You are of course entitled to your view; do you have experience in this realm? I have been in mud plenty of times. The LR3 is no "bogger" but then again I have not built it as such, either. It does fine though. You say "WHEN" it quits in mud. Why is that a certainty? Very few scenarios actually cause the EAS to dump to bumpstops.

 

You are correct re the "when" as about the only time I had height sensor and wiring suspension problems was when it was new - during and just after the warranty period expired. For the last ten years, it has only been the compressor so that really does not count.

One of the problems with our "mud" up here is that it about 4 months a year, mixes with snow, cakes up, and freezes. If you do not clean out the wheel wheels before it freezes solid, then next morning the height sensor arms sort of rip off as they are frozen in the crud and there is no place for them to move. That of course only happens about once as one learns to clean out the wheel wells.

Also I define mud as the stuff that is about 4 to 6 inches deep, actually drags the vehicle down, and does the plop plop thing for half a mile down the road once you get out it and back to speed. Basically, you have to pay me to drive in it and that is what a company pickup is for. As I have said before, my 3 is for staying on the road.

The jpg is very much on the pavement, no mud and was warm as well - southern British Columbia, kind of in the Rockies - snow was a bit early, spotty, and probably gone for the most part now, except for the few inches last night around here.


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The jeeps for the aussie market i think are assembled in europe and are a bucket of bolts and are always at the top of the lemon vehicle awards, my local terrain is moslty mud with rock and a snow during winter.
The electrics are more water proof than you think but if dunked long enough any electricals will suffer from water/mud ingress, i quite like the Rubicon but would never own one.
On my 2nd disco and 4th Landrover over 25years so wont drive anything else, my D3 is certainly the best car i have owned and being the TDV6 is economical and has plenty of torque for towing.
My test road is a long highway ascent on the rd to our winter campsite and my old TDI D1 would slow to 60kph, the D3 will storm up at 110kph with my 700kg camper on the back like its not even there.

 

I am wondering how the new Defender will stack up against the D3/LR3? As best I can determine, the interior length of the 110 is about 3 inches shorter than the 3; width wise, I have not been able to figure that out yet, but I would hope it is wider, but I doubt it.

The yet to be introduced 130 station wagon would probably be a bit longer inside than the 3. If they figure out a way to mount the spare other than on the door, then the 130 would be exterior wise, pretty much no longer than the current 3's.

Somehow I think the 3 would have been a better base to start from for the Defender than the unit body Discovery that they used. As to engines, I have the old nineties Jag petrol 4.4 L V8 in my LR3 and I it seems that the TDV6 is about the best diesel LR had yet to develop. The big petrol engine in the new Defender is some variation of an inline 6 - well I guess we have to wait to find out about that one.