Tata's LR' current Pre-Release product testing standards

I wonder if LR now tests their vehicles the same way they had done with LR3 before releasing them, in extreme cold and hot weather conditions and extreme stressful driving situations, etc.

I remember seeing some marketing videos about LR3 being tested for "4 million miles' in extreme conditions back in the day (2004), from like artic type weather to the streets of Scotland I believe it was (for testing the install/fitment quality on the bad roads. Will see if I could find a couple of them.

All that stuff had gotten me interested in wanting an LR3 even more knowing that this thing was built and test like real hard.

Wonder whats Tata and Mr. McGovern (who calls himself a "Modernist" while chatting about the new Defender design) have done to those testing standards.

To me by the way, respectful Mr. McGovern is nothing but a conformist. Really unhappy what he has done to a line of products that used to carry such grace and modern and timeless designs. To me he is just a company man, and far from a modernist, let alone a designer

Almost every vehicle is tested in both arctic and extreme-heat conditions anymore. For the former, it's somewhere up in northern Canada or maybe Alaska. For the latter, it's almost always Death Valley.

Any winter testing that LR might do is either in Iceland or Norway/Sweden. Any reference to Northern Ontario is just marketing fluff.

https://www.autotrader.ca/newsfeatu...ng-making-cars-that-survive-canadian-winters/

As to hot weather, Africa is pretty much out now due to concerns for the survival of the vehicles but Dubai in the UAR, yes; any reference to the States is again, just marketing. Australia is deemed too far away and too small a market to matter any longer.

https://www.conceptcarz.com/articles/article.aspx?articleID=2333

As to the "new" Defender, Ford must be having some problems with the Australian Ranger over here as they have yet to release it to the North American market.

It may be that LR will do the final testing by producing a batch and selling them to types such as ourselves for us to do the testing.

I did my own artic testing with a 100k+ miles lr3 on synthetic oil. It started and ran ok at -38c without block heater. Once all warmed up it performed well.

The coldest I've ever been was in '06 when I rode in a '05 LR3 from Anchorage to Haines, Alaska, which requires you to drive north to Tok. We spent the night there, and when we got up the next morning it was -35° Fahrenheit. The engine started fine, but the air suspension threw a code until it warmed up for a minute.

ryanjl said:

The coldest I've ever been was in '06 when I rode in a '05 LR3 from Anchorage to Haines, Alaska, which requires you to drive north to Tok. We spent the night there, and when we got up the next morning it was -35° Fahrenheit. The engine started fine, but the air suspension threw a code until it warmed up for a minute.

Click to expand...

The trouble with testing in cold temperatures is the slightest problem a hundred miles from no where can mean you freeze to death.

Last winter I did a bit of testing myself, but only for about four hours on a drive out of the mountains onto the prairies - warm in the Rockies, (maybe - 20F), but going east out of the foothills and onto the open prairies, the display show -40C/-40F. The heaters were working fine and I kept a steady 60 mph as the roads were relatively clear, but it was not a day to suffer a glitch.

I used to work in the Middle East; the concern there was getting stranded in the desert with no water and you die in 3 days; me, not much of a concern as here, you go to sleep and freeze to death in 3 hours.

ryanjl said:

The coldest I've ever been was in '06 when I rode in a '05 LR3 from Anchorage to Haines, Alaska, which requires you to drive north to Tok. We spent the night there, and when we got up the next morning it was -35° Fahrenheit. The engine started fine, but the air suspension threw a code until it warmed up for a minute.

Click to expand...

Our trip was to moose factory Ontario on ice road. I had the suspension issue occur once on initial start up. As you say cleared when warm. Also firmer ride initially too.

A number of years ago we had lr club member trip to

bbyer said:

The trouble with testing in cold temperatures is the slightest problem a hundred miles from no where can mean you freeze to death.

Last winter I did a bit of testing myself, but only for about four hours on a drive out of the mountains onto the prairies - warm in the Rockies, (maybe - 20F), but going east out of the foothills and onto the open prairies, the display show -40C/-40F. The heaters were working fine and I kept a steady 60 mph as the roads were relatively clear, but it was not a day to suffer a glitch.

I used to work in the Middle East; the concern there was getting stranded in the desert with no water and you die in 3 days; me, not much of a concern as here, you go to sleep and freeze to death in 3 hours.

Click to expand...

Go prepared and dont go alone. We had 3 trucks, SPOT, food and gear.

PWD2 said:

Our trip was to moose factory Ontario on ice road. I had the suspension issue occur once on initial start up. As you say cleared when warm. Also firmer ride initially too.

A number of years ago we had lr club member trip to

Go prepared and don't go alone. We had 3 trucks, SPOT, food and gear.

Click to expand...

Your are cheating death - no fair, and the SPOT means someone will find you eventually - or at least know where to dig for the snow covered wrecks and bodies within.

Me, I take a glove box full of Eat More chocolate bars - Eat More because they do not melt in the heat from the heater. Yes, they go rock hard in the cold but they do shatter when you bang on them and then you can suck the pieces - you have the time.

I have never put much faith in candles. I figure I would somehow set the cab or my clothes on fire and then be ***** out in the blizzard. I will concede that perhaps with the candles one could warm up the Eat Mores - fortunately, never had to find out.

In the back, I do have coveralls, boots, hat, gloves etc that make one look like a snowman; no style, but look good when cold.

Re water, I eat snow as frozen water in a thermos is hard to get at and in those plastic water bottles, well back to the Eat More thing, but Ice is even harder to smash up.

Hawaii, in the winter is the real solution.