Originally Posted by curb-optional

Although I'm sure this will sell, JLR had to first pass over a more broadly desirable opportunity to correct their MASSIVE manufacturing error when they failed to put 18"s on the P400 - why not spend time on a successful "everyday" Defender? That would have gone to far greater # of sales than a "trophy" Defender like this. With 35" tires will it look a bit exaggerated? But no doubt probably awesome for sure. I see Wranglers similar and all I can think is "how's the extra wide tires with hydroplaning?" What folks don't want to tell senior JLR management is that Octa myopia kept JLR from making the P400 a grand slam with greater revenue potential. A 265/70/18 would make sooooo many Defender folks happy with tire choices in the aftermarket. Instead we get a trophy Defender few will ever likely challenge - or buy. If folks that buy it don't drive it much, how's the aftermarket sales at the dealership going to go? Swing and a miss IMO. Is it better than a G? I'd say so. But Mercedes doesn't sell alot of Gs each year, so JLR is limiting the buying pool. An 18" rim P400 would directly challenge the new GX/LC configurations (and win). Those will adopt 265/70/18, giving owners sooooooo many tire choices in the aftermarket. the GX & LC models are going to swamp the sales of Octa. why make a trophy SUV for a 1,000 customers when you can make a P400 and sell that to a pool of tens of thousands? The GX will have probably 70+ tire choices at that rim size. A 19" rim has about 6-8 tire choices (and it's not much better at the 20" rim). I love the idea of the Octa, and don't blame JLR for doing it. But it's the wrong time to do it. Making the right decision at the right time is a business decision, and preferring to make an academically awesome Octa before a practical everyday Defender is a business mistake IMO. JLR wasted effort today on imaginary drivers when they could have sold a Defender folks wanted to buy in the multiples of what the Octa will sell. GX/LC sales will ramp up in the years ahead, and JLR should have spent time on making the Defender a direct competitor with zero weak points (like intentionally using a rim that is not industry standard and leaves owners with few aftermarket tire choices. Fix current stupid before going all imaginary potential.... Lots of marketing suggests the GX OT is targeting Defender. But Defender is maybe 20,000/year. (only looking US). On the other hand Wrangler/Bronco are likely close to 200k/year in annual sales -and a GX targeting some of those owners that want a nicer drive on a daily basis is a much bigger market. Is the GX looking to "steal" 10% of Defender's market (what's that, 2,000 sales?) when it can try for 5% of Wrangler/Bronco owners that are ready for a nice cabin, quite drive, and still off road capable (that's 10,000 sales). If you've driven a Wrangler for a while you get it: off road awesome, but on road there's some trade-offs. The market for folks with those SUVs that may consider a trade-up is huge. Not having the correctly sized rim/tire for a P400 is a massive, flagrant, "Houston we have a problem" level manufacturing error - JLR (if they want to make money) should have focused on making money - fish in the pond where the fish are: at a 265/70/19, the pond is stocked. If you sell a trophy, it's going to stay in "park," and that won't generate as much in sales and service at dealerships, where they probably benefit more from daily drivers racking up mileage and thus needing service. At what point does JLR step back and wonder: "how about making a configuration everyone seems to want and has a huge pool of potential buyers, instead of a trophy SUV few can buy and likely fewer will use daily?" Great SUV, but crazy bad decision to think it was more important to manufacture an SUV like Octa than to fix a known problem in the P400, which is in a competitive space and about to be more so...

Originally Posted by Jim 90

Agreed. But being from USA how many on-road recovery vehicle (I.e. tow truck) drivers will really now enough to remove the plastic undershield (it really isn’t that easy) to expose the tow loop when doing a recovery? Potential disaster if they don’t. Even bigger recovery issue if defender not running - locked wheels, etc. Whole recovery/towing/winching process is too complicated on or off road. I think they could simplify the process. Just a thought.

Originally Posted by EMV007

Any pictures of this upcoming beast anyone?