Mad Manny's Monthly Motoring Magazine Review...

[Mad Manny]

With the collapse of SOE's & the governments mishandling of the alleged Covid Crises, I no longer get any motoring magazines in the mail..
Leisure Wheels collapsed & is digital only.
Most of my editions of CAR Magazine get 'Affirmatised' before they reach my Post Box.
I'm not sure what happened with Drive Out - I think my subscription ended - but the last few editions were also 'Affirnatised' by SAPO.

So, I'll only comment here very occasionally when I pick something up in one of the Motoring Mags...

[Mad Manny]

Car Magazine November 2020 Edition

There is a new R660k Golf GTi on the cover. R660k for a Golf!

There is A LOT of interesting Platkar stuff in this issue:
* New S-Class - VERY high Tech
* New RR Ghost 850Nm from 1600rpm
* New Maserati
* The 40 year history of Quattro
* Porsche Taycan (its an EV Panamera - R4bar 460kW. Max range of 412km - in perfect conditions.
* An A-Class 2.0 Merc for R1.2million, that's righ, an A-Class for R1.2bar - A45 AMG.
* Stuff about a Bugatti
* Article on the 2004 Daytona Shelby Coupe - V8 6.6 with 380kW & 680Nm - in 2004
* They Test the Golf GTi (it wins), the Megane RS Trophy (it comes last - rather buy aCivic Type-R).

The Volvo P1200 of 1959 was the first car to fit a 3-point seat-belt - we died like men before that!!!

Apparently Renault is still going to launch the Alaskan (Navara) & Oroch (Duster Double Cab) - crazy!

There area few other interesting articles.

But the most outrageous article was a comparative test, more about that in my next post...

[Mad Manny]

Car Magazine November 2020 Edition
The Outrage!!!

So the new Defender has been launched.
They need to get this 'Mark-Missing' heap to sell.

Now TFL Studios in the US bought one & in the first 3 weeks it went back to the dealer 3 times with (as expected, electronics issues)...

So JLR South Africa try to pull the wool over our eyeys.

In the Car Mag they do a comparative test.
What did they compare it to?
The Prado with the 3.0 D-4D motor.
They obviously had to rush through the test to get it published before the 2.8 Prado is launched.

The Defender wins the Comparative Test (unsurprisingly), but this is what a (clearly desperate) JLR hadto do in order to win:
1. They compared it to an 11 year vehicle at the end of its life-cycle before it's final update.
2. They compared it to a vehicle costing 20% less.
3. They did the test at Atlantis Dunes - the least 4x4, 4x4 place in SA.
4. They used dunes as the 3.0D-4D is particularly bad at dune driving, its better suited to rougher trails.
5., Test was done unladen - obviously.

Despite all this smoke & mirrors stuff - the Defender got stuck!

Read the report - the desperation to make the Defender look good practically oozes from the pages...

[KurtG]

Excellent! I wonder when Chas is buying a new Defender?


So they have called it the Defender because they have to defend its reputation more than ever before.... clever marketing guys

[HenriSteyn]

GO! Drive and Camp is now bi monthly. Next issue due end November

[Mike-PS]

I was watching some clip where a US 4x4 media mag or something bought a new defender and the engine light came on with about 300 miles. They took it back to the dealer who uploaded new software and managed to get rid of the orange light but then none of the cameras worked and they couldn’t figure it out - so it’s now back at the dealer with a few hundred miles on the clock


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[Mad Manny]

I was watching some clip where a US 4x4 media mag or something bought a new defender and the engine light came on with about 300 miles. They took it back to the dealer who uploaded new software and managed to get rid of the orange light but then none of the cameras worked and they couldn’t figure it out - so it’s now back at the dealer with a few hundred miles on the clock

I mentioned it already Mike, please try keep up...

Car Magazine November 2020 Edition
The Outrage!!!
Now TFL Studios in the US bought one & in the first 3 weeks it went back to the dealer 3 times with (as expected, electronics issues)...

[Mike-PS]

Tfl studios who would have guessed it’s the same


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[Mad Manny]

Here is the TFL video where their "Prado Killer" packs up, repeatedly...

https://tflcar.com/2020/10/land-rover-d ... ate-video/

[BushWacker]

Excellent! I wonder when Chas is buying a new Defender?


So they have called it the Defender because they have to defend its reputation more than ever before.... clever marketing guys

Prado ? ... you guys got to be kidding ...
Urban Cruiser .
Cant think of a LRover S3 to New Defender that
wont outperform it off road , provided they have TC or rear lockers.
Maybe climate control & music center better ?
... yawn ...

[Mad Manny]

CAR Magazine December 2020 edition

A Hilux Legend RS on the cover.

But this is nothing but the Land Rover Defender edition of CAR magazine.

Read on to find out why:

They feature the new BMW M3 & M4. Boring.

Datsun wants to revive the Zed - looks like a Jag. Boring.

VW to launch their 2nd I.D this one is a little SUV. Boring.

The Innovators: Buick Riviera was the 1st car to have a touchscreen. Boring.

But now for the Land Rover Stuff (is CAR on the Land Rover payroll?)

Drive: They test the upcoming Defender P400 90 - R1.1 million 3.0 Diesel. 4 pages of gushing.

Then after a R1.2bar Caravalle & a lengthy Continental Tyre advert (both Boring)...

An article on Jonas Savimbi's Land Rover Series III Lightweight (called lightweight as they stripped in to under 1135kg so a Westland Wessex Helicopter could carry it). Interesting.
4 pages.

Then!!!
An articles on 'Nekkies' Smit's Land Rover collection outside Wellington. 4 pages.

That is 12 pages dedicated to Land Rover...... so far.
But wait! There's more!

After the Test of the Toyota Hilux Legend 2.8 GD-6 4x4 RS AT (they say rather buy a cheaper Hilux, but place it 2nd after the Ranger Raptor).
They do a comparative Test between the Defender 110 & the Jeep Wrangler Sahara.
Despite slapping R150k of Mopar crap on the Jeep, the Defender is still nearly a whopping R500k more expensive.

Now, after their trick of comparing the Defender against a far cheaper Prado Diesel at Atlantis Dunes last month, CAR does it again!
This time CAR took the test to the Honingklip 4x4 trail. Why did they not put the Defender against the Rubicon? you may ask.
Because then the more Rubi would show the more expensive Defender up.
BTW: The Sahara still out 4x4's the Defender.
I think CAR will compare the Defender 110 to the Toyota Supra next month in a 'Which seats 5 people better?' skewed comparison.
8 pages of them gushing over how the much, much, much more expensive Defender is better.

Sop that's 20 Pages of Defender based biased Bull...

There's another test of a Ford against a Renault. Boring.

Article on how Dyno's work - looks interesting. I'll read it later.

That's about it in the Land Rover Defender edition of Land Rover Magazine...

The Savimbi Series III article is interesting. It explains how Land Rover helped kill the UNITA (Union Nacional Independence Total de Angola) leader...

[grips]

I have a Car collection that runs from 1978 till 2015. Have lost interest in Car.
One thing about the new Defender is that they must have one of the