First of all,
hate the design, it looks like a rav 4 school run wagon.
It looks to 'expensive' raising concerns about modular design and aftermarket parts, both fitting and cost of...
While it 'may' have serious off road performance, it strikes me that i dont think many people would take this off road as it has lost its rough and ready simplicity.
HOWEVER - there is some hope..
"Land Rover insists its next Defender will be a rugged workhorse, having ruled out moving it upmarket as a luxurious car that simply looks butch on the outside," says BBC business reporter Jorn Madslien.
and
"Land Rover can no longer rely on military contracts, so more promising markets might be in emerging markets such as Brazil, Russia, India and China, where working vehicle sales are booming in parallel with rapid economic growth that is predicted to continue for decades yet.
To succeed in these markets, a new Defender will need to be able to compete on both price and quality," says our reporter"
The second point is especially important, IF the defender is looking at emerging markets as a utility vehicle in the developing world, the i will need to be:
Simple
Repairable
rugged
reliable
Competatively priced
All of which if you ask me are hall marks of the land rover we all know and love.
The only exception to this is the pricing (i feel the Stealer price on a brand new TD5/TDCI is far higher that the vehicle warrants)
so potentially we could see a drop in price to make it economically viable in the developing world, and also to compete with the cheaper japanese utility vehicles that are growing massively in popularity