Grumblings from the Land Rover "Defender" community, they want a Bronco

[GotWake]

The good news is the Range Rover crew can buy the Bronco as a "beater" vehicle.......

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[King Luis]

the people on the defender forums wanted a cheap tractor to work on a farm. they didn't want a new land rover defender. they just wanted an old defender from the factory with 0km on it.
i think they will be disappointed with the bronco as well because it has an electronic TC system and IFS.

 

[NCOBX]

the people on the defender forums wanted a cheap tractor to work on a farm. they didn't want a new land rover defender. they just wanted an old defender from the factory with 0km on it.
i think they will be disappointed with the bronco as well because it has an electronic TC system and IFS.

I mean you can’t blame them really.

This fits their bill, but I understand it’s not as good as an actual true defender...

https://www.roxoroffroad.com/

I’ve dealt with IFS for years, it has its advantages but when your actually pushing it even the best Setups require some upkeep to keep everything in spec. I can definitely get the desire to have a solid axle and have that many less moving parts and a stronger design.

 

[BuckeyeinNV]

the people on the defender forums wanted a cheap tractor to work on a farm. they didn't want a new land rover defender. they just wanted an old defender from the factory with 0km on it.
i think they will be disappointed with the bronco as well because it has an electronic TC system and IFS.

Exactly. LR killed the old Defender because nobody bought them. Appeasing a few loud people on the internet is not a good business strategy. Ford made a relatively small concession on practical off road ability to give it a better driving experience and plenty of people were still rage quitting.

The fact is Jaguar Land Rover is hanging on by a thread and doesn't even have a plant that can make a body on frame vehicle. Swinging for the fences with a G Wagon competitor would've been a massive financial gamble that could have ruined the brand if it wasn't massively successful.

So they took the safer route and build the most off road worthy unibody vehicle they could, for better or worse. They're probably not going to convince hardcore off roaders or pry a ton of Land Cruiser buyers away, but it will probably quickly become the best selling Land Rover and stay that way for awhile.

 

[NCOBX]

Exactly. LR killed the old Defender because nobody bought them. Appeasing a few loud people on the internet is not a good business strategy. Ford made a relatively small concession on practical off road ability to give it a better driving experience and plenty of people were still rage quitting.

The fact is Jaguar Land Rover is hanging on by a thread and doesn't even have a plant that can make a body on frame vehicle. Swinging for the fences with a G Wagon competitor would've been a massive financial gamble that could have ruined the brand if it wasn't massively successful.

So they took the safer route and build the most off road worthy unibody vehicle they could, for better or worse. They're probably not going to convince hardcore off roaders or pry a ton of Land Cruiser buyers away, but it will probably quickly become the best selling Land Rover and stay that way for awhile.

They’ve killed the brand Halo, it’s like having the Jeep brand without the Wrangler or the Ford brand without the F-series.

It’s not like they have a back up Halo vehicle to hold on to the brands heritage, they have a bunch of crossovers all competing for a small portion of a market they no longer have the “image” to sell in.

I honestly believe this will be the fatal blow to LR. They didn’t need to go overboard and build the most badarse vehicle, all they truly needed to do was build a new frame with crumple zones, make changes to the body to pass safety standards and drop us a truck with D44 axles and the Buick V8.

I mean the new defender is barely even a half effort, I sat in one at our auto show and was instantly reminded of a handicap van, there was no off-road pretensions to it, it was a people hauler first and foremost.

 

[BuckeyeinNV]

They’ve killed the brand Halo, it’s like having the Jeep brand without the Wrangler or the Ford brand without the F-series.

It’s not like they have a back up Halo vehicle to hold on to the brands heritage, they have a bunch of crossovers all competing for a small portion of a market they no longer have the “image” to sell in.

I honestly believe this will be the fatal blow to LR. They didn’t need to go overboard and build the most badarse vehicle, all they truly needed to do was build a new frame with crumple zones, make changes to the body to pass safety standards and drop us a truck with D44 axles and the Buick V8.

I mean the new defender is barely even a half effort, I sat in one at our auto show and was instantly reminded of a handicap van, there was no off-road pretensions to it, it was a people hauler first and foremost.

The Range Rover is their halo vehicle. Has been for awhile. They only sold like 15,000 units of the Defender the last couple years. A small refresh wasn't going to fix that. It didn't matter anyway, the machinery to build BOF was probably sold for scrap a week after the assembly line shut down. They literally would've had to build a whole new plant.

