New Defender - Land rover micro site

[Cowabunga]

Fil had a Tata pick up some years ago from new. Cheap but not cheerful. Still it was sold through leyland daf dealer who were very good at providing a van for its regular visits. Rhd conversion was botched which was first recall, brakes and pipes all, redone, all fuel lines replaced along with a lot of wiring loom. Enough steel in it to build 2 jap pick ups. Old 2.0l Peugeot diesel, drank like a fish, smoked like a trooper!

Tata pickups were sold through Riverlea Tractors, the South Wales Claas dealers now, for a good while. They never sold many though. People could see that they were as crap as the cheap price suggested.

 

[Nithsdale]

Too many wouldn't buy it because it was too basic.
Even the basic Grenadier is to be automatic only, like the new Defender. Within a short space of time, like five to ten years, the manual gearbox with dry clutch will be something crazy old people want but don't buy. It will be deleted from the option list of most cars and light trucks like the Grenadier and Defender and pickup trucks.

Many many more won't buy the LR because it's overloaded and if it's anything like the rest of their product range, unreliable. And it's the electronics being their biggest problem.

Manual boxes removed from options lists because they don't sell... or because car manufacturers will dictate what we 'want' because it's profit driven by them?

 

[Cowabunga]

Many many more won't buy the LR because it's overloaded and if it's anything like the rest of their product range, unreliable. And it's the electronics being their biggest problem.

Manual boxes removed from options lists because they don't sell... or because car manufacturers will dictate what we 'want' because it's profit driven by them?

Electronics are here to stay, whether you want it or not.
Manual gearboxes are superfluous for electric cars. The price, reliability and fuel economy is increasingly competitive with manual transmissions and, like in the USA, there is now a massive shift in purchase patterns towards automatics in Europe. Up until about six or seven years ago, for instance, an automatic commercial pickup was a rare beast. Nowadays a significant market share is taken by automatics and it continues to grow. Many premium cars are no longer available any other way and the trend continues with the new Defender and more basic Grenadier apparently.

 

[Nithsdale]

Electronics are here to stay, whether you want it or not.
Manual gearboxes are superfluous for electric cars. The price, reliability and fuel economy is increasingly competitive with manual transmissions and, like in the USA, there is now a massive shift in purchase patterns towards automatics in Europe. Up until about six or seven years ago, for instance, an automatic commercial pickup was a rare beast. Nowadays a significant market share is taken by automatics and it continues to grow. Many premium cars are no longer available any other way and the trend continues with the new Defender and more basic Grenadier apparently.

Confirming my point

Car manufacturers dictating what we 'want'.

 

[Rowland]

Confirming my point

Car manufacturers dictating what we 'want'.

I totally understand what you as a car buyer wants but unfortunately for you, you are in a minority .
The type of pickup I needed didn’t have the option of auto box if it did I’d have got one .
My son has just got a new to him car and one of his stipulations was automatic gearbox. Most people spend a fair amount of time sitting in traffic theses days and an auto box is a god send .
On petrol engines you wouldn’t want to go back to distributors and points .

 

[Paddington]

Anyone who has driven a td5 D2 would opt for an automatic to get around the low torque/stalling problem. When the D2 was introduced in South Africa there was no manual version available for the press to test.

 

[Cowabunga]

Confirming my point

Car manufacturers dictating what we 'want'.

Yes and no. Some things are compulsory, like airbags, ABS, tyre pressure displays and warnings. Some things are due to safety and indeed overwhelming customer demand, such as electric windows, mirrors and central locking with options like auto-dipping rear view mirrors inside and out, keyless entry, lights that stay on for you to reach your front door, reversing or surround cameras, automatic transmissions. Things that most people really find useful and want on their 21st Century vehicles

 

[Drillman]

Why the hell would anyone want a manual gearbox in a modern car, van, pickup etc etc is beyond me?

It’s a bit like someone saying I don’t want a tractor with powershift I much prefer a selection of 3ft long levers sticking out the floor between my legs.....

Modern autos are great. Brilliant in heavy traffic and far better than manuals for towing.

I’ve said it before on here many times. manual gearboxes are “makework” a thing of history! The world has moved on to something much better.

 

[Drillman]

Anyone who has driven a td5 D2 would opt for an automatic to get around the low torque/stalling problem. When the D2 was introduced in South Africa there was no manual version available for the press to test.

