H166 HUE The Last Defender

[ERNO]

http://www.lro.com/news/land-rover/1601/the-last-defender-has-left-the-building/

 

Never been mad on Land Rovers, never owned one or really desired one, but this was a fairly momentous occasion worth talking about here. What's your feelings about the Defender ceasing production in its current form?

[Richard]

Why does it have that stupid number?

 

 

[cobblers]

It's HI66HUE not H166. Just a normal 66 reg isn't it?

 

I'm talking shit

[anonymous user]

Apparently it's "a tasteful nod towards HUE166" the oldest? Series 1

 

or not so tasteful nod to huey, which is the sound of someone being sick

[Parky]

Shouldn't it be D701 SWL?

 

Sorry, someone had to....

[Junkman]

Is it going to be fucked up by the tossers in Gaydon?

[anonymous user]

I'm sorry to see them finish, yes there's a lot of things they're not, but I like them. It's incredibly labour intensive to build and the quality isn't all that, but being a versatile meccano set, easy to have loads of different models on the same base. I dread to think what the replacement will be like, it's a shame they can't keep the basic design and just make it more production friendly using moulded bits rather than rivetted.

[artdjones]

It should have been replaced 20 years ago.Maybe even 30 years ago.It was always profitable to make but the profits (in BL and Austin Rover days) were always taken away to reinforce failure instead of being ploughed back into developing success.

[willswitchengage]

Toyota still makes the land Cruiser 70 series. Buy that instead

[skattrd]

The last defender ... I really don't care.

[Richard]

Apparently it's "a tasteful nod towards HUE166" the oldest? Series 1

 

Surely it would be more authentic to just stick the HUE166 plates on it for tax and MOT-free motoring.

[mercrocker]

What I find sad is not that Defender  production has ended (not after 66 years - that is bullshit.  Not the same vehicle at all) but that it was still being made like that.   I am a sentimental, backward looking old twat but those aren't desirable attributes for a motor industry.   No, what is sad is that LR is not still a genuine world-class, world-beating vehicle builder and that there are no more proper Rovers.   I don't mean P5s or P6s, I mean proper, desirable, British cars full of British engineering talent which should have by now, 66 years of true development behind them.   

 

That's what I mourn, not the passing of something with the vague shape of the past that should have been, well, something else by now already. 

 

Anyway, I was out in the Cowley yesterday and on an otherwise deserted Forest road I passed a scruffy 1964 88 inch ragtop with a sheepdog on the middle seat.  If I never see sights like that again then, yes, I will be genuinely sad and feel like giving up.

[ERNO]

It being on an 'H' plate is slightly disconcerting isn't it? Just makes you think of rusty chassis and worn suspension.

[scruff]

The H is supposedly a nod to the year the Defender name was introduced.

 

It's all a colossal PR stunt, yes the 90 and 110 have been around a long time but not 66 years as noted above and it isn't the last Defender, it's the last Defender in the current form. A model change blown out of all proportion. 

 

It does make anon_user's beautiful early Ninety more valuable though... 

[Bren]

My concern is that it's successor will be technically superior but lack the robustness of previous incarnations.

 

What was wrong with 4 and 8 pot petrol engines? Thirst, emissions etc.

 

So they replaced them with diesel engines - increased complexity and not as robust.

 

My two pennorth.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Yes I believe that a BMW Mini has as much in common with a1959 Austin Se7en as a modern Defender does with a 1948 80".

My Land Rover credentials are probably as good as anyone's . Drove S1 at 11, pretty much always had some sort of Series 2, 2a , Rangieor Disco around since( currently only Mrs' Freelander 2, sorry).

Most of my family have at least one around, Fatha N was even trying to order a new Defender to keep his 54 S1 company in his barn whilst he drives one of two increasingly rusty 300 Discoverys around every day.