 

[NCOBX]

The Range Rover is their halo vehicle. Has been for awhile. They only sold like 15,000 units of the Defender the last couple years. A small refresh wasn't going to fix that. It didn't matter anyway, the machinery to build BOF was probably sold for scrap a week after the assembly line shut down. They literally would've had to build a whole new plant.

If you look up the story with that Grenadier that’s been posted several times on this thread you will see that LR was aware of the importance of the outgoing defender with general consumers. They knew that’s what the populace wanted, but instead of producing a product that got people excited for the brand they gave us the travesty we have today.

I will have to disagree on the Range Rover, I can’t say I’ve seen a new one of those in several years and I see more bentleys than I see old Range Rovers.

 

[MtnRanger]

I like this... wonder what the price range of this rig will be??

~£40k
It'll first be uk, then Asia, then US. Might be 2024 by the time it gets here. I'm getting the 2 door bronco for now but the 4 door Grenadier excites me lot more than the 4 door bronco

 

[NCOBX]

~£40k
It'll first be uk, then Asia, then US. Might be 2024 by the time it gets here. I'm getting the 2 door bronco for now but the 4 door Grenadier excites me lot more than the 4 door bronco

Works out to about $53k USD

 

[LOMartin]

I sold my LR4 on Friday which has traveled with me throughout the US and even MOAB trails.
I never thought I would go to anything other then LR but this bronco changed everything.

the bronco is everything the new defender should have been. Plus the freedom offered with the removal roof just makes things that much better.

 

[BuckeyeinNV]

If you look up the story with that Grenadier that’s been posted several times on this thread you will see that LR was aware of the importance of the outgoing defender with general consumers. They knew that’s what the populace wanted, but instead of producing a product that got people excited for the brand they gave us the travesty we have today.

I will have to disagree on the Range Rover, I can’t say I’ve seen a new one of those in several years and I see more bentleys than I see old Range Rovers.

I've looked up their story and see nothing other than LR attempts to block them from making a copy. Lack of interest and poor sales doesn't mean nobody wants one. It means they don't see well.

I don't know about NC, but here I see Range Rovers all the time. Not that how many you or I see on the street mean anything. Land Rover sold way more Range Rovers than Defenders when the last generation was around despite them being way more expensive.

 

[NCOBX]

I've looked up their story and see nothing other than LR attempts to block them from making a copy. Lack of interest and poor sales doesn't mean nobody wants one. It means they don't see well.

I don't know about NC, but here I see Range Rovers all the time. Not that how many you or I see on the street mean anything. Land Rover sold way more Range Rovers than Defenders when the last generation was around despite them being way more expensive.

Grenadier approached LR about using their tooling and their design on his vehicle, LR within days told him no and threatened a lawsuit. Which they ultimately lost. If they felt the outgoing defender had run its course they wouldn’t have turned down grenadier so quickly, and certainly not with that response.

Never the less on the Range Rover you would be hard pressed to find someone that would ever cross shop a Rnage Rover to The last gen defender, ones clearly an truck based off-road vehicle while the other is clearly luxury focused. Now the New defender seems little more than a stepping stone in the crossover pecking order.

 

[Darforce]

For what its worth, I was talking to a friend who has been a lifelong Land Rover fan. His father owned them, he owns a Defender 90, they've owned them for a long time, restored them, etc... He interacts with others in the LR community as well. We were talking about the Bronco, and how much we liked them. He said that LR had a great opportunity to bring back the Defender and they totally dropped the ball. Then he said a lot of people that had Defenders reserved, cancelled when the Bronco was launched, and reserved a Bronco. ?

I was sooooo excited for the defender coming to US. It’s so sad they took a really cool gp and made it basic and expensive.

 

[Zraver]

“The spec between a Bronco and Defender is so similar.”

What specs? The Broncos specs include the Body on frame construction, D44 solid rear axle, crawl gear on the manual, cast iron front diff, ability to fit 37s right off the dealers lot with front/rear lockers.
How many of those boxes can the defender check?

No ones honestly going to be off-roading a Defender, other than the old XJ Jeeps, no one is taking a unibody vehicle off-roading. And even on the XJs half of those unibody frames are so twisted up they require weld on exo-frames and the doors don’t line up.

LR could have built a capable off-roader instead they introduced something no more capability than a Subaru, only with worse reliability.

Some of us off foad unis....

 

[KSpider]

I grew up in a LR family, went to the National Rally for years, we had the NAS 110 and a few D 90s... I had a 97 Defender new and made a huge mistake selling it in 2001.

The 2021 Bronco is much more like the original Defender than the new defender is, that is why I am here and I cannot wait!

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