Why I Didn't Buy A Land Rover Defender 90

hmm [Music] hello one and all welcome to see through glass hopefully by now you would have seen that i've unveiled my new daily an audi rs6 well that obviously means i'm not going to be getting a land rover defender so very shortly i need to hand this urban defender 90 back to alexander's prestige who very kindly lent it to me for a couple of months to see if this could replace my old x3 well today i've got a few missions to do with twiggy and it's kind of ultimate defender weather so i thought i'd go for one last drive in this thing one last hurrah to reflect upon my time with it and try and explain why i ended up not choosing a defender and went for an rs6 instead [Music] now whilst i haven't ended up buying one of these cars i have really bonded with it over the last couple of months uh long-term viewers will know that i've been obsessed with the idea of the new defender 90 ever since it launched and things just so cool and i still love old defender 19 i don't feel like i need to justify why i love the idea of these cars but then i drove new defender for the first time and realized that sadly it's kind of flawed in lots of areas and and since then many other channels have proved that these cars probably aren't as practical as they should be that was a huge part of this long-term loan from alexander's prestige to work out whether i could look past the floors of this car whether other elements would kind of win me over fundamentally i guess they haven't because i haven't ended up buying one but there are lots of positives lots of good stories around new defender lots of areas where it surprised me mainly in and around the city now i joked when i drove new defender for the first time that i think these cars will be used in the city more than they will be out in the countryside because well there's such a sort of a lifestyle car such a status symbol these days having said that they're big they're clunky they're cumbersome and those things don't usually add up to making good city cars yeah the maneuverability in this thing is fantastic maybe it's because it's the shorter 90 wheel base but i feel like i can get in and out of really tight spots with grey ease and then visibility's fantastic you sit up nice and high you've got the 360 surround cameras and because you're kind of in a box i just feel like you can kind of see out of it really easily see where all the edges are and where the wheels are so yeah as i say one of the first big surprising positives is how easy and pleasant it's been to live with the defender 90 in a proper built up city now just quickly i want to tell you about today's video sponsor nordvpn i've been using nordvpn since i think 2015 or 2016. as you can imagine with the amount i travel and the amount i'm online the added privacy and security that a virtual private network or vpn offers it's fairly invaluable but over and above that with the new f1 season fast approaching lots of you ask me how do i keep up with and follow 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the prototype pods available for more of you to try you may remember we kind of released these alongside the sdg travel mugs at the start of the year feedback has been so good that we're going to kind of yeah roll them out further get more feedback if you don't know converting speciality roasted coffee into an espresso pot not that easy to do but we're fairly proud of what we've created and apparently lots of you like them so yes if you are now interested in trying them head over to the perler website i'll put a link below you can also come here to the ever awesome podium cafe to pick some up and and yeah i would i would love to know what you think anyway back to defender another reason why i think i've really bonded with that car is over and above its capabilities in london in fact it has this inherent character and personality it's quite hard to put into words when you're driving it feels like no other suv getting in and out of it such an event because it's so high off the ground the way other people look at it the way that i look at it when i'm not in it it's just yeah it's it's hard to summarize but a few days ago went down to gerardo and co to drive a fairly niche but quite iconic porsche 911 nicknamed the hygo 911 it was built right at the end of the 70s by a young porsche engineer called dieter orscheissen he essentially used his spare time to build his ultimate 911 rally car within the porsche factory using other porsche employees to help him it's an awesome awesome story and driving that thing gave me a similar sensation to driving the defenders okay fine that's an 80s 911 rally car this is a very modern suv they couldn't be more different but i'm going to roll the footage because firstly what an awesome car and what an awesome experience it was driving it but i think maybe it will help you understand what i mean by this inherent fizz [Music] so [Music] every now and again i see a comment or i get a dm or maybe i receive an email from potentially one of my younger viewers saying why do i like classic cars what do i film classic cars on this channel why don't i film more modern super and hyper cars and i always answer the same way because of stories i'm obsessed with stories especially stories about cars and this car is the epitome of a great story this was essentially built by an enthusiast to go out and live his best life at a time when rallying was just well epically cool it just so happened to be that that enthusiast worked at porsche and the car that he was building to go rallying in was given to him by porsha and his friends who he asked to help him build his dream rally car also worked at porsche it's essentially a works rally car just built well out of hours by nutters but by absolutely brilliant nutters and finished with one of the greatest liveries i've ever seen it's not a famous livery maybe in germany or maybe in certain circles you'd see it and go ah the high go livery i think it looks cool and sitting here right now with the engine off but behind the wheel i'm full of emotion i i can almost sense and smell and feel all the adventures that this car has been on and don't get me wrong a lot of modern cars are incredible but they don't give you that same feeling i am imagining that i'm back in 1980 and about to absolutely take off on some cool german national rally stage i've got a moustache like dieter and i'm like yes i've built myself the perfect car and i'm going to win everything and then i'm going to shag women yeah a lot of you will be like that wasn't very convincing sam but anyway make it that what you will so yes let's talk about this very quickly 1970s a few sort of quirks with this car uh the gearbox loose is how i would describe it apparently characteristic of this series of 911 you kind of just throw it around somewhere and hope that it lands into a gear um it's a car that