Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, listening to the AllTalkArt podcast live drive. We're in something special joining me tonight, he's Andrew Smirness, you might remember him from the Seema shows, my Seema bait, my electric cart buddy, we get around Seema so he brought over a surprise. We're inside a Land Rover, Land Rover Defender, what exactly are we driving, why is it? Well good evening, Peter, good evening listeners, yep, I've been here to everyone.
This is the new Land Rover Defender, the 110 series, it's the larger one, the four-door one, and it's the three-liter straight six petrol engine vehicle. So they're coming two sizes, is the smaller one a two-door? Yes, it's the 90 series. 90 series of two-door, and this is the four-door.
It is. And it's in like bright white, it's like the widest white I've ever seen. Fuji white, Fuji white, is the color of the roof. And it's got all the black bits everywhere else, it's got the contrast, the black roof, black wheels.
Yeah, black wheels, black lettering, black headlights, surrounds, black tailgate, so it's got that two-tone look about it. And it's got the black, the windows are dark and in black, but you've got a couple of podcasts episodes ago, I first saw my first defender on the road live, one of them had this suitcase behind the rear window, behind the sleepiller. So this one, you didn't get that option, but it's got the white sort of metal. Apparently that's supposed to be something that helps the structural nature of the vehicle as well, but yeah, they use the zenka points for some of the accessories like the ladder that you can get.
Yep. That fixes onto that particular space. It's a good service. Yeah, it serves a purpose.
It's unique to Land Rover, some people like it, others don't, some people like it. I don't mind it. I don't mind it. I'm the same, I think it breaks up the car and it makes you have a second look at it.
Alright, we're going to crank it up now. So it's digital dash. It's not your typical sort of Range Rover Land Rover set up. I mean the dash is familiar fonts.
It's the digital dash and I'm sure you can configure it to a thousand one different ways. But the actual nav screen, the center screen, it's just, it's sort of bolted in because the way these cars design, I've taken photos as well. It's sort of, everything's got a purpose. A lot of, oh, Jesus handles for the forward driving.
But the screen's sort of like, it's like it's being wedged in. Like it doesn't look bad. It sits in place, but it's not just wall to wall screens and where your, the latest discoveries and evokes and they've got another screen built into the built-in. It's still got the old school push button.
It's like they know that this is designed to go off road. So we're going to crank it in drive. And we're going to, I'm now heading off. And we go.
Do a U if you want to. Do a U if you want to drive that one. Actually, because don't go straight ahead and we'll go left and left. Alright, so, okay, it's pretty.
It's sitting up high. You're sitting up high. It's, you know, you're in an SUV of such, but it's very quiet. Very, the steering is very mild-mannered.
Trying to never get my way outside of the car park. And we're going to hit the open road. Do we get down? So I think, yeah, we're going to, yeah.
If I was to go over a fence, mate, it's jumping mode. There's a minute and one. We might as well talk about it now. I mean, we're not full driving yet.
But there's, um, don't lift. There's a lot of full drive mode here. It's not full drive only and there's no variations to it. So at the moment, it's one constant all drive?
Yes. Okay. And... Constant four wheel drive?
What I found that I liked about it straight out of the box. Basically, it was the fact that it, it drove like a car. To me, you're not like a truck. Yeah.
So, it's only to use. I just felt it really easy on the steer. It drives and feels smaller than the size is. Yeah.
We are sitting pretty high and it doesn't feel like I'm driving up your car. The steering is very direct, very light. That's the main road now. Link is on the left.
Yes. And it is the only car that holds my microphone in place. We just got plenty of bloody cubby holes and everything's made out of rubber. Everything comes off.
Everything's got a purpose. It's designed to clean out when you get this thing dirty. Definitely. So we're in now.
Um, yeah, it doesn't feel like a pecan. It's almost gone. It looks like, it reminds me of the FJ Cruiser that Tioda, but not as claustrophobic. It's, it's, it looks like a shallow sort of width down height.
It's just sitting quite high, but it is very wide. Um, it makes us quite, you can't even anything. No. It's not in Brisbane as well.