 

But , I don't like Defenders. The fact I don't fit in the fuckers probably doesn't help. After 26 years continuous production, with very little development or even trying to make them watertight,it's time to go.

 

And as for those hipster twats who spend fortunes on shiny black Defenders to rattle around Central London, I actually pity them, you can see in their faces the misery but they're to embarrassed to admit they bought the automotive equivalent of the Emperors New Clothes.

Proper Defender

Kahn Embarrassment

[MarvinsMom]

sad really about this, ok the current car owed very little to the original, just like the real mini which when it finished didn't have all that much in common with the very first ones.

 

i did have a look on the interweb last night though and it seems that good series models are going the same way, value wise as the mini has,which is a bugger as a nice series 3 would be my idea of a perfect thing to drive. i had hoped that one day a would own one but alas, it seems that is not to be....

[Junkman]

Toyota still makes the land Cruiser 70 series. Buy that instead

 

Yeah, the English are allergic to money anyway, so spend it elsewhere.

[ERNO]

[plasticvandan]

70 years and they only made 2 million?that's pretty shit.

[bigfella2]

One life - lived it.

[D Spares & Tyres]

Never really liked them except as a farmers workhorse, why the public buys them I'll never know.

 

Just a shame that's its legislation that's killed them in the end.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

I've always liked the look of the earlier ones, but bugger me, they were grim to drive. The pre-tdi Landies made my old '96 Hilux seem like a Rolls in comparison.

[Slappy]

Had to opportunity to drive a TD4 90 a couple of years ago on a jolly work related outing because there was the possibility of a deep puddle some steep terrain around my patch. Glad I've had a go.

[bigfella2]

Can't help thinking that all those people stood round in the high vis jackets are really AA/RAC patrol men just incase it breaks down coming off the production line.

[Rusty_Rocket]

It should have been replaced 20 years ago.Maybe even 30 years ago.It was always profitable to make but the profits (in BL and Austin Rover days) were always taken away to reinforce failure instead of being ploughed back into developing success.

 

Yes, this.  The 90 and 110 were an improvement over the series vehicles but the whole thing was so outdated by then, I'm really not totally sure who bought so many of them?

I have a 110 CSW.  It's a big vehicle, with quite a lot of interior space.  Yet my right arm crashes into the door when I'm driving, the steering wheel is in the wrong place and you need to do the hokey cokey to reach the window winder and hand brake.  In fact, I'm not sure they were designed* for a human being to operate them.  Just a few very minor changes here would have made the vehicles more usable, surely?

 

As above, I shudder to think what the replacement will be like- it is an almost impossible task.  No matter though, I'm sure the farmers around here will continue driving their Ford Ranger pickups 

[forddeliveryboy]

They should have spent money on developing decent underpinnings and left the interior as it was in the 60s. Late 'Defenders' (never got on with that moniker, it's crap) are things of horridness.

[HH-R]

Not really bothered either way.

[JayW]

I've only owned one Land Rover, a series 3 and only very recently. It was a cool thing to look at, but an awful thing to drive. My neighbour has a late Defender and it really is little better. But, I still mourn their passing:

 

I mourn that something so iconically British is dead. We make very little nowadays and like the original Mini, this is another chapter drawn to a close. (It's incidental that production of both stopped for pretty much the same reason).

 

I mourn it for the reasons it's dead: Europe. Emissions and pedestrian safety. Seriously, like the days of the "bull bar" haters, who gives a shit which bit hits you first if it's followed by 2 ton of steel! As for emissions, bollocks to them.

 

Some say Europe did it to us on purpose. Some say JR wanted to move on due to falling sales in a niche market. Alas, it matters not the reason, it's done.

 

Or, if you really want a new one, just order one from Santana in Spain, they've been building them for years and will continue to. EU rules you say? Just swap a couple of trim bits over and you'll barely notice the difference.

[sierraman]

Please tell me the new model isn't made in China. That would kill me the thought those fuckers had invaded the last British institution we had.