The SVA SCV8 LR4 Poll

[manoftaste]

...I don't think it was cheapness as much as there legitimately does not appear to be enough space to route it anywhere else. If you have found a routing, please post it up and I will have a buddy with a tube bending machine get after it.

Sure, but I have not really investigated it that much yet by looking under the chassis with that intent.

And I don't think its the cheapness on the engineering side. Also, I cannot really chalk this out to the engineering laziness either because the engineers at LR are responsible for some really amazing innovations in the past. I mean, the LR3 as a whole is quite a demo of what they can accomplish if allowed to do what they are capable of.

The cheapness is absolutely on the bean counters' side. I am quite sure if the engineers were allowed to R&D the re-routing of the pipes to fix the problem, they would have definitely come up with a solve, either pre LR3 launch or pre LR4 launch with having six years in between the original launch and the revision.

After all, this is the crew that came up with IBF, cross linked suspension, and the TR, all of which were quite unknown to the industry back then.

But here is the deal, the solve could have meant revising some of the chassis/frame design, while things still on the drawing board back in early 2000s, and/or relocation of the components underneath, and/or coming up with a completely new innovation. And all that translates to extra R&D dollars.

Given the fact that the engineers took the offroad side of LR3 personality so seriously that they actually went to the extent of creating a completely new class of chassis design (IBF) by fusing the two existing ones, I believe that the engineers probably did have a solution to this problem even before the LR3 launch, but it may have cost a little more to produce. So most likely the decision was made to cheap out with a secondary and quite mediocre option regardless of the fact that a very key offroad attribute called ground clearance was going to take a major hit, not to mention other potential real world complications while offroading.

And then they had more than a decade to fix the issue with an opportunity in between with the introduction of LR4 (which was not a minor revision or just a refresh/face lift), but they never bothered.

The point is that its all possible. You may need to revise the design of a thing or two here and there, whether its the chassis rails/frame around that area, a couple of components that are in the way of routing the pipes above drive shafts/diff, etc. It certainly is all achievable engineering wise.

But the reality is that alongside the desire to be on the cover of the Next Best CEO publication, both the necessary will and the passion about your own product(s) need to be there no matter how sufficiently satisfying the current statistical data is as far as the ROI. And unfortunately, I did not see either of those traits in any of the top brass executives I had a chance to meet and have a conversation with last year at a private event.

Currently at LR, its sadly all about maximum marketing and bare minimum innovation and quality which is quite reflective in the entire line of products including the new Defender.