THE DEFENDER OF FOUR-WHEEL DRIVING

By Evan Spence 5 Min Read

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As you read this, sitting brand-new in dealer showrooms around the world is a vehicle which has   the uncompromising aerodynamics of a brick and door hinges akin to those on a shed. It has shared the same basic design since its inception, and its assembly and construction has more in common with a child’s playset than a modern, robotically-assembled vehicle. The Land Rover Defender is built by hand in England almost the same way it has been since it was introduced in 1948. On December 20th, 2015, after a continuous run of 67 years, the last Defender will roll off the assembly line in Solihull – with declining sales as much to blame as tightening emissions and safety standards.

 

We live in a disposable era where our vehicles subject to planned obsolescence, and our electronics are deemed old and outdated if they’re not the latest-and-greatest model. It seems after a long run even the Defender has also become a victim of its age. But with age comes acquired wisdom. Since rolling off the line in 1948 as the Series I, the Land Rover has progressively refined itself, with each iteration an improvement over the last. It has brought us countless four-wheel drive innovations, many of which we now consider essential.

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Off-road innovation at Land Rover continues to this day on models like the Discovery and Range Rover, but it seems to be for the sake of maintaining the brand’s heritage and key selling features, rather than building better four-wheel drives.

 

Land Rover’s technological gadgetry is nothing short of impressive, as evidenced by the performance and increased reliability of their modern vehicles. However, I’m not sure it can ever compare with the brute utility and simplicity of the Defender. I would imagine drowning a modern Discovery 4 in a creek would be much more painful than taking your 20-year-old Defender for a swim. But is the death of the Defender, the vehicle that built their brand, really the fault of Land Rover? Or does the blame lie with the general public and an advancing society?

 

With the exception of a few distinct locales around the world, there is virtually no need to have a utility 4X4 in day-to-day life. The places that still require a vehicle like a Defender are becoming progressively less wild each day as modern society encroaches, replacing dirt tracks with paved highways. The Defender is the “canary in the coal mine” for the future of four-wheel drives. Frankly it is impressive that vehicles such as itself and the LandCruiser 70-series, which is also running on borrowed time, have survived as long as they have.

 

When Land Rover decided to rename their “Land Rover” in order to cope with an expanding product line, it is ironic that they chose the name Defender. As time progressed and competition increased due to the expanding four-wheel drive market, the time-tested Land Rover became the theoretical defender of the market. The vehicle was, and in many ways still is, the standard by which off-road capability and utility were measured, for the Defender had always stayed true to its function-over-form heritage. It can truthfully be said that each generation of the Land Rover, concluding with the Defender, was more capable off-road than its precursor model.

 

It is the sliding scale of expectations that is most concerning. By lack of option, four-wheel drive enthusiasts are choosing softer and softer 4X4s, vehicles that place city prowess over off-road capability, and ride comfort over load capacity. Throughout its run, the Defender has relentlessly defended the notion of what a utility vehicle should be. When it’s gone, who will be the defender of the proper four-wheel drive?


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