2018 Land Rover Defender

[KidVermicious]

From a functional standpoint I have a feeling the new wrangler and defender are going to be quite similar. Somewhat long-travel 4-wheel independent unibodies. I think they'll be cool, but at that point I'd be seriously comparing them to side-by-sides.

That's what they're competing with, why not? UTVs and SxSs have taken a huge bite out of the market for a legit 4wd.

I don't know about other states, but here in Utah many of the smaller tourism-dependant towns and counties have legalized ATV and UTV travel on surface roads, taking away one of the last incentives for a sportsman or 4wd tourist to own a full size 4wd. The side by sides are here to stay, IMO, and Jeep is going to ruin the Wrangler trying to compete with them.

 

[Jetboy]

That's what they're competing with, why not? UTVs and SxSs have taken a huge bite out of the market for a legit 4wd.

I don't know about other states, but here in Utah many of the smaller tourism-dependant towns and counties have legalized ATV and UTV travel on surface roads, taking away one of the last incentives for a sportsman or 4wd tourist to own a full size 4wd. The side by sides are here to stay, IMO, and Jeep is going to ruin the Wrangler trying to compete with them.

Agreed. Jeep has done a very poor job of influencing NHTSA and EPA to regulate the side by sides off the roads. It could be reasonably easy to do at a federal level considering the influence the big 3 have there, but they haven't done much or anything to stop the growth of UTVs. And building a EPA and NHTSA compliant vehicle is that competes is practically impossible.

What I've always questioned was why we're not seeing more capable UTVs. They all still run on tiny little tires and that really limits the ability to get down many of the harder trails. For $20k, I'd think they'd get at least in the ball park of being able to run with a $20k tube frame buggy, but they're stuck on those little tires.

 

[KidVermicious]

I've seen little rock Razrs on 31s. For their length and width, that's pretty big?

But most of the really built UTVs I've seen are meant for sand. The guys running trails with them aren't running the hard stuff, for the most part.

 

[Rubberdown]

I have a 67 series iia and while I would love the new defender to look like an old one... But they aren't going to be anything like the old one so.... Be different