Land Rover Experience in the new Defender
Discussion
A few weeks back I attended a Land Rover Experience at Eastnor Castle. While I've been around Land Rovers all my life, this was actually my first foray to one of their "Experience" centres. I opted for Eastnor, as it is a lovely place and I've trialled there in the past. I also thought it'd make a good day out.
Eastnor Castle is about 2 hrs away from me, all cross country and a lovely drive. My brother was accompanying me and we decided to go in my new Suzuki Jimny. Which incidentally was great to drive there and back.
On arrival the Jimny seemed to spark some interest at the gate. And a couple of other LRE reps also came and spoke to us about it while we were there. I think reinforcing the fact, many/most of them are 4x4 enthusiasts at heart. In the "staff" car park, there were only 4 Land Rover vehicles (maybe 20%). Although I find it interesting that 3 of the 4 were traditional Defenders. The remaining vehicle being a bright orange G4 L322 Range Rover. It would seem that none of the LRE staff actually run a 'modern' Land Rover.....
That aside, the site is lovely and well organised in these rather odd Covid times. Coffee and biscuits were available, before we moved outside for a drivers prep and then split into two groups. One of 4 cars and one of 3 cars (both groups also have a LRE lead vehicle and one following also).
The 'drivers' prep talk was without surprise somewhat of an extended sales pitch. Although I was a little amazed at the boarderline slanderous comments made towards Ineos and the Grenadier. I'm not entirely sure the chap speaking should really have been airing such views as an official representative of JLR.
Sadly no Defender 90's present, not even to have a butchers at. But quite a good array of 110's in various specs and trim levels. Using the online configurator I'd pick the green, although in the flesh the colour looks a bit drab and washed out. I did express interest that if I was buying I'd probably prefer something like a solid red paint. To which they said they could probably accommodate that at some point (assuming Autobiography of some kind. Although I hate to think of the cost of this privilege). However I did think the blue looked very good in person.
Our stead for the 3 hour experience was this matt covered one.
All the cars had a handheld radio in. So it was just me and my brother in the vehicle. What surprised me was, nobody asked at all if we had any off road experience at all.
After a short road trundle, we started out in a farm yard and drove through some wooded areas of the estate, with running commentary over the radio from the LRE guys. We were the group of 3 vehicles. With the LRE group leader also in a Defender and the one at the back in a D5. Once in the farm yard we were into low range, raised ride and Mud & Ruts on the Terrain Response.
While the weather was beautiful for us on the day, there had been torrential rain for many days previous. The tracks were very wet. The two Defenders in front of us were fitted with the optional all terrain tyres, while we only had the road biased rubber.
Obviously the 'Land Rover Experience' is a demonstration track to show off the vehicles. At no point should you really be in any real danger of getting stuck or worse. You can see all the tracks are dug out, prepped and have a healthy layer of hardcore on the base, i.e. plenty of traction for the most part.
That said, it was super wet in the wooded areas and the road tyres were pretty useless and even with the lightest feather touch of the throttle they would spin up and the TCS would kill the throttle. The 1st vehicle in our group (not the LRE leader) did manage to get stuck, but it was clear that they had never driven off road. So when I say stuck, the were going way too slowly on an uphill gradient. And as soon as the wheels span up, the backed off the throttle. The LRE chap soon guided them through. I was fed up of the throttle keep being killed by the electronics, it just didn't feel nice to drive. So unprompted I switched to the Sand mode, which stopped this happening.
We did get to play with the systems a little more. The cameras are pretty cool. But you soon get tired of leaning over and peering down at the middle of dash. As to do this, you have to completely stop looking outside the vehicle.
Another thing with the screens and cameras. It seemed very unintuative, you could click bits of the screen and it'd do something (even if you didn't know it would), but getting back to where you were was a lot harder. I'm not picking on the Defender here, but as a professional software tester I probably take more note of unintuitive software.
The rear view mirror camera is pretty cool. Although when in direct sunlight you end up with a ghost image of the mirror reflection, which makes it hard to see anything at all in it. In the darker woods it worked really well though.
