Company Car
A
s a car mad kid in my teens, this scribbler spent a lot of hours learning how to work on vehicles up the road at the garage of some friends who were rebuilding a pair of Land Rovers for a massive round Australia odyssey. Boy how we cursed some of the quirky British engineering of these old Landies. The mods these guys were undertaking included fitting a Holden red motor in place of the boat anchor Rover six the Landie wagon was originally fitted with. You could say we became awfully familiar with Land Rovers, and in fact the first ever vehicle this writer ever tested, back in 1983 was an original shape Range Rover. So,
060 www.truckandbus.net.au
there is a bit if history there. However, it has to be said we are far more aligned to the Range Rover and Discovery than we ever were to the old 110 or Defender, as it was latterly known. It was with some fascination that we watched the retirement of the old Land Rover Defender and the arrival of a whole new Defender to the howls of derision from the Land Rover traditionalists. The old Defender had to be replaced, it lived a long and full life, but it was well past its prime and had to be put out to pasture. The fact is it was a low yield model and could only command a limited price point. Most buyers of the old Defender will not contemplate one of the new Defenders,
and it is likely Land Rover is well aware of that, and doesn’t give two hoots, because it is after a different audience, willing to pay a premium for a new age, capable, quiet, comfortable and rugged off-road weapon with a hybrid driveline. Let’s face it there weren’t that many people buying the old Defender in the end anyway. The only thing we wonder is, will the new Defender, which has an air of the previous gen Discovery, cannibalise the Discovery market? Only time will tell. Remove all of that speculation and baggage and let’s concentrate on the test at hand. Climbing aboard the new Defender is a long way from the rattly, old-style Defender with its square panels and square rig
