New Defender looks good

OVERALL I like the look of the new Defender, which you pictured on page 9 of the August issue of LRM. I had been afraid it was going to look like all the other very similar-looking recent models (Range Rover Evoque, Velar and new Discovery) but it does look like a Defender, albeit one with slightly rounded corners.

My only reservation now is the large amount of technology I’ve heard it will be using. As all experienced Land Rover owners know, complicated stuff is what usually goes wrong first. The P38 Range Rover looked great when it came out in the 1990s, but by the time of the new millennium it was all going horribly wrong, which is why they can be picked up for such little money these days.

Hopefully the quality control on new Defender will be much better – after all, they have had long enough to sort it all out. How many years have they been working on new Defender? It is now three years since the old model went out of production, which is three times as long as it took the Wilks brothers to take the original Land Rover from conception to production. Those were the days!

Finally, having mentioned the P38 Range Rover, I have to comment on the one that used to be owned by Noel Edmonds, which was featured on the front cover of the August issue with the headline: “Why is this worth £450,000?” With due respect to its enthusiastic young current owner, I think that headline should read: “How can this be worth £450,000?”

Apparently it cost that much to build because it was equipped with the sort of cutting-edge technology that the successful 1990s businessman expected: fax machine, car phones the size of house bricks, etc, to create a mobile office. Unfortunately, it looks like something Mr Blobby would have created.

Back in the 1990s, £450,000 would have bought you 20 brand-new 300Tdi Defenders, which today would be worth about £120,000. I wonder how much that P38 Range Rover is worth today?

But, more importantly, I wonder how much a new Defender will set me back if I decide to treat myself to one this coming Christmas?