We had TD5 auto and manual Disco 2 at the same time. The auto was a gutless thirsty heap of turd. The manual was much better. Thankfully though auto gearbox and engine technology has moved on. The Manual disco was replaced with a Ford pickup with auto gearbox. On the way home from collecting it I became an instant auto convert.

 

[feilding]

We had TD5 auto and manual Disco 2 at the same time. The auto was a gutless thirsty heap of turd. The manual was much better. Thankfully though auto gearbox and engine technology has moved on. The Manual disco was replaced with a Ford pickup with auto gearbox. On the way home from collecting it I became an instant auto convert.

I run 2 D2's. One auto. Both use about the same amount of fuel. Low thirtys . The auto is the best towing vehicle of the two. At moment can't find a vehicle that is any better or so cheap to run.

 

[Wombat]

Why the hell would anyone want a manual gearbox in a modern car, van, pickup etc etc is beyond me?

It’s a bit like someone saying I don’t want a tractor with powershift I much prefer a selection of 3ft long levers sticking out the floor between my legs.....

Modern autos are great. Brilliant in heavy traffic and far better than manuals for towing.

I’ve said it before on here many times. manual gearboxes are “makework” a thing of history! The world has moved on to something much better.

Mines a company car and I get reamed on emission and therefore tax with most autos so I have manual

 

[Drillman]

I run 2 D2's. One auto. Both use about the same amount of fuel. Low thirtys . The auto is the best towing vehicle of the two. At moment can't find a vehicle that is any better or so cheap to run.

We were getting about 18-20mpg out of the manual towing and 25 without a trailer.

Auto struggled to break 20mpg regardless of trailer or not!

 

[feilding]

We were getting about 18-20mpg out of the manual towing and 25 without a trailer.

Auto struggled to break 20mpg regardless of trailer or not!

Had to take a small van on a trailer last spring to Lowestoft about 5 hrs one way, and bring a car back on trailer. Used the auto D2. Average mpg was. 32 mpg over the whole trip .

 

[Drillman]

Had to take a small van on a trailer last spring to Lowestoft about 5 hrs one way, and bring a car back on trailer. Used the auto D2. Average mpg was. 32 mpg over the whole trip .

Hahahaha that’s a good one! Have u been borrowing a certain Fendt owners special calculator!

 

[C.J]

The td5 auto discovery has a 4 speed zf transmission .

If I remember our XS didn't get into 4th unless you were doing 55/60 mph.

So you could get thirties mph on a good dual carriage way but round here 18-19 was more typical.

So you are both right.

 

[feilding]

Hahahaha that’s a good one! Have u been borrowing a certain Fendt owners special calculator!

an ordinary calculator is good enough to work out mpg, both D2s never go below high 20s even running local journeys.
about 7 yrs ago both had there EGR valves disconnected and map sensor cleaned. since then both have been very good on fuel. can easy get 540 - 560 miles from a tank of fuel.

 

[feilding]

The td5 auto discovery has a 4 speed zf transmission .

If I remember our XS didn't get into 4th unless you were doing 55/60 mph.

So you could get thirties mph on a good dual carriage way but round here 18-19 was more typical.

So you are both right.

once the auto box is hot mine goes into 4th at about 50 mph. but cold it stays in 3rd til its warm

 

[Drillman]

an ordinary calculator is good enough to work out mpg, both D2s never go below high 20s even running local journeys.
about 7 yrs ago both had there EGR valves disconnected and map sensor cleaned. since then both have been very good on fuel. can easy get 540 - 560 miles from a tank of fuel.

Never did anymore than 25-26mpg with our D2 manual. It was a late model as well untinkered with apart from EGR delete. Our auto struggled to do 20mpg as did others locally.

32mpg towing I find very hard to believe.

 

[Paddington]

Anyone get lower than 17mpg towing with a manual D2 ? ?

 

[ollie989898]

Modern automatics seem to have a lot more gears (ZF box has 8) so a lot more shifty shifting so lower revs and better fuel consumption as a consequence. I believe the duck mentioned his XC90 hit the highs of 39mpg on a fairly brisk road run which is near astonishing given I drive our auto Volvo (6 speed) with half the horsepower and struggle to get above 38mpg.