The beginning of the end

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aaronmorris

aaronmorris

Head's a shed
Posts
6,369
Location
Doncaster
Well I guess it's the beginning of the end for the defender this week.
Apparently the last body off the line and will finally roll off the production line on Friday as the last one.
Sad, very sad..

last%20off%20the%20line%202.jpg


last%20off%20the%20line%201.jpg


last%20off%20the%20line%203.jpg
 
Yep, bit of a shame, I wonder if the very last defender off the production line will have some sort of ceremony etc.
 
Morning! Ill chuck my two penneth in early!
I am a LR owner, UK citizen for 52 years and now reside in mainland Europe.
Karls said:
Yep, all thanks to the EU. A sad day indeed :(
Click to expand...
Sad indeed, even more so because JLR didnt get their act together and replace it.
Very little to do with the EU! Have you looked at the Youtube vids of Defender production?
They are virtually hand built! Guys with rasps fettling panels! All very nice to watch but insane!
In typical UK style, lack of investment has now left people redundant and is yet another blow to our manufacturing base.
Yes a new model will come along, eventually, built in the UK? Who knows?
Why cant JLR build something akin to the army of Hilux/Ranger/L200,s? They exist very well in spite of the "nasty" EU!
As the USA car industry found out in the 70's, you cant rely on protectionist/isolationist policies to protect your industry from lack of innovation.
I would like to thank the EU for safer cars, NCAP tests, emission controls (OK touchy one that!)
So called EU laws often come from UK roots and get applied, as EN standards to rest of Europe.
UK Govt has say, as do all EU member govts over what the EU do, thats the point of being in the club.
When it suits them politicians love to blame Brussels for anything, if they think it will get them a Euro sceptics vote.
Cabbie said:
Yet another reason to vote OUT.
Click to expand...
We are IN, we should stay IN!
Pulling up the drawbridge and shouting insults to the rest of the World (not just Europe) will not get us out of the massive hole we are (still!) in.
The USA is not and never will be in the EU but it still has to conform to EU standards if it wants to trade with it, CE marking, safety laws etc.
The turmoil both political and social are not worth thinking about!
Anyway thats my personal view point, the decline in UK manufacturing and the EU are probably the only things I can be asked to get emotive about these days!
Mark
PS Above are my viewpoints, and are not intended to criticise any fellow forumites views however I may feel about them (the views that is!)
 
Last edited:
potus said:
Yep, bit of a shame, I wonder if the very last defender off the production line will have some sort of ceremony etc.
Click to expand...

Yep, massive shame, not sure about a ceremony, I was thinking they would want to keep the very last one, apparently roger Crathorne is to have it.
 
Tis sad but I guess kinda inevitable, I'm guessing the Fender has been a bit of a millstone around JLRs neck for a while, the iconic model it'll always be associated with but with far more profitable models rolling off the line and selling all over the world like hot cakes it hasn't made sense for a while.
 
markomate2 said:
Morning! Ill chuck my two penneth in early!
I am a LR owner, UK citizen for 52 years and now reside in mainland Europe.

Sad indeed, even more so because JLR didnt get their act together and replace it.
Very little to do with the EU! Have you looked at the Youtube vids of Defender production?
They are virtually hand built! Guys with rasps fettling panels! All very nice to watch but insane!
In typical UK style, lack of investment has now left people redundant and is yet another blow to our manufacturing base.
Yes a new model will come along, eventually, built in the UK? Who knows?
Why cant JLR build something akin to the army of Hilux/Ranger/L200,s? They exist very well in spite of the "nasty" EU!
As the USA car industry found out in the 70's, you cant rely on protectionist/isolationist policies to protect your industry from lack of innovation.
I would like to thank the EU for safer cars, NCAP tests, emission controls (OK touchy one that!)
So called EU laws often come from UK roots and get applied, as EN standards to rest of Europe.
UK Govt has say, as do all EU member govts over what the EU do, thats the point of being in the club.
When it suits them politicians love to blame Brussels for anything, if they think it will get them a Euro sceptics vote.

