The two were like night and day and while the original defender looked sturdy with its boxy look, the new defender was futurist and modern in looks.
Fans of the old model, which was unbreakable and could easily be fixed with a simple tool box in the middle of nowhere, immediately started poking holes on the reliability of the new defender with some going as far as starting the new model looked fragile and prone to breaking down easily.
Business Insider Sub-Saharan Africa decided to set the record straight and got in touch with Jaguar Land Rover Marketing South Africa & Sub-Saharan Africa office through the Kenyan Inchcape Office to allay these fears.
Across seven decades of pioneering innovation, Land Rovers have earned a unique place in the hearts of explorers, humanitarian agencies and adventurous families across the world with its proven ability to withstand the harshest environments on earth, Jaguar Land Rover says the new Defender maintains this bloodline but goes an extra mile.
Don’t let the New land Rover Defender looks fool you
The stripped-back personality of the original Defender has been embraced inside, where structural elements and fixings usually hidden from view have been exposed, with the emphasis on simplicity and practicality.
Land Rover’s new purpose-engineered D7x (for extreme) architecture is based on a lightweight aluminium monocoque construction to create the stiffest body structure Land Rover has ever produced. It is three times stiffer than traditional body-on-frame designs, providing perfect foundations for the fully independent air or coil sprung suspension and supports the latest electrified powertrains.
“We have created the new Defender to ensure it is ready for anything, with a design that has been inspired by the past, not constrained by it. Its elemental grille, sophisticated surfacing and commanding stance give the entire family a modernity and confidence that set it apart, while simultaneously retaining the essential elements that make a Defender so recognisable.” said Gerry McGovern, Chief Design Officer, Land Rover.
To pass the durability test, the new Defender was taken through more than 62,000 tests for engineering sign-off, while the chassis and body architecture have been engineered to withstand Land Rover’s Extreme Event Test procedure – repeated and sustained impacts, above and beyond the normal standard for SUV and passenger cars.
During development testing, prototype models covered millions of kilometres across some of the harshest environments on earth, ranging from the 50-degree heat of the desert and sub 40-degree cold of the Arctic to altitudes of 10,000ft in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado.
Jaguar Land Rover says the new Defender is as technologically advanced as it is durable.
It introduces Jaguar Land Rover’s new Pivi Pro infotainment system while it is equipped with the next generation touchscreen which is more intuitive and user-friendly, requiring fewer inputs to perform frequently used tasks.
