TheWidup
Full Access Member
This goes back to the point of...if you have LR3/4 and like it then the Defender isn't likely for you. If you bought a D5 thinking it was the evolution of the LR4 you might be interested in the Defender.
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I’ve been sidelining comments but had to dive in...bc of the Bronco.
This offering will be awesome, seems like Ford is listening ppl like us and they clearly want at the wrangler market share (FINALLY someone wants it!!!)....and good for them bc the Defender will be a miss for many, not all but many.
The bronco will become wrangler like, as in tons of bolt on accessories that will generate mall crawlers but then you’ll have the core segment of off-roaders doing it properly...like in the wrangler word.
Also a biggie is that bronco will just be easier on the wallet (bolt on accessories too) and it will envoke the feeling of love for the old school bronco/scouts that many have....something the defender offering isn’t doing bc it looks like could have any auto manufacturer emblem on it.
Final thought....you will be able to take the top and doors off the bronco....that alone excites people.
The formula here isn’t hard...people like wrangler “like” autos...they can make it their own easily and they scream FUN.....does the defender look fun?? Not in my eyes but when you see an D90, Wrangler, Fj40, Bronco/Scout drive by you with the top down it looks like pure simple FUN.
End rant...
Replace Jeep with Ford and this is me. The community support here and in other forums has been awesome. I'd have a hard time going elsewhere at this point. I have to say though living in the Chicagoland area that it's not super uncommon to see LR3/4 or RRS all over the place. It's still nice to wave at them when I do. I was pressuring my wife to dump the XC90 in favor of a LR3/4 because of the community support alone...I'm not winning that but I tried.my feelings regarding the vehicle I drive depend a lot on the community that develops around that vehicle, and a lot of the Jeep community (and the accompanying online rhetoric and attitude) is why I sold my Jeep and bought my LR4.
What you've described as a blessing is also a curse.
People inherently want to "stand out." Take something like the Jeep Wrangler, which sells over 230,000 units per year, and they become very common. I probably see at least 2 or 3 of them every day on my 4 mile commute to work.
Since it's hard to "stand out" in a Wrangler, people try to modify and accessorize them to make them different. Along with that comes a lot of god awful, ugly ****, and a certain percentage of people's ability to stand out becomes limited only by the depths of their poor taste. Angry front gills, add-ons that make the Jeep look like a mutant kitchen appliance, ugly ass wheels, etc. In my experience, people who gravitate towards that **** often have similar personalities. As much as I hate to admit it, my feelings regarding the vehicle I drive depend a lot on the community that develops around that vehicle, and a lot of the Jeep community (and the accompanying online rhetoric and attitude) is why I sold my Jeep and bought my LR4. Sure, that says something about me, but I hardly think I'm alone in this regard, especially when I'm sharing this tidbit about myself on an online vehicle-specific forum.
Land Rovers are much less common, and stand out on their own. I think it's probably a big reason why most of us bought one.
Generally, the audience self-selects to an audience I can jive with a little better.
That all said, I still consider a new Wrangler, Gladiator, or the new Bronco, just because the vehicles are so sweet. I just don't know if I want to dive back into the baggage that comes along with it.
This goes back to the point of...if you have LR3/4 and like it then the Defender isn't likely for you. If you bought a D5 thinking it was the evolution of the LR4 you might be interested in the Defender.
That said, I'll be driving the LR4 for as long as possible and am very interested in a preowned Defender in a few years. I'm at the stage of my car buying career that I'm pretty much done with brand new vehicles.
This goes back to the point of...if you have LR3/4 and like it then the Defender isn't likely for you. If you bought a D5 thinking it was the evolution of the LR4 you might be interested in the Defender.