Look at the quietness of the engine. A lot of power, deep power. I'm happy that I chose this in the post of the diesel. Yes.
So they came out initially with the four cylinder diesel, which I believe they've dropped. Yes. Already. And what, is there a six cylinder diesel?
There's six cylinders coming out in different variations. But this one is a supercharged turbo with a mild hybrid component to it, which the specs I feel is a little bit more of. It's almost eliminated too, but they're completely. The electric hybrid acts to power the supercharger, which powers the turbos, which gives it an instantaneously throttle response.
And we're on a road that opens up a bit. Yeah, it goes. I mean, it's a slight, nice sound to it. I've not had that came across.
I mean, it's, it's no sports car. It's not going to rev out or, um, but it does accelerate out of trouble. It's not heavy and slow, like probably an older fender. It does want to go quickly.
It revs really, doesn't it? And I know Andrew earlier, I did hit it off the traffic light more pre, which he went. So it does, does go up a dance. The dials are very clear.
You can change the modes, I guess. Yeah, you're going to have multiple dials. Like I use that one with a big tag out in the middle. Yeah.
So the screen up into three parts. Navigation, trip, computer, and all that. Yeah. It fuels something.
Yeah. You've got traditional dials. You've got a full navigation. If you want full navigation.
Ah, the map in the front. Yeah. Yeah. Ah, it's got your usual apple car plane, things like that.
But the nav. Just, it's just, it's, everything's being designed. We did a walk around a bit earlier. In the tailgate, you can let it prop and sit at different angles.
Yeah. You don't have to just spin out more clothes. It's got the old self-close system. It might be the other class works.
Yeah. We just shut it. But the other feature that I loved, and I think a lot of them do shopping, or even when you go out camping, there's a button next to the tailgate where you can lift the car up and down. Yeah, lower and raise the rear of the car.
So if you've got shopping or you want to carry something bulky at waist height, so you don't have to bend over or lift it up. Yeah. You can pretty much level it at the where you are, and just slide the heavy packing out or any equipment. It's amazing.
That also works well from a towing perspective. When you're reversing into a trailer or a caravan, you can raise and lower your tow bar ball to the height of the standing trailer. So you don't have to raise a lot of car. The trail pack.
That's an option. Yes, it is. Although you can lower the suspension from inside the car as well as you're reversing back. Yeah.
So that your ball effectively fits under your tow car. It's still a little bit of a trailer. Yeah, yeah. It's sort of winding up the trailer.
Yeah. You know, jumping the car out of the car. You can just do all of the one go and then just get out of the car, plug in your electric slot off your go. And the other thing I noticed was the screen were playing with the four drive things earlier.
And it shows you on the screen how high or low the vehicle is in meters. Yes. So if you're in a car park, you know they've got the height of it. You can lower it to whatever level it's the design level in order to.
If it is in it as you're approaching. Yeah. You can just raise and lower it to suit. Yeah.
So that's it. So if you think it's just designed. Ross, I don't know why he hated your Range Rover Sport. But these things drive really well.
Everything's got a purpose. Everything's designed for it to work. It's very impressed. Usual Range Rover Land Rover options galore.
Yeah. How was the shopping experience? Did you get the gouger at the pump? Oh, well, look, I'll give a plug to our country dozens.
I bought this out of Dubbo Land Rover. Yeah, plug away. It was a pleasure to deal with country people. No hard sells, completely sort of upfront, honest, reliable, truly worth.
They told me what it was going to be ready for collection. It was ready. It was clean. It was full of fuel.
They gave me a fantastic introduction to the car. No, this is the handbook. Sell off. Yeah, you're ready.
So the customer experience from a fashion. Yeah, it's a fantastic. Yeah, it's a fantastic. It's a fantastic.
It's a fantastic. So it's a fantastic. And they took pride in delivering the car, which I found quite refreshing. Great.
And you've bought a lot of car cars. But in your full, I'm not going to go through your car history. But your full drive history. You've had a range of cars over the years.
Yep. I've never even had a Land Cruiser. What was the series Land Cruiser was that? It was a long before the car.
