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UPDATE: Richard Hammond Criticizes the 2020 Land Rover Defender

Here’s something you weren’t expecting to hear from Richard Hammond. Even though The Grand Tour presenter and motoring journalist owns a Series 1 Land Rover, he can’t make a case for the all-new Defender over a pickup truck in terms of reliability, build quality, price, and utility.
Richard Hammond takes his dog for a walk in the new Defender 87 photos
Photo: DriveTribe on YouTube
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Fast-forward to the 6:55 mark of the following video, and Hammond highlights that British farmers now drive pickup trucks rather than Defenders because, well, Land Rover doesn’t offer a workhorse at the present moment. As a matter of fact, Land Rover doesn’t even make a body-on-frame vehicle.

The pickups Hammond is referring to are “mostly made in Japan, mostly cheaper, more reliable, better made, and longer-lived than anything turned out by Land Rover ever.” Emphasis on the last word of that quote because British automakers have always had reliability problems. When British Leyland was running the show, build quality was at an all-time low as well. So yeah, it’s easy to understand why a farmer would prefer the Toyota Hilux or more affordable alternatives such as the Isuzu D-Max.

Richard believes the Defender is for “a brief escape into the great outdoors.” After that, you “scurry back to a life that thankfully can be more comfortable and more luxurious than anything that could’ve been imagined at the time of the Land Rover’s original launch.” Well, not if you’re The Fast Lane and your Defender’s check engine light turn on after 167 miles.

The turbo diesel-engined and four-cylinder Defender 110 that Hammond drives in this video retails at approximately 63,000 pounds sterling, which isn’t bad considering how many features you get for that money. However, a Defender to Richard’s liking costs “just south of 100 grand."

On an ending note, the part at 8:05 summarizes Richard’s feelings about the Defender perfectly. “Oh, and Land Rover, one final thing. Why didn’t you finish the job properly and put a Discovery badge on it?” When a guy as passionate about Land Rover as Hammond is criticizing the British automaker this way, you know that Land Rover has messed up badly.

1st UPDATE (November 30th, 2020)

Richard Hammond's video has been recently taken down by DriveTribe, which is why the following behind-the-scenes video will have to make do.

2nd UPDATE (November 30th, 2020)

DriveTribe has uploaded a new video, which differs from the first in terms of content. More to the point, the pickup truck thingy mentioned earlier in this story has been cut out. Oh, and by the way, the video is unlisted on YouTube. In other words, only those who know the link can view it.

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About the author: Mircea Panait
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After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
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