Profile of the iconic Land Rover Defender - New Influx Magazine

300bhp/ton said:

Have I said it won't? I just wish LR had thought a little more when owned by Ford. They could have nicked the modern hydro formed F150 chassis, strong axles, engine range and body tub designs. And modern production technique. All they would have needed to do would be to Land Rover'ise it for a bit more focused off road use and reduced the wheelbase to something more akin for the UK/Euro market.

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Thank goodness they didnt , it would have been a ford f 150 , which although a big seller in US is not a landrover feel vehicle , the lcrsr is nearer
having owned and operated a f250 in australia , adequate but so dated .
The current ford components are a bodge , driven by bean counters,not a technically driven advance .
You do seem to have a predilection to admire the american offerings, which is of course your entitlement , probably not shared that much on this forum .

blue beasty said:

Maybe not exactly but when the OP said the design has barely changed......which in a very fundamental way it hasn't. .....you responded by saying it was complete bollix.

Now you're complaining it didn't change enough....

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I think you'll find the exact phrase I quoted was:

"barely changing from its original post-war designs"

Ok, you can look at this in several ways. If you take the top down view of 4 wheels, 4wd and an engine. Then you are correct, it has barely changed. But such a view would be true of almost any vehicle.

The reality is, it has change, it's longer, wider, taller, heavier, uses different components. For me, "barely changed" would have to be the same thing, just with small differences, such as the classic Mini. That barely changed and many parts from the first and last years of production would be interchangeable.

An 80" leaf sprung Series 1 with the 1.6 litre engine in and drum brakes all round. Shares nothing with a 2015 TDci 2.2 litre CRD Defender 90/110 other than the badge.

tacr2man said:

Thank goodness they didnt , it would have been a ford f 150 , which although a big seller in US is not a landrover feel vehicle , the lcrsr is nearer
having owned and operated a f250 in australia , adequate but so dated .
The current ford components are a bodge , driven by bean counters,not a technically driven advance .
You do seem to have a predilection to admire the american offerings, which is of course your entitlement , probably not shared that much on this forum .

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Which F250? Not saying you are wrong, but there have been a lot of F250's. And yes, I'm sure there are bean counters, but the truck market is pretty competitive, so you simply won't be successful without being good. So dated, nope. They are designed to be working utility trucks with high durability.

In relation to Land Rover, the Defender's biggest problem, apart from truly being dated in specification. Is it's high labour intensive production. This comes from how the chassis & body are constructed and then fitted together.

Hydroformed chassis' are simply a better way to build them and stronger. Ford have nailed the production techniques to make the F-Series trucks hugely profitable. Yet they are still body on frame (ladder chassis) vehicles.

LR should have used this. As for the chassis itself. Well in cost terms I'm sure it would have been a lot cheaper to simply alter the wheelbase of the F-Series, than try and start from scratch. And keeping the other dimensions the same would just make use of other parts easier. Lets not forget JLR's current engine range (bar the AJ-V8) all hails from Ford origin.

Axles, well we all know the LR ones are rubbish. Ford uses their own and Dana ones, all good axles. So why not?