l have to say that it does feel a lot more "precious" than the old Defender.

With the old one, you'd not mind if it picked up a few scratches or a dent, it was just "patina"
With the new one, although it's fully capable of anything you'd want to do off road, if you scratched the bodywork you'd be crying into your coffee imagining the cost to repair it.

And also it's quite a bit wider and not as easy to thread down a narrow trail. lf l was going to Africa l would rather be in the old version, or our 2020 Jimny.

However l won't be going to Africa, so it doesn't matter. The furthest l go off road is visiting farms and some green lanes. So for me the vehicle is perfect.

As it will be for most people, who want the sentiment of an off-road adventure vehicle but won't go any further off road than the local horse trials.

The fact that the vehicle is actually supremely capable is completely lost on them, although seeing video of it crossing the Simpson Desert does make them feel good.

 

I bet you feel better now, huh? Any likes comiong your way? BTW, I also have a Jeep Wrangler JK and they are night and day different. Both can handle amazing offroad challenges but I can also drive my Defender up to Vermont at a VERY comfortable 80 MPH (assuming I can sneak by the omnipresent NH cops) which the Jeep definitely is not able to do on the same fashion. The wide range of capabilities is, I dare argue, unprecedented.

 

^ Totally agree, Defender is so comfortable and easy to drive on longer trips. Driving up to Stowe, VT on a really windy night, the Defender only got pushed around once or twice by the wind. My 2 friends driving Wranglers though the same high winds arrived exhausted and complained the entire next day how tired their arms were from wrestling the steering wheel on that drive. And when a foot of snow fell overnight I had no problem making down our unplowed road to the mountain.

 

Also the new Defender is a fantastic tow vehicle. Towing our caravan is no effort at all, on hills the only difference is a few hundred RPM on the engine.

Stability is very good, never had even a hint of problems even in fairly high winds.

 

Even P300 tows well. Overall Def is very nice package, not really a super off road monster but capable of many things and long road cruiser.
Final drive ratio on P300 is cool too.

 

So... Why?

 

Ah yes that doesn't make sense does it.

l guess if l was Overlanding across Africa (l wish) l would take the old Defender not because it's narrower, but because there's more chance of repairing it out there if anything went wrong.

 

Didn't bother to read the whole thread.... Just figured I'd post all these pictures from the first week after I took delivery (20,000 miles and one year ago). Since then, it's been up and down countless sketchy trails, towed about 4000 miles (up to about 9500' elevation, in snow) and been 50+ miles from the nearest civilization in 120+ degree temp and still haven't found it's limits. Only have a bunch of dust in the footwells and a couple love taps on the smash guard to show for it.

 

 

I have to apologize. I was drawing you out...

Actually it does make sense. But this is exactly the reason we, as a group of enthusiasts, got together and formed GAP Diagnostic. We wanted to make "The best 4x4xFar" a true go-anywhere vehicle again. So you can't repair a New Defender with a hammer, screwdriver and bailing wire. But you can with a hammer, screwdriver and bailing wire and an IIDTool. Some things are actually easier. Would you know how to diagnose rough running on a 30 year old 300TDi Defender? The IIDTool would tell you what is wrong with your L663 D250. Field repairs are always ****. But new vehicles are actually more reliable by far than older vehicles. Even Land Rovers. And they are repairable even in the field if you have the right tools.