It was a long before the car. Two, one hundred. Uh, I've had pajero's. You've had this RTG.
I have. Um, yep. So, I mean, where does this fit in? In or?
In... I like this compared to everything else. I love it even more so because my wife loves it. Okay.
She got in the car and didn't feel overwhelmed by the size of it. As you can see now, she's driving it. It drives like a car. Oh, it's excellent.
So she took to it straight away and she liked it. And I was happy she liked it makes my life easier. Yeah. I mean, in parking though, there's cameras galore.
And there's another feature that must be like a fisheye lens. But it's as if the camera's two or a meter away from the car. They've put the image of the car and you can see as if you're standing a meter away from the car. And the other, you know, back to the full drive modes, another feature you showed me earlier.
It's got the cameras are designed, so if you're in full drive mode, in off road mode, the cameras are on the side and it gives you an image both on the dash in front of you and on your set of screen as to where the rocks are located. So if you need to navigate your way through a trail where there's a shrub or a cliff edge, you know exactly where your tires are. Exactly. So you could just focus on your steering.
Knowing that you're getting real-time vision of exactly where your cars wheels are going. Which I've never seen before. I mean, my guitar didn't have that entry. Back in the day.
It's just some, like it is, this is a 21st century defender. I mean, it is like the second generation, but made, have they jumped into the 21st century with this car? There's another image on the camera. I'm just trying to remember what else there was.
The Ford, the off-road mode. Oh, the waiting. The waiting. The river.
So if you are, so there's another button, and one end of what's done is if you hit a button, it even prompts you what mode you should be in, and what else you can do in order to set the car up. And there's another mode where if you want to go through a creek or a running water, it's more river. Yeah, it will show you how, there's a maximum depth you can go. But if we were to go in water, it will show you on the screen where the water is up to it.
It'll give you real-time live reading and show you the height of the water you're driving through. Yeah. So this, in its optimum or highest waiting mode, it's 0.9 of a meter of water. Which meets every other car, jeeps, tweet out, etc.
But if you start going in and it starts the creek on past the point nine, you can see visually and stream, it's not been your reverse out. It's loud. Yeah. You don't commit this on the fine, it's all stuck.
So I'm just, I mean, you're planning to use this, what it's designed to do. Yeah. Great. No meeting.
Yeah. You're about to stay with it yourself last first. Yeah. Just a practice run.
So they work your way around the country. You've travelled the country with your previous business, so you know your way around. So there's another feature that I love. It is cars loaded.
And these aren't objects. These are pretty much standard, they're what we're talking about now. The review mirror. So if you've got people in the back seat blocking if you, or I don't like each deck to the roof, I'm just fighting with the steering wheel about the lane.
That's just, yeah. Or you're stacked at the back or even, oh, we're going over a trail. I've got a boat. You probably to an extent, you hit a button in the review mirror and you get a, it's like a TV screen.
You've got a screen. So the camera I think you've got that too. I've got that too. I've said it for the first time.
And is it, how is it? Did you find it? I'd say distracting, but I'm trying to sort of toy with which I prefer to see the camera vision or to see the standard review. Yeah, the natural, yeah.
The camera vision is so clear a picture. That it is very, very enticing to run without a lot of time. That's not the, yeah, the figure. Has a little camera.
Yeah, it looks like a... Yeah. So, no, it's just, like, again, it's been thought out. This car's been designed.
Everything's got a purpose in it. You can take the floor mats out. Everything's rubberised. I'm sure there's a luxury version of the property carpet and not...
I think they've all got the plastic floor. Oh, they do have it. Oh, okay. So you can go with either carpet, which most people would not use because of a cleanliness aspect of it.
I've got some factory rubber mats. But the idea is, yeah, you jump in, you jump out mud, ruts, whatever, and just hose it out. Yeah. I am very impressed with this car.
The back door's huge. There's a lot of space in the rear. You can fit a family fight in this comfortably. Do they come with a 7C?
They do. They do. They do. I'm not really interested in that.
The two in the back, like, Mo 7C, there's really young kids. Yeah. So... They're more emergency seats.
