After seeing what jeep is doing with the gladiator, I'm sorry to say but I cannot see how JLR is going to have any watershed moment with the "new" defender. They have totally botched the release of it, the build up. What a joke.
I pretty much agree. At this point, we pretty much know what the new Defender is going to be. I'm still holding out that the styling will be more boxy and less round, but it's pretty clear it will pretty much be a rebodied D5. Which is sort of fine, in a vacuum, as the D90 and the Disco 1 more or less shared the same underpinnings. Here, though, it's going to have the bad parts about it, too. For example, it's pretty clear it's going to have those stupid radiators in front of each front wheel, pretty much negating any ability to have an aftermarket front bumper.
But if the new Defender is only available with 20" or even 19" wheels...
But if the new Defender is only available without a low-range transfer case unless you spring for another $20k package with a bunch of useless ****...
But if the new Defender is rounded and looks like the same pinched loaf as the rest of the Rover lineup...
...then this thing is DOA.
I really hope the Rover guys were being cagey in that video with what they said about taking it up Potato Salad Hill. That's an obstacle that a stock Rubicon can do. I gave up hope a long time ago that the new Defender can ever be modified to do as well as a modified Wrangler can do, but I guess I was stupid enough to believe that a stock 2020 Defender will be able to compete with a stock Rubicon, and that's just based on the hype coming from Land Rover's mouth.
Yet I see them taking this damn thing on the Nurburgring, and I really begin to wonder if they have any ******* clue what they are selling.