2019 Land Rover Defender
Revised mildly in its first 33 years on the market, the Defender became the poster image for utilitarian SUVs in terms of design. Introduced as a boxy, no-nonsense vehicle, it soldiered on with minor changes into the 2010s, an era that saw most SUVs adopt sporty, rounder features. Alongside the Mercedes-Benz G-Class, the Defender remained the only SUV to sport such classic boxy proportions and features. Naturally, this heritage prompted Land Rover to design the 2020 Defender in a similar way. Mildly inspired by the DC100 concept from 2011, the new Defender doesn鈥檛 share much with other Land Rover and Range Rover vehicles. That鈥檚 not surprising given that it rides on a unique platform. Design-wise, it pays tribute to the original Defender. Up front, the massive, rectangular grille of the old Defender was replaced by a much thinner and modern opening, but the headlamps were designed to mimic those seen on the old SUV.
Take a deep breath, relax, & let me give you some facts, with cited sources, about 100s of thousands of vehicles. Jaguars were absolutely horror stories, when it came to reliability/dependability ! Ford has been responsible in IMPROVING Jaguars Quality. J D Powers publishes a VDS (vehicle dependability study) each year. This study tracks vehicles for 3 years, & rates them as to how many PROBLEMS they have over a 3 year period. Please note: Jaguar is WAY below the industry average, but Ford, Lincoln, & Mercury are ALL ABOVE the industry average! Please note Ford, Lincoln, Mercury, AND Jaguar ALL above average! But as you can see Jaguar's improvement. Also of note is the recent studied "Initial Quality" where FoMoCo SMOKED All the other Manufacturers. Have the INDIVIDUAL VEHICLE (the Jag you are considering)checked out ! Don't freak out based on rumors or your experience with ONE car that you had a bad experience with ! American Auto Manufacturers are having, have MORE to do with "legacy" costs (meaning health care, benefits, retirement pensions, etc,) of there Union Workers. Since most of the foreign manufacturers don't have unions protecting their employees, they don't have those "legacy costs" to worry about. BIG THREE are still the BIG THREE when it comes to sales. In fact FORD was the number one selling BRAND in 2006 !
In fact the only cars that fall into this category are the MINI and the Nissan Micra, which in total make up four percent of the UK market. Meaning 96 percent would go towards subsidising factories on foreign soil. In Germany sixty five percent of the vehicles bought in their Scrappage scheme are produced in German Factories. This is closely replicated in France, with sixty two percent of vehicles being produced in French factories. The Scrappage scheme would undoubtedly help the dealers in the UK. However, recently the discounts being offered by dealers has often exceeded 拢2000 and that obviously has not kick started the car market. If introduced would the dealers not just revert to the list price and knock off the two grand? If discounts of 拢7,500 off a Land Rover can't get someone to trade in their banger, it's doubtful if an extra 拢2000 will make much of a difference. Is Scrappage the solution? First we need to work out the exact problem. Is it car sales? Is it the environment? Is it polluting vehicles? Or is it Lord Mandelson introducing a populist policy to support an ailing government?
Putting a million miles under your tyres is easy, as long as you are kind to your car and most important of all, you own the right car. A few years back a traveling salesman, Peter Gilbert, was able to put 1,001,385 miles in his 1989 Saab 900. He then donated it to the Wisconsin Automotive Museum after Saab verified the mileage. All he did was regularly service the car, change the tyres every 45,000 miles and rebuild the gearbox at 200,000 miles. The Saab even survived eight head-on collisions with errant deers. Not surprisingly, Gilbert replace his faithful old Saab, with another one that had rather less than 1m miles on the clock. This got me thinking - which cars could you buy and rely on to be around when their odometers click onto 1,000,000? It took Gilbert 17 years to pile on those miles, so which cars could we be driving in 2031? If it came down to the survival of the fittest, then you can鈥檛 buy better than the utterly indestructible Landcruiser.
