the_wolf said:

No its not. That's bollocks and you know it is. Why do slab front buses or trucks still comply with eu crash safety? It's stopped being sold here because there's no market for it. No ones buying them and like it or not LR are a business and like any good business they need to try and keep profits up. Continuing to hand build a very specific vehicle on a very specialised production line that can't be used for anything else is not economical. Especially when those vehicles don't sell. That's why. Bugger all to do with crash safety

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I agree that market forces have a fairly large part in it. People aren't buying them because by modern standards it's really not a very good vehicle and potential buyers know that.

But my point stands in that it's a big girder chassis with no crumple zones, very little rollover protection and a lump of steel on the front which is no way going to satisfy future pedestrian safety requirements. Land rover PR have said it's down to legislation so I don't see why you're suggesting that's bollocks. As to trucks and buses, they are entirely different vehicle classes and have different legislation around them.

There is a completely new defender in the pipeline though. I'd like to see how it turns out- hopefully a modernised, slightly less square version of the original that's just as capable.

I'm not going to hold my breath that the new defender will be anything decent