definitely wants to be thrashed uh the limited amount that i've experienced already it needs to be revved all the way out and and max and the legendary team at gerardo said just do that just rev it all the way out and have a ton of fun pedals are slightly offset my knees are kind of touching on the steering wheel but none of that matters this is going to be a huge amount of fun so yes yes yes ignition let that all warm up i mean look at all this rally gear here it's so good and a bit of gas oh my god and it fires into life it feels highly strong like a like a racehorse you know if you're here in the uk you might watch the grand national or famous uh famous race and you look at all these horses they just look a bit mad like a bit nuts that's what this car feels like so a handbrake is off let's select first gear or at least try visibility's all right because the car is small but a lot of harnesses on so it's not that easy and yes away we go onto my own made-up rally stage and that's it we're already up and running but this car just feels like it loves it but as i say i just get this sense of character i feel like i'm dieter honestly it's unbelievably easy to drive straight away i thought 1970s rally car maybe it was going to feel a little bit more intimidating but no like it's not that sketchy it feels purposeful but not terrifying that's what i was saying about the gears you've got a sort of change with intent but it doesn't always work out oh well the brakes are good but the car's a little bit lively on the brakes i really feel the nose dipped down and everything's starting to squirm around i'll remember that next time i have to step on them sharply it doesn't like second gear today okay there we go when you nail a gear change though boy is it lovely it just wants to fly this thing it wants to attack every corner and every straight and you feel everything in a really nice way it's not brittle it's not brutal like a modern gt3 rs oh this is absolutely spectacular this is what cars are about it's about giving you that feeling just making things tingle making your heart race and as much as i love driving any modern 911 it's very rare that these low speeds it can make me feel the way that this thing does especially when i can't even get this thing into second gear but it doesn't seem to really matter okay so i cannot imagine launching this through the air like there are so many photos of dieter doing back in the day he must have been a mad man what a place to be and what a special special experience it was honestly so special driving the high go 911 so huge thanks to gerardo and co as i mentioned i'm not trying to make a comparison between that and an urban defender but both cars well they just make me smile and i think that's the point cars with character with personality inherently just make you smart they don't have to be best in class they have to be best of an era but they just make you happy that's what that urban defender does as i keep saying over and over again it's not the best it's it's flawed but just i just smile when i'm in it now i've talked about how maybe surprising or unsurprisingly capable this car is in town fundamentally it's at its best it's at home out here in the muck and the grime and the filth you don't even have to be sort of properly off-roading to know that this car's just happier taking on mother nature i haven't actually washed this thing since i picked it up from alexander's prestige just before christmas i think it wears mud so well i also know the team at alexander's prestige are going to give it an over-the-top detail before it ends up back on the showroom floor so i'm not too precious about getting it so dirty but anyway these are all very positive statements i'm supposed to be explaining why i haven't bought one of these cars now whilst i personally have quite a small little jack russell something else which is quite small is the boot of the defender 90. i have talked about it before but there you go my camera bag and anorak it's pretty much full leaving not a little room for this very little dog even if i was to make space for her maybe move my bags inside because of the rake of the seats the minute you then close the tailgate she's pretty trapped in there she's not very happy and i think if you had a bigger dog a labrador and alsatians like that it's that's just not happening so twiggy ends up in the front with me which isn't the end of the world except on a day like today where she's cold and wet and muddy so i've got to spend 10 minutes with that very mucky looking towel drying her off hey where are you going now i'm sure some of you have figured out how to live with that small boot but that was really only sort of one example of how unfortunately this car just doesn't really fit with my current lifestyle on top of that i've got to be honest it's just not dynamically exciting enough for me this new defender i know it's not really supposed to be it's not about tackling a twisty road but it made me realize that i wanted a daily that could tackle a twisty road hence the rs6 now you could argue that i could have got a sort of more powerful defender maybe that would have been the answer this is the entry-level p300 petrol engine you can step up to a p 400 or even get the big v8 the p575 my god are they expensive i mean the rs6 was expensive as well but v8 defenders were on the used market for around 150 grand and i just couldn't really justify that price tag [Applause] so yeah fundamentally the reason i'm not getting one of these new defenders is doesn't really suit my current needs if i were a single man without a dog and i didn't really care about the car's dynamic capabilities would i have considered one more seriously absolutely if i was a big collector would i be getting a v8 defender 90 100 things are just cool they're cool and they're fun and they got character i just needed more from a daily personally so yeah now having spent a serious amount of time on what in one of these things i can tell you they are kind of brilliant no matter what i said before they're awesome and i've had no issues with this thing by the way a lot of people talk about problems they've been having with these new defenders this one has been absolutely spot on the money so if you are seriously considering one if you think this could fit in with your lifestyle keep your eyes peeled on the alexander's prestige website because this one we're coming up for sale in the in the coming weeks anyway i hope you've enjoyed this video this kind of this reflection upon my time with this awesome defender 90. give it a thumbs up if you have and make sure you stay subscribed for plenty more videos to cap [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Seen Through Glass

Views: 178,667

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Id: zIWRT30pMF0

Length: 17min 37sec (1057 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 02 2022