And I think there's plenty of space for luggage, but if you put those 7C's up, you've got no... Yeah, the luggage space in the back door. It's pretty small. Yeah.
So, mate, I'm very impressed with these vehicles. Pete, this gives me a lot of confidence. They cover a lot of kilometers in our country on our roads. I hope I put the water on the locker.
I hope it just feels like it's a solid, reliable, modern, comfortable car. Well, there's no squeeze or rattle so far. You've got something. Yeah, something...
It's solid. It feels it. You can tell. You know when you're driving a car, that doors go clump the right way.
At the moment, everything... It's together properly. I'm very impressed. I'm glad you backed up, I thought.
Yes. Yes. Price. Around.
Oh, look. Options are what kill you, but for this model, which is the P400, which is roughly 400 horsepower, P400 SC, they come in three grades, SC and HSC. Yeah. This one's recommended, I think about 128, 2930.
And then, of course, you throw the options on it. But like you see, this model comes with a lot of stuff, like that revision... So that's the only thing on the SC. Yeah, this is the...
You're getting it around a bit. There you go. That's right. Yeah, that's right.
Okay, through it. It does move. I want that properly. That's right.
All the sort of reviews I read on the YouTube that I saw, all the experts in the gurus were saying the SC was the one to hit. Yeah. I... Yeah.
All right. I think all right. I think it's... You guys, that's a 5 year under, okay.
Worrying already. Yep. Fixed price servicing on it. And the looks, we mentioned we had a Harley come next to us.
And he's sort of turned his head around, I think he made. Because he's sped up, he's slowed down in your blind spot. I think he wants to go up too. He's having a good look at it.
He turned his health and he's just keep making your bike. But it is a head turner. It is a unique car. The defenders have always been that way.
It's never got the middle strips. I asked you with it on the bonnet. It's got some like a metallic tread plate. Yeah.
You can't get on it again. That's just a... A tribute to the old defenders. Yeah.
And it's a middle plate. So you can stand on the bonnet on those plates. This is more for show. But just pick up on some of the older traditional defender iconic sort of cosmetics.
Yeah. Well, Nate, thank you for bringing it along. I was excited to drive it and it has not let me down. Thumbs up for me.
I think that's it. Right. Thumbs up. Good.
I'll take that. Yeah. I reckon I guess on the show over now, that's how I'm sure we'll get some updates. Uh, until our audience out how it's traveling, I mean, it is one of the first ones in the country.
And there's a big demand for them. And it holds its value. It's one of those unique vehicles. It's iconic.
Yeah. And I think, you know, so far it's going to hold up the reputation of the iconic nature of the defenders. And, and, and fingers crossed that they've, I mean, this is your first trip, you know, into a rain drive, or the land drive, I don't know, because you... Yes.
So fingers crossed that it's... It's, it's, we've heard about Ross's car and then, you know, sometimes the media can wipe off a lot of the issues. But, um, let's hope they've, I really given it a good, uh, good go in the build while in this thing. So, um, the way it is, I think it should, should work.
Can I just say that the YouTube video that really, uh, reinforced in my mind, it was worth a go, was a test drive, I think it was three or four days through in Namibia. Yeah. They took four, four, four defenders, and they absolutely hammered them and punished them through all these different types of surfaces. And the commentators all came back and said they were just soaked.
Yeah. And that was a pretty tough test walk. Yeah. I think, well, the discoveries, I think, I think with this model, I think it might cannibalise the discovery.
It's a lot trendy. The, uh, the phalars a bit, it's like very suburban. It's, I think they've got the design right. It'll still be popular for the suburban run, but it also will work out in the outback or out on a track, one of each.
So good luck with the money. Happy travels. Thank you. You've got a long trip tomorrow down, uh, it's Monday down the South Coast.
So we'll check in with you and see it goes. Yep. Happy to keep reporting back. Yep.
And we'll put everything up on Instagram and send me some photos down if you do your off-roading. So I'll put some photos up of the unique little design features and, um, follow, yeah, follow us on Instagram. Ratus review us. Thank you for listening.
And this is another live drive and we'll talk to you again soon. Thank you. Bye. Thank you.
Bye.