Unfortunately JLR is in the business of making money, not the best vehicles. In my opinion JLR is going to put the bare minimum into their base model to push people to their more expensive options. If the P300 was any less powerful the vehicle would be incompetent, i came from a 5th gen 4runner and they feel like they have the same amount of power. P400 comes with a $10k premium over the P300, there is no way it costs JLR $10k more to produce a P400. Toyota/Lexus are mocking JLR with the Landcruiser and GX. I find it laughable that JLR's recommended first oil change is 21k miles. They want these things to break.

 

Dude, every business is in the business of making money. That is the goal, isn't it? And have you seen the issues Toyota has been having with that 3.4 liter TT V6?

 

No, they don't want them to break. They are focusing heavily on bringing down warranty costs and broken cars mean angry customers. Every business wants repeat customers, as they are generally the ones who keep the lights on.

 

Absolutely, all car manufactures are in the business of making money and historically JLR has put out sub par products WHEN compared to their pricing. Any yes I have seen the issues with the 3.4 TT V6, but I would still put money on Toyota/Landcruiser fixing the issue or pivoting to maintain their reputation of having reliable cars, its really all they have.

 

I pray that's the case, however I wont be following their recommended service schedule. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't be investing $72k into a defender if I didn't love the product. I just wouldn't put it below JLR to be putting less than 110% effort into their base model.

 

100hp is not worth $10k to me.

 

You shouldn't follow the manufacturer recommended oil change intervals. Anyone who has owned a car should damn well know 21k between oil changes is retarded. On the contrary, modern synthetic oils are light years better than oil from even a decade ago. In testing, some of these new synthetic oils hardly break down or lose viscosity over long intervals. Despite this, I wouldn't risk it. My old LR4 had a 15k mile oil change interval and the people who followed that were the ones that needed new timing chains at 100k miles. I did that every 5k over the ten years I had it and I sold it with 95k and the chains were perfect. I did 5k on my old 2017 Discovery and I continue to do so on my Defender. Oil is cheap compared to any internal engine failure.

 

So If you think its "retarded" that JLRs recommended oil change interval is 21k miles and you don't personally risk following their recommendation, why are you confident they don't want these vehicles to break making them them millions of $$$ in service revenue?

 

I think these days most car manufacturers charge a big premium for their top-tier engines.

Why? Because they need to meet fleet fuel economy regulations, and that means not everyone can have a massive V8, etc. For each V8, they have to sell a lot more of the small-engine versions. So the premium engine is priced high enough to deter the peasants while still making a handsome profit in the process.

So yeah, I would have loved JLR's supercharged V8. I could have swallowed the ~$40-50k premium over my nicely-equipped P300. But without the 18" wheels, and it only comes murdered-out in black or dark gray? Maybe next time, JLR.

 

Well first off, I personally know several development engineers who worked on the Defender. I can tell you that they put their heart and soul into this project and they had to meet high standards. The Defender has been engineered to JLR's highest standards to date. No manufacturer deliberately designs their products to break. Do they make money from service? Absolutely, but they'd rather sell you a new car than coming in every other week because something broke again. Sure, there are parts that have a life expectancy, but that is no different than any other automaker (or industry). Cars are mechanical, and nobody can guarantee any mechanical item - all mechanical items have some sort of life expectancy. For example, the company that my family owns manufacturers laboratory equipment. We have been making the same thing with minimal changes since the late 1970s. I recently had a call for someone that needed a small part for a unit from 1982 and they said it was working properly and they've never had problems with it. At the same time, we ship out a brand new unit and it needs a partial rebuild under warranty. You want to make the best product for your customers, but you can't guarantee everything to work. That's how the business world works, and the automakers are no different.