We are IN, we should stay IN!
Pulling up the drawbridge and shouting insults to the rest of the World (not just Europe) will not get us out of the massive hole we are (still!) in.
The USA is not and never will be in the EU but it still has to conform to EU standards if it wants to trade with it, CE marking, safety laws etc.
The turmoil both political and social are not worth thinking about!
Anyway thats my personal view point, the decline in UK manufacturing and the EU are probably the only things I can be asked to get emotive about these days!
Mark
PS Above are my viewpoints, and are not intended to criticise any fellow forumites views however I may feel about them (the views that is!)
Click to expand...

I like some of yours points, I think we should just stand up to the EU a bit more, have a bigger say and challenge them on more and then stay with the EU. Up until recently I was a great believer in leaving the EU, it's like a bullied kid leaving the rugby club, but a clever, tougher kid stays and wins them over, or is simply smart and beats them at there own game.

The UK manufacturers would still need to make everything to EU spec if we left the EU as we want to sell this stuff, we would NEED to sell this stuff and as a non EU member we would have a tougher time doing so as it was.

If LR brought out a new Defender in a non-EU member UK, would they just continue on with a similar Defender to what we know now we would be happy, perhaps, but we want to keep selling these vehicles far and wide. On Friday what we have becomes more collectible, and the Defender is going to go strong for many many years to go, we all just need to stick in at it and do good quality lasting repairs and try not to modify the hell out of them all. We owe it to the heritage of the Defender.

Take our electrical regulations, harmonised colours for different conductors is daft and has caused more injury and damage than good, who thought making a live phase black was a good idea? That is the EU imposing daft rules on us, why we didn't challenge it being an island I do not know.
 
Interesting one about cable colours, the UK got a bit left behind with colours and when most of Europe had adopted black for line/phase 1, we were still using it for neutral.
But we did get some input, we proposed using grey for one of the three phases and that got accepted.
Three phase into domestic boxes is very common in Estonia, so we have black, brown and grey, then blue for neutral, but we only get a 20 Amp company fuse!
Gets interesting when I want to do any welding! (note the gentle steer back to Landy business!)
Mark
 
My prediction; JLR will sell the rights and manufacturing plant to TATA or some other Indian company, and defenders will continue to be produced for many decades to come. Like what happened to Royal Enfield Bullets (and some brit cars) in the 1950's, they are still being made and sold all over the world including the UK. Nice to think that in 10 years time you might still be able to buy a brand new defender, with a chassis welded up in a Mumbai back street by a ten tear old kid. And it will break down just like a real one, only more often.
 
What's the vehicle that looks like a defender? The one with the twin headlights. They sell those in the UK. What about these 'new' old VW campers you see driving about? I don't think its the end just yet. The end of the way we know it, but not the end.
 
Wimblowdriver said:
My prediction; JLR will sell the rights and manufacturing plant to TATA or some other Indian company, and defenders will continue to be produced for many decades to come.
Click to expand...

Wonder if the likes of Santana would be able to get up and running again then!
 
I wonder how many Defenders will still be on the road in 100 years time.
There's no reason why at least 50% of total production will still be running. One thing's for sure, there will never be another vehicle like it.
By then we'll have run out of fossil fuels. But l am sure there will be a solution for that minor setback to Defender ownership.
 
Believe the model T Ford has gone out of production as well. They couldn't make the Defender hard enough to work on, so most have to take it to a dealer, like they can with modern shit. :D:D
 
lightning said:
I wonder how many Defenders will still be on the road in 100 years time.
There's no reason why at least 50% of total production will still be running. One thing's for sure, there will never be another vehicle like it.
By then we'll have run out of fossil fuels. But l am sure there will be a solution for that minor setback to Defender ownership.
Click to expand...

A bigger minor setback is we will all be on the wrong side of the grass looking up in a lot less than 100 years.
 
Ah well, Aaron's great great grandson will be in his garage, irritating his neighbours, building a hover-fender using the innards of an ex-council/green peace water emiting, zero-emission, solar-powered bin lorry or summat. And putting pics of it on here for the world to see:)
 
I did hear from somewhere that it was going to be built under license in small numbers for some markets. So theoretically, no reason why you couldn't buy one out 'there' (wherever that may be) and bring it to the UK as a personal import, just like you'd do with an American car. As a low-volume import, it doesn't need to meet type approval and only needs an IVA test.
 
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