control arms thicker and changed the material too.
“We also beefed up the electric power assisted steering,” he adds, “but for durability; it’s a gen-two rack so we knew it was fine in terms of performance.”

Image 8 of 10

Image 8 of 10

Radio chatter tells us that snapper Nick Dimbleby is waiting at the far side of the Developing World’s biggest water hazard. We increase our pace at the last minute, slapping this L663 into the murky liquid at an awkward angle.
Water pours down through the upper door seal, soaking my notepad and making my scrawled notes even harder to read than usual. I giggle, but the engineers aren’t amused. They pause for a brief confab, then someone jumps out to inspect the passenger door. It turns out that the aerial lead for our temporary radio set has been fouling the seal.
With the set-up tweaked, I’m told to expect a repeat run through the water, with even greater commitment. This time we build up speed long before the water, and stay dry long after the sort of splash that would stop many 4x4s, let alone soft-roaders.

Image 10 of 10

Image 10 of 10

If this is the sort of abuse that our car has received, then I’m inclined to feel a pang of sympathy for it. But on-road action is only part of the story. Land Rover also has a jig that tortures a car in half a dozen directions, 24 hours a day and seven days a week, for up to eight weeks at a time.
All too soon, though, our time with VN68 MZD is up and it’s time to return to Gaydon’s control tower for a quick debrief. In a way, we’d expected the car to be able to plunge through water and to soothe out the pock-marks of a gravel road - and it did these easily. What has impressed us more during this brief flirtation with next-gen Defender is how rounded a car it is - how much extra breadth there is to its abilities.
Indeed, we could already see how, in longer-wheelbase 110 form, it has the potential to be not just an agricultural workhorse but also, whisper it, the general family do-it-all that the Discovery 4 used to be before it went even more premium for the current generation. And that, crazy as it seems, could make the all-new Defender an even more significant car than expected.
Key specs

Model: Land Rover Defender 110

Price: TBC

Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo petrol

Power/torque: 296bhp/400Nm

Transmission: Eight-speed auto, four-wheel drive

0-60mph: 8.5 seconds (est)

Top speed: 120mph (est)

Economy/CO2: 30mpg (est)/225g/km (est)

On sale: Early 2020

New Land Rover Defender 2020 review | Auto Express

The new Land Rover Defender is one of the most anticipated new cars in a generation, and it doesn’t disappoint

www.autoexpress.co.uk

Turbo petrol?

Is Diesel really that bad or are Landrover going back to motors that struggle to achieve 15mpg?

Cowabunga · Aug 9, 2019

Drillman said:
Turbo petrol?

Is Diesel really that bad or are Landrover going back to motors that struggle to achieve 15mpg?

There will be 2.0 and 3.0 diesels and, eventually, mild hybrid versions. The 3.0 has yet to be launched and is a straight six design. Quite what this does to crash safety is yet to be determined but it will not be available until 2021 or 2022 anyway. If the brand survives that long.

Cowabunga · Aug 9, 2019

Here is an internal JLR document that admits latest design debacles, specifically for Ingenium Diesel engines fitted transversely to Discovery Sport and Evoque, but to a lesser extent other models. It is self explanatory.

For a company that claims to test so thoroughly, this debacle is inexcusable and, frankly, they deserve to be sued by owners until the pips squeak. Its not a trustworthy reliable partner and I am seriously considering reclaiming my deposit, especially as the new Defender will not be built in the UK.

EDIT
Link deleted, because it didn't work. See later post below...

Chris F · Aug 9, 2019

That article is great, but I can't see a price? Have I missed it or will it just be that eye-watering?

Netherfield · Aug 9, 2019

Cowabunga said:
Here is an internal JLR document that admits latest design debacles, specifically for Ingenium Diesel engines fitted transversely to Discovery Sport and Evoque, but to a lesser extent other models. It is self explanatory.

For a company that claims to test so thoroughly, this debacle is inexcusable and, frankly, they deserve to be sued by owners until the pips squeak. Its not a trustworthy reliable partner and I am seriously considering reclaiming my deposit, especially as the new Defender will not be built in the UK.

All I see is Volvo Owners Club, of which I'm not a member.

Cowabunga · Aug 9, 2019

Chris F said:
That article is great, but I can't see a price? Have I missed it or will it just be that eye-watering?

As with the majority of JLR vehicles, the price spread will be from around £35k+VAT to around £60k.

Clive · Aug 9, 2019

How much longer are they going to milk the cammo pictures for !

Seriously weak / desperate looking marketing now

Cowabunga · Aug 9, 2019

Netherfield said:
All I see is Volvo Owners Club, of which I'm not a member.

Oh sugar!!! Try this link to Adobe documents cloud It works for me.

Chris F · Aug 9, 2019

Cowabunga said:
As with the majority of JLR vehicles, the price spread will be from around £35k+VAT to around £60k.

Guesswork or have we seen a price list? Do Range Rovers start at £60K?

Cowabunga · Aug 9, 2019

Chris F said:
Guesswork or have we seen a price list? Do Range Rovers start at £60K?

Not guesswork. Full Fat Range Rovers do not make up "most" of JLR vehicles.

Clive · Aug 9, 2019

Chris F said:
Guesswork or have we seen a price list? Do Range Rovers start at £60K?

High 70’s for a v6 engined “poverty spec” vogue - up to near 200k for a full spec v8 “L”

60’s is more discovery and rr sport now I think

ollie989898 · Aug 9, 2019

If you think that Defender is going to start at 35K you will be sadly mistaken.

Derrick Hughes · Aug 9, 2019

Cowabunga said:
As with the majority of JLR vehicles, the price spread will be from around £35k+VAT to around £60k.

Renault could not do what I wanted , the diesel engine was gutless so came home with this for a try

Chris F · Aug 9, 2019

ollie989898 said:
If you think that Defender is going to start at 35K you will be sadly mistaken.

You would think that £42k inc vat would be possible. But I fear you will be right.

Both the Discovery Sport and the Evoke start at £31k inc vat. Defender used to be priced like Freelanders I seem to remember having bought both in the past.

ollie989898 · Aug 9, 2019

Chris F said:
You would think that £42k inc vat would be possible. But I fear you will be right.

Both the Discovery Sport and the Evoke start at £31k inc vat. Defender used to be priced like Freelanders I seem to remember having bought both in the past.

It has a 300 horsepower engine, 8 speed automatic gearbox and probably will drive very nicely for a car of it's mass, on or off road. But cheap it won't be.

The Evoke and Disco sport are both pointless compared to the competitor efforts, the Mercedes and Volvo offerings are far better.

New Defender - Land rover micro site

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100% I’ve had enough of farming!

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