I wasn’t talking about height clearance...I was talking about the wheels fitting around the discs and calipers. They are the reason smaller wheels can’t fit and thus larger tires. Honesty it’s a disgrace the smallest wheels the discovery comes with are 20”...and even more of a disgrace the smallest wheels they have for the new defender are 18”.

All land rover gives a crap about now is selling high priced suvs to wealthier families upon which the mom gets groceries and the dad doesn’t get stuck on the long driveway to his garage. It’s honestly pathetic.

If they want to make an ultra luxury vehicle with 4x4, go nuts on the Range Rover.

But why have they screwed the rest of their vehicles? The new ford bronco just nailed it and it’s going to sell like hot cakes. It actually captured the older bronco with the front end...and they made it fun and rugged and simple.

I don’t understand, if I was in charge of LR things would be much better...I’m an engineer. I do not understand, from any engineering principle, what LR is doing.

It sickens me when people ask me about LR, and I have to say, “buy older so they are easy to work on, or buy a LAnd cruiser so it won’t fail, or buy a new LR if you like big rims”.

I want to cry from what the company could be to what they actually are.

 

I agree - that is why first thing was to get the comp wheels and was quite glad they fitted on my diesel. Think it looks a lot better and of course a much better drive on gravel and off-road.

 

Check the sales figures for Land Rover and you’ll understand exactly why.

The aging “true” Land Rover, the Defender was down to well under 20k units worldwide last I checked, probably closer to 12k actually. Since LR moved with the times and actually got money to do so (they were always woefully under funded and that’s why the products never really moved on after the earliest days) the sales numbers have sky rocketed. They are selling what buyers want and that’s how business works.

People who actually go off road in a hardcore way are too small in number to support the business with all the research and development money that is needed to produce new vehicles and you have to keep doing that because of safety and emissions legislation.

Even a company which has done a better job of it, Jeep, only has the success they have because they keep making the Wrangler more road friendly. As they did the sales increased, even though many purists (myself included) scoffed. But we wouldn’t even have a Wrangler without the sales and thus financial support from the “lifestyle” buyers who don’t go off road...

The Grenadier is allegedly high end new Defender money. Let’s see how many they sell after the niche is filled...

People liked the idea of the original Mini, the original Defender, the old fix it yourself Chevy. Actually living with one is a different matter. My wife loves the old Defender but has never been in one. I am fully confident she’d hate it day to day. As would I and I’m a big fan of the real Land Rover and learnt to drive as a teen in a series 2... but I will and did take my Disco 5 over a Defender as my daily when for the same money I could have got an imported old Defender.

 

Ok. But they have the Range Rover, Range Rover sport, velar, disco, disco sport, evoque,...

They couldn’t make 1 vehicle that is simple and reliable with old school features?

You mentioned the Jeep Wrangler. Well the doors still come off, the roof sill comes off, it still has solid axles, and it’s still easy to work on. Guess what? They have a lot of other Jeep’s that are more comfortable.

Land Rover couldn’t be bothered to make 1 freaking vehicle that still honors their legacy?

 

I agree, Jeep have done a better job of moving with the times with the Wrangler vs the Defender.

Ignoring the USA as the Defender wasn’t available past 97... in the UK they did minor updates to the Defender over 30+ years until they killed it off in what, 2016? Whereas over the same lifetime Jeep made massive changes to the Wrangler that made it much, much more usable as a daily vehicle and at the same time increased its off road capability. A lot of people in the UK consider the defender to be *the* off road vehicle but the reality is that a stock Wrangler of any year from 2003 on (the introduction of Rubicon models) or at least 2007 or so for the JK Rubicon is a more capable vehicle off road with the same solid axles, good angles but also disconnecting sway bars and front and rear lockers. Heck the defender never got lockers from the factory. Both have great aftermarket support for crazy builds but the defender was always a really horrible vehicle on road and the Wrangler wasn’t (at least from 2006 although the TJ from 97 was good bar it’s small size).
And now we have the latest Wrangler which raises the game again, and JLR release the new Defender which blows the old one out of the water on road and also beats the new Wrangler on road too. It is certainly much more luxurious as well. But off road, while capable for the type of activity 99% of actual buyers would ever do off road, it’s not one for the enthusiasts.

But how many enthusiasts are going to buy a 70-80k vehicle (pre mods) and take it into off/road situations a new Defender can’t handle? Not very many I’d bet. Most hardcore off road era use older cheaper vehicles and JLR couldn’t care less about the 4th buyer down the chain. They are not a customer. They don’t pay the bills. So pleasing say 5,000 hardcore off road era per year who would pay this money and go off road (personally I think the real figure is in the hundreds) or pleasing 20,000 mostly new customers who don’t, what are they going to do as a business?

I disagree with their approach, the new Defender should have retained body on frame and solid axles but developing a new platform is very expensive and JLR don’t have the customer base for it as they neglected the Defender for so long. Jeep kept moving the ball forward and increased sales numbers as they did so. Sales of Defenders continued to dwindle over the years as buyers just won’t live with that sort of vehicle on a daily basis. So then you can’t justify the investment and have to re-purpose an existing platform. And we end up with the new Defender which, and I don’t care what anyone says, is a Defender 5 with better angles and a couple of uprated components because they can’t afford to do it any other way.

 

Bump - Anyone find other 18" aftermarket wheels that will fit? I spoke to Johnson Rods and they said Compomotive is coming out with a new version of the 18" wheels.

Since these wheels won't be ready in time for my needs (Winter) I am going to get some stock 20" (or 19"?) Range Rover Sport wheels to mount off-road tires on. Anyone have pictures of RRS wheels on a Disco 5?