About half way round was the most challenging obstacle of the day, a steep rutted decent. Obviously there to demonstrate the HDC. Sadly with it being so muddy and on road tyres, the systems really didn't know what to do and we basically tobogganed down the slope. On better tyres I think the HDC could have kicked in better or in the dry. I think the speed we went down the slope even caught the LRE guys off guard! No harm done though.
With a driver swap over to let my brother have a go, we continued on some gravel tracks enjoying the views and then onto the man made concrete obstacles.
All in all it was a really good and enjoyable day out. If you get the opportunity to have a go yourself, I would highly recommend it.
Eastnor Castle is about 2 hrs away from me, all cross country and a lovely drive. My brother was accompanying me and we decided to go in my new Suzuki Jimny. Which incidentally was great to drive there and back.
On arrival the Jimny seemed to spark some interest at the gate. And a couple of other LRE reps also came and spoke to us about it while we were there. I think reinforcing the fact, many/most of them are 4x4 enthusiasts at heart. In the "staff" car park, there were only 4 Land Rover vehicles (maybe 20%). Although I find it interesting that 3 of the 4 were traditional Defenders. The remaining vehicle being a bright orange G4 L322 Range Rover. It would seem that none of the LRE staff actually run a 'modern' Land Rover.....
That aside, the site is lovely and well organised in these rather odd Covid times. Coffee and biscuits were available, before we moved outside for a drivers prep and then split into two groups. One of 4 cars and one of 3 cars (both groups also have a LRE lead vehicle and one following also).
The 'drivers' prep talk was without surprise somewhat of an extended sales pitch. Although I was a little amazed at the boarderline slanderous comments made towards Ineos and the Grenadier. I'm not entirely sure the chap speaking should really have been airing such views as an official representative of JLR.
Sadly no Defender 90's present, not even to have a butchers at. But quite a good array of 110's in various specs and trim levels. Using the online configurator I'd pick the green, although in the flesh the colour looks a bit drab and washed out. I did express interest that if I was buying I'd probably prefer something like a solid red paint. To which they said they could probably accommodate that at some point (assuming Autobiography of some kind. Although I hate to think of the cost of this privilege). However I did think the blue looked very good in person.
Our stead for the 3 hour experience was this matt covered one.
All the cars had a handheld radio in. So it was just me and my brother in the vehicle. What surprised me was, nobody asked at all if we had any off road experience at all.
After a short road trundle, we started out in a farm yard and drove through some wooded areas of the estate, with running commentary over the radio from the LRE guys. We were the group of 3 vehicles. With the LRE group leader also in a Defender and the one at the back in a D5. Once in the farm yard we were into low range, raised ride and Mud & Ruts on the Terrain Response.
While the weather was beautiful for us on the day, there had been torrential rain for many days previous. The tracks were very wet. The two Defenders in front of us were fitted with the optional all terrain tyres, while we only had the road biased rubber.
Obviously the 'Land Rover Experience' is a demonstration track to show off the vehicles. At no point should you really be in any real danger of getting stuck or worse. You can see all the tracks are dug out, prepped and have a healthy layer of hardcore on the base, i.e. plenty of traction for the most part.
That said, it was super wet in the wooded areas and the road tyres were pretty useless and even with the lightest feather touch of the throttle they would spin up and the TCS would kill the throttle. The 1st vehicle in our group (not the LRE leader) did manage to get stuck, but it was clear that they had never driven off road. So when I say stuck, the were going way too slowly on an uphill gradient. And as soon as the wheels span up, the backed off the throttle. The LRE chap soon guided them through. I was fed up of the throttle keep being killed by the electronics, it just didn't feel nice to drive. So unprompted I switched to the Sand mode, which stopped this happening.
We did get to play with the systems a little more. The cameras are pretty cool. But you soon get tired of leaning over and peering down at the middle of dash. As to do this, you have to completely stop looking outside the vehicle.
Another thing with the screens and cameras. It seemed very unintuative, you could click bits of the screen and it'd do something (even if you didn't know it would), but getting back to where you were was a lot harder. I'm not picking on the Defender here, but as a professional software tester I probably take more note of unintuitive software.
The rear view mirror camera is pretty cool. Although when in direct sunlight you end up with a ghost image of the mirror reflection, which makes it hard to see anything at all in it. In the darker woods it worked really well though.
