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RIP Land Rover Defender

Doctor Damage

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,324
Location
Ontario

Bushman

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,138
Location
Joliet
I’m sorry. This makes me want to barf. Call it what you will, but it is not a Jeep. It is hard to express the depth of my contempt.

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/03/11/success/jeep-grand-wagoneer-reveal/index.html
Ever since vehicles started being designed for aerodynamics, they've all begun to look the same. These days it seems you get three choices:
-Pickup with big front end and small bed.
-SUV that looks like the aforementioned pickup, but no bed.
-4 door sedan

Regardless the maker, the models are all the same. It's a shame.
 

Doctor Damage

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,324
Location
Ontario
Ever since vehicles started being designed for aerodynamics, they've all begun to look the same. These days it seems you get three choices:
-Pickup with big front end and small bed.
-SUV that looks like the aforementioned pickup, but no bed.
-4 door sedan

Regardless the maker, the models are all the same. It's a shame.
I don't want to get off topic, but given that GM made pickups back in the late 80s early 90s which had nicely streamlined front ends with low hoods and huge interiors I find it weird and disappointing that all new pickups (from all brands) have front ends like commercial long-haul trucks. Do they have cameras in front so you can see if you're going to drive over a child or pet? Because I can't imagine seeing much more than hood when behind the wheel. Also, cabs seem smaller these days even as the trucks get bigger. I remember seeing several years back a photo someone took on the street of an early 1970s Cadillac at a red light with a modern-day pickup truck behind it and the Cadillac was dwarfed by the truck.
 

crawlinkingsnake

A-List Customer
Messages
419
Location
West Virginia
Remember seeing my first Land Rover sometime in the early 70's parked waaaay deep in the backcountry of the West Virginia Appalachian Mountains. (area today of course closed to all but foot travel) I was so impressed with it decided I wanted one right then and there. But it never happened. I did however settle on a 1976 Jeep CJ-7 and loved it until it finally wore out.
 

Doctor Damage

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,324
Location
Ontario
(click for larger)

land-rover-family-tree.jpg
 

Tiki Tom

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,398
Location
Oahu, North Polynesia
Now Jeep is floating an all electric 4X4. Puts me in a philosophical quandary. While I “get” that electric is better for the environment, will an electric powered Jeep have sufficient raw power to live up to the name of Jeep? I’m probably the wrong person to ask, because I have never driven an electric vehicle and don’t know the answer. Secondly, I would imagine that electric cars are getting better year by year. I shall try to set my stone-aged biases aside.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/22/jeep-unveils-all-electric-wrangler-concept-suv.html
 

Bushman

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,138
Location
Joliet
Now Jeep is floating an all electric 4X4. Puts me in a philosophical quandary. While I “get” that electric is better for the environment, will an electric powered Jeep have sufficient raw power to live up to the name of Jeep? I’m probably the wrong person to ask, because I have never driven an electric vehicle and don’t know the answer. Secondly, I would imagine that electric cars are getting better year by year. I shall try to set my stone-aged biases aside.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/22/jeep-unveils-all-electric-wrangler-concept-suv.html
My Dad was in the market for a new car this year, and was seriously considering the Electric Hummer. I personally found the advertised horsepower impressive for an electric vehicle. He ultimately went with a V8 Tahoe. The deciding factor was that he doesn't think there's enough electric stations available for an electric vehicle yet. Electric vehicles will definitely be the way of the future. They're becoming more efficient, cheaper, more powerful, and more common every year. I've seen more and more Teslas on the road in the past year than ever.
 

MikeKardec

One Too Many
Messages
1,157
Location
Los Angeles
Now Jeep is floating an all electric 4X4. Puts me in a philosophical quandary. While I “get” that electric is better for the environment, will an electric powered Jeep have sufficient raw power to live up to the name of Jeep? I’m probably the wrong person to ask, because I have never driven an electric vehicle and don’t know the answer. Secondly, I would imagine that electric cars are getting better year by year. I shall try to set my stone-aged biases aside.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/22/jeep-unveils-all-electric-wrangler-concept-suv.html

The issue isn't power. Electric delivers that in enormous amounts, you can make them super fast, they have tons of torque from rev one and, most important for off road, the "throttle" can be modulated very slowly to give you great control. What they DON'T have is range. Getting to the place where you go off road is the greatest challenge.
 

Tiki Tom

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,398
Location
Oahu, North Polynesia
Getting to the place where you go off road is the greatest challenge.

Yes, I was thinking about that too. Even if you can get to the Karakum Desert, what happens when you are a day into it and run out of juice? At least in a conventional off road vehicle, you can bring extra jerrycans of fuel. (Wild sci-fi thought: have they yet invented a portable solar panel that you can use to recharge your electric Land Rover in the middle of the Sahara? :p That would be something.)
 

MikeKardec

One Too Many
Messages
1,157
Location
Los Angeles
Yes, I was thinking about that too. Even if you can get to the Karakum Desert, what happens when you are a day into it and run out of juice? At least in a conventional off road vehicle, you can bring extra jerrycans of fuel. (Wild sci-fi thought: have they yet invented a portable solar panel that you can use to recharge your electric Land Rover in the middle of the Sahara? :p That would be something.)

I think there's a law of thermodynamics that precludes too rapid a charge. Batteries/capacitors may catch up someday as might some kind of super hot charging station. Electrics demand VERY little maintenance, which is good. I dislike electric vehicles, no romance, lack of privacy and autonomy (they tend to report on you more than other vehicles and the manufacturer can "alter" them remotely), but they DO some upsides. More than anything I appreciate how electric could, possibly, revitalize some classic cars, like the Citron DS. A brilliant vehicle, WAY ahead of its time but with a really second rate engine making it scary slow on today's highways. Retrofitted to electric (with all sorts of pumps for the suspension and the like) and it could outperform the SM, which is still slowish regardless of it's Maserati engine. It's not a car you'd be taking on coast to coast drives, so the range wouldn't be an issue.
 

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