Hall of fame
FIRST of all I’d like to congratulate you on a great magazine. Richard Hall is always my first port of call when the new edition arrives.
Regarding the new Defender, very disappointing. I was visiting the UK a couple of years ago and I went to the Peterborough Show, where Land Rover did a presentation of their pyramid marketing strategy. At the apex was the Range Rover, the luxury vehicle. Bottom corner was the Discovery, the lifestyle vehicle, and opposite that was the Defender, the utility vehicle.
The Defender conjures up images of military service, workers in remote parts of Africa, trips into the Australian outback, a vehicle for tradies, farmers and the like.
When the Range Rover was introduced it proved its worth in a trip along the Pan Pacific Highway via the Darien Gap. The back-up vehicle was a Series IIA (precursor to the Defender). When the Discovery was introduced it too proved its worth in the Camel Trophy event. Again the back-up vehicles were Defenders.
If this new Defender ever gets a chance to prove itself and it’s up to its gunnels in mud and has a hissy fit because a sensor has given up the ghost and the vehicle has dropped into limp-home mode, what will be the back-up? A lab technician with a laptop driving an old Defender/series Land Rover? The new Defender is just another lifestyle vehicle.
Richard Hall will be busy for a while yet. Rick Cook,australia
Our Richard will be delighted to hear he has a fan Down Under. We agree that utility Land Rovers have always been back-ups to their fancy cousins on tough off-road events staged or sponsored by the company. To your list we can also add the 2003 G4 Challenge, where a stunning fleet of orange Td5 Defender 110s did all the donkey work – Ed.