About half way round was the most challenging obstacle of the day, a steep rutted decent. Obviously there to demonstrate the HDC. Sadly with it being so muddy and on road tyres, the systems really didn't know what to do and we basically tobogganed down the slope. On better tyres I think the HDC could have kicked in better or in the dry. I think the speed we went down the slope even caught the LRE guys off guard! No harm done though.
With a driver swap over to let my brother have a go, we continued on some gravel tracks enjoying the views and then onto the man made concrete obstacles.
All in all it was a really good and enjoyable day out. If you get the opportunity to have a go yourself, I would highly recommend it.
Great pics. I'd be so tempted to cut the corners and burn past everyone to see what it can really do! Colour - I actually think the green (non-matt) looks great and the blue looks a bit depressing. Shame the 90 wasn't there though, would like to see some real photos and hear someone's opinion on it. For me a 90 commercial in green with off-road tyres would do it. Cheers for pics and write up
300bhp/ton said:
It would seem that none of the LRE staff actually run a 'modern' Land Rover.....
Not because they don't want to, it's simple economics. 
300bhp/ton said:
So unprompted I switched to the Sand mode, which stopped this happening.
Pity there wasn't an instructor with you as the recognised approach is to turn 'Off' DSC.300bhp/ton said:
On better tyres I think the HDC could have kicked in better or in the dry. I think the speed we went down the slope even caught the LRE guys off guard! No harm done though.
A little bit of throttle is the other way of retaining some control in this situation (even with the fitted tyres).300bhp/ton said:
All in all it was a really good and enjoyable day out. If you get the opportunity to have a go yourself, I would highly recommend it.
Indeed, Eastnor is an amazing place and you don't even need to be in a Landy to enjoy it.
M
There is an opportunity to see Defender 90, as well as 90 and 110 Hard Top at the preview events which are ongoing
You can book in here https://www.landrover.co.uk/vehicles/defender/defe...
Note that the two Hard Top cars on the tour are on different routes, so will not be viewable together.
You can book in here https://www.landrover.co.uk/vehicles/defender/defe...
Note that the two Hard Top cars on the tour are on different routes, so will not be viewable together.
Edited by 595Heaven on Friday 23 October 09:46
Good write up. Eastnor is great. Through various LR and RR products, I've done Eastnor, Peckforton Castle (tiwice, with overnight stay which is great if you can blag it!) and also the original in Solihull. They all have their charms, but overall I think the driving at Eastnor edges the rest.
It does surprise me how calm the instructors are at letting novices tackle the offroad. testament to the capabilities of the vehicles really. However, IME pre-Covid you'd always have an instructor in the car with you.
It does surprise me how calm the instructors are at letting novices tackle the offroad. testament to the capabilities of the vehicles really. However, IME pre-Covid you'd always have an instructor in the car with you.
300bhp/ton said:
We did get to play with the systems a little more. The cameras are pretty cool. But you soon get tired of leaning over and peering down at the middle of dash. As to do this, you have to completely stop looking outside the vehicle.
Another thing with the screens and cameras. It seemed very unintuative, you could click bits of the screen and it'd do something (even if you didn't know it would), but getting back to where you were was a lot harder. I'm not picking on the Defender here, but as a professional software tester I probably take more note of unintuitive software.
The rear view mirror camera is pretty cool. Although when in direct sunlight you end up with a ghost image of the mirror reflection, which makes it hard to see anything at all in it. In the darker woods it worked really well though.
I did the experience day in a quarry near Northampton and as a complete offroad novice I loved the cameras in the two cars we drove (Disco Sport and then Disco), just a quick glance down to see how close the wheels were to obstacles then keep driving, but maybe the layout of the Defender meaning you have to lean over made it less useful.Another thing with the screens and cameras. It seemed very unintuative, you could click bits of the screen and it'd do something (even if you didn't know it would), but getting back to where you were was a lot harder. I'm not picking on the Defender here, but as a professional software tester I probably take more note of unintuitive software.
The rear view mirror camera is pretty cool. Although when in direct sunlight you end up with a ghost image of the mirror reflection, which makes it hard to see anything at all in it. In the darker woods it worked really well though.
