Agree with you there tacr2man......there's nothing more that can be done with the old mine Donkey, so its out to pasture with a plausible excuse for the old girl.
While its the end of an era, hopefully there's enough Series/Defenders around to keep parts production going for a long time to come.

Personally I am looking forward to what they come up with, (with some trepidation of course) I wont be selling my D90 - ever, but I am interested in replacing the Discovery in a few years - which to be honest doesn't get used off road much these days (I do that on Motorbikes) but it has done Stirling service over the last 7 years I've had it - always getting us through to our destination during brutal Winter driving conditions, where the side of the highway is often littered with abandoned cars and the Discovery has on more than one occasion, pulled Toyotas out of the ditches

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Grif

'11 KTM 450 EXC
'09 Suzuki DR650
'00 Discovery Series 2 V8
'95 Defender 90 300 Tdi Overlander
http://gipperstravels.blogspot.ca

........or production heading to India where Tata is headquartered?

I've often thought that would be an obvious idea, given the level of manual work involved in the assembly of Defenders.

All depends on whether India adopts the same vehicle construction / crash safety regs as the EU, I suppose - think their emissions ones are the same as the EU these days?

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I heard it was due to the front pedestrian impact issues.

It's sad, end of an era, but been on the cards for a while. Landrover have increasingly moved away from their commercial roots and into upmarket but unrelible and poorly made SUVs.

What they should be doing is producing something to compete in the 1 ton pickup market like the Hilux, maybe, and uniquely for the sector, combining it with a van body option, but I don't see that happening. They weren't interested in pursuing the new MOD contract and have shown no interest in producing a commercial vehicle as a worthy successor to the defender.

[QUOTE=moggy 1968;440054]I heard it was due to the front pedestrian impact issues. QUOTE]

Why can't people just LOOK before they cross the road?! Easier for everyone;-)

Sometimes I wonder about the sense in concentrating on just 1 end of a market. Toyota seem to manage fine just making utility AND high-end 4x4s and they probably make more money as a result....it's not as if 1 steals sales from the other.

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[QUOTE=ilesmark;440078]I think the other thing with Toyota is, what appears to be the same vehicle actually has very different specifications for different parts of the world.

In regards to building old Defenders in India/Asia. I don't think this will happen, not when the Asian car makers have cornered the market with Daihatsu, Hino, Isuzu, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Toyota and Tata - they all have a range of forward control utility pickup vehicles to sell, why put all that money into moving the tooling or setting up production for an old tech vehicle that is well overpriced and has a limited size load bed - even if the price was halved it would still be too expensive and too much of a 'niche' vehicle.



Yep, totally, you look at the North American POS we get here - the Toyota Tacoma (Hilux equivalent)- thirsty V6 petrol engine that struggles to get 24 mpg, the doublecab has a 140 inch wheelbase () and the cabin is still cramped - Utter piece of junk - but North Americans love their pick up trucks.

The South American Hilux's aren't much different to EuroSpec, though probably cheaper trims and I suspect less emissions guff on them. Ford sells the new Ranger in South America with the diesel engine, but in North America we get the old crappy Ranger with a 4.0 V6 gas guzzler petrol engine.

IF (and that's a BIG if) Land Rover are able to produce a decent mid size versatile pickup, with extended cab and roomy crew cab options, that DOESNT have a small Transit engine in it (id like to see something similar to the excellent Toyota D4D 3.0 litre engine) AND they can sell them in North America and a REASONABLE price, they MIGHT be onto a winner. Also, IF they are able to offer ROW spec vehicles with beefed up (live beam) axle suspension with simple trim levels then they MIGHT take a few sales from Toyota.

Unfortunately there are lots of variables in the above and what I think we will end up with is a plastic POS with independent air suspension and more electronics than you can shake a stick at. They might sell a few - and if its not too bad I might buy one - but no one in South America, Africa and most of Asia will touch one and I sure wont be overlanding anywhere remote in one.

__________________
Cheers
Grif

'11 KTM 450 EXC
'09 Suzuki DR650
'00 Discovery Series 2 V8
'95 Defender 90 300 Tdi Overlander
http://gipperstravels.blogspot.ca