24-06-2022, 12:45 PM
(24-06-2022, 07:35 AM)Andy Bennett Wrote: Yes but Erik, that's sort of what i mean, the Subaru isn't American but is coming up in size to meet that need for a global car platform.
And jps, fair point yes I stand corrected I see your point on the SUVs that you need a ladder to get into.
I just don't understand the desire for ever larger cars. Houses are smaller, car parking spaces are smaller, suburban roads are tighter and fuel/electricity is more expensive and the apparent appreciation of environmental impact says smaller everything for all sorts of reasons.
If you did a survey on the future of cars it would be a drive to ever smaller vehicles, but apparently desire and the need to demonstrate buying power (even if borrowed) throws all logic out of the window when a significant proportion of the public sees something big and shiny and decide it must sit and block the road and pavement outside their new house because it won't fit in the drive let alone the garage.
I was looking forward to seeing the new Defender until I saw how big it was, just another overblown motorway SUV when it could have actually followed in its predecessors footsteps as a proper country 4WD capable of being driven down tight lanes without running up both verges at the same time.
Funny old world.
Land Rover basically lost all market share as a working vehicle when it discontinued the Defender without a replacement. Not that it had much anyway. The jap pickups being the favoured farmer conveyance for many years now. Mostly in crewcab form.
So the new defender was always going to be aimed at the Chelsey tractor market, for which it is ideally suited.