I know exactly what you mean by the unintuitive menu system on the cameras (I've got a DS), you can't even get that screen you show via the camera menu, it's only in the offroad menu...
Wife and I both hated the rear mirror camera screen and turned it off when we were driving, there was just something about it that didn't feel right but maybe it's something you get used to, our instructor said that most people find it weird and turn it off. But as I said, we were both offroad novices so extra "well this is weird" bits weren't helpful as we were concentrating quite hard! Similarly we didn't like the HUD on the Disco so turned that off too.
A 110 past me today and I was quite surprised how big/tall the thing is on the road. A 90 would look much better IMO. Hope LR at least decide to put the 250 engine in the 90. I still think the only thing that lets it down a bit is the rear styling - LR has had this thing lately about dodgy rear-end styling, again IMO. The rest of it looked very good though - especially seeing it approach me in the rear view mirror at what must of been 100mph 
Phooey said:
I was quite surprised how big/tall the thing is
https://www.tiktok.com/@forrestsautoreviews/video/...unsprung said:
Wow. Big bus. It's certainly got some road presence!Nice write up and pics.
When I bought a D3 years ago they sent me on the Experience using one of their cars not mine. It was an auto.
First thing all the warning lights came on and the instructor said that all the electronics were now off line so no modes etc.
Great, let's see how this thing really drives, I said.
He was well pleased and I had an enjoyable day.
It was a prophecy tho and my ownership of the D3 was ruined by constant electronic problems. It had to be towed home from both our summer holidays and when I finally sold it at just over 3 years old, I lost the most money ever on owning a car.
Still hurts 12 years later.
When I bought a D3 years ago they sent me on the Experience using one of their cars not mine. It was an auto.
First thing all the warning lights came on and the instructor said that all the electronics were now off line so no modes etc.
Great, let's see how this thing really drives, I said.
He was well pleased and I had an enjoyable day.
It was a prophecy tho and my ownership of the D3 was ruined by constant electronic problems. It had to be towed home from both our summer holidays and when I finally sold it at just over 3 years old, I lost the most money ever on owning a car.
Still hurts 12 years later.
croyde said:
It was a prophecy tho and my ownership of the D3 was ruined by constant electronic problems. It had to be towed home from both our summer holidays and when I finally sold it at just over 3 years old, I lost the most money ever on owning a car.
Still hurts 12 years later.
Shame that, because I had two D3's, one very early, the other around 2008 and both were great. Only had one issue, with EGR valve on latter car.Still hurts 12 years later.
Digga said:
Shame that, because I had two D3's, one very early, the other around 2008 and both were great. Only had one issue, with EGR valve on latter car.
Unfortunately, Land Rover has allowed its brand to sit at the very bottom of the quality rankings, year after year. It's an irony that is written about -- that Land Rover don't_care.
They're not just at the bottom. Land Rover have been ranked further from the "second worst" brand -- than the second worst brand has been ranked from the number-one.
Good news that you had a good experience with Land Rover. But it's difficult to believe that your experience is more typical than croyde's.
unsprung said:
Unfortunately, Land Rover has allowed its brand to sit at the very bottom of the quality rankings, year after year.
It's an irony that is written about -- that Land Rover don't_care.
They have severe organisational issues. The structure of the firm, the way so many are transient, rather than in roles for long term, is a critical barrier to quality.It's an irony that is written about -- that Land Rover don't_care.
unsprung said:
Good news that you had a good experience with Land Rover. But it's difficult to believe that your experience is more typical than croyde's.
I did not claim to be statistically representative. Digga said:
I did not claim to be statistically representative.
That's fine. There did, however, seem to be a need for clarity.
There's a tradition on forums that a complaint by person A is met with the exact opposite posted by person B. To indicate that person A has painted an inaccurate or wrong picture.
It seemed a disservice to allow the preceding to take root in this particular thread. (regardless if intended or not)
unsprung said:
Digga said:
I did not claim to be statistically representative.
That's fine. There did, however, seem to be a need for clarity.
There's a tradition on forums that a complaint by person A is met with the exact opposite posted by person B. To indicate that person A has painted an inaccurate or wrong picture.
It seemed a disservice to allow the preceding to take root in this particular thread. (regardless if intended or not)
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