I have a customer who told me he hasn't even unzipped his awning bag in over 2 years
For a second there I thought 'awning bag' was Queensland slang for something...
I have a customer who told me he hasn't even unzipped his awning bag in over 2 years
I agree, puzzled me why on the old Defender you got electric front windows but manual winders for the rear seats - and the manual winders seem to have an excess of backlash such that they always drop a few mm over time.I have no problem manually winding up a window. Less electrical stuff to go wrong. I admit controlling the rear and passenger windows electrically is handy, but I don't need the drivers window to be electric.
Did they retrieve the body?This is the equivalent event for the launch of the new Defender in Namibia:
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People try physics defying stunts...and generally failThey winched him out later:
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They winched him out later:
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I think the photo amply illustrates that the water was nowhere near the wading depth in the one place that the metric has real significance ~ at the actual air intake.
It's the wading equivalent of sawing a person in half ~ mostly an optical illusion. The Grenadier was acting as a mobile breakwater so there was never any chance of any of those waves getting into the air intake.
It was not by chance that they drove in the direction they did. Nobody came back the other way.
I'd respectfully disagree. The type of journalist that gets invited to these events rarely bite the hand that feeds them.
At the new Defender launch in Namibia, one journalist broke a lower control arm, and they had to do a bush repair by cutting up a high lift jack (score one for the hi lift jack supporters) but not one of those on the trip mentioned it in copious online copy. It wasn't until well after the event a few photos leaked out:
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The TFL example is a case in point, in that they were spending their own money on test vehicles and so had complete editorial freedom to say what they want. I don't think they get invited to many manufacturer press days.
I struggle to call this a "proper" wade; but probably in a different sense to that in which you are suggesting. Yes it was a reasonable depth, but it was entirely an artificial wade in the sense they didn't need to do it to get anywhere. Evidenced by the fact you could see they returned by driving along the beach/foreshore.
If a group out there for a weekend drive did this, it would be labelled as irresponsible at best and possibly subject to legal penalty.
"Dirt, brake dust, traffic film residue and oil that is washed off are all pollutants.
Any cleaning agents you use (including those labelled biodegradable or traffic film removers) are very poisonous to river/marine life. If you cause pollution, you are breaking the law and spoiling your environment." quoted from the UK Environment Agency pollution prevention guidelines.
This is the equivalent event for the launch of the new Defender in Namibia:
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I really like that color combination. May have to switch to that, from silver with a black roof. That assumes, of course, that Ineos offers the same colors in the US when it arrives here.Nice bit of axle articulation:
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I'm happy to be a cheerleader for Ineos but this wasn't anything really worth cheering about and actually completely jars when you add in the deliberate and unnecessary pollution.
Where's the tread lightly message?
It was good; it was the “Ninety” I believe. The Defender name was not attached until the Discovery came along. Awesome commercial and one that Richard Hammond replicated. Er, sort of.I want to see one winching itself up a dam. That advert/commercial alone sold me on the series3? Or was it the “new defender” when I was a kid.
I want to see one winching itself up a dam. That advert/commercial alone sold me on the series3? Or was it the “new defender” when I was a kid.
They aren't wrong, it's just an opinion. I'd also prefer a setup closer to a street legal Mahindra Roxor in the shape of a defender. It seems pretty clear if you compare the two that the grenadier is more "technological" than it needs to be.This was my thinking too -- first, I was really pleased to see that snorkel or not, the wading capability is pretty good on this rig. But then I also look at it in the context of the entire event. This is by far the most important event Ineos has done -- every major journalist in the world of automotive news will be taking this Gren through the paces and, based on what we've pieced together, on February 8th those opinions will be revealed to the world. That's VERY high stakes; imagine if even just one of those journalists ended up "dead in the water" due to water ingress into the engine (or any manner of other issue -- electronics for instance); this would be the equivalent of TFL Trucks' Defender saga which I have no doubt firmly hampered JLR's sales of the new Defender in North America. For a rig like the Grenadier, it would be very hard to come back from those first impressions. If you look at discussions on other forums, there are already people lamenting that the Gren is "unproven" and "too technological" by a company that has no automotive experience -- nevermind Magna's involvement, or that there is a minimum amount of technology required by regulation, or that it's using parts from proven collaborators; that detail is not something the general public (even the general 4x4 enthusiast public) are aware of, and so bad press on this first launch has the potential to be a disaster. In this day and age, a viral Tik-Tok/Instagram/Reddit disaster.
But, Ineos has taken Snorkelled and Non-Snorkelled trucks through a proper wade -- not the most difficult one in the word of course, but it's a far cry from the artificial stream/mudpit dug with a backhoe that the JLR experience provides folks when they launch a new rig. There's way more real-world variables in what Ineos is doing on this demo trip -- the car ahead could dislodge a large rock, leaving a pothole that causes the following Gren to drop a fender way below water level; a Journalist can get a bit steer-happy and go into deeper water; even day-to-day conditions on the lake can change the depth of that water crossing (i.e. higher winds). So, over the course of several weeks, Ineos is doing a regular real-world water crossing that comes close to threatening the max wading depth of the rig (and far exceeds the "approved" wading depth of all but a couple of other cars on the market).
The point of all this rambling is: If I were a decisionmaker in Ineos, I wouldn't be going near that kind of a water crossing unless I was supremely confident in the vehicle. The risk of damage from any kind of failure is too great, and this abundance of confidence I think says more about the rig than the photos in the water do.
And, I still want to know how these things drown, because at some point that's going to happen to someone. Can I pull the plugs, drain the oil, and continue on my way like I can with some of the classics? Or does drowning it mean I'm reaching for the InReach? We won't know for some time but the confidence I'm talking about above makes me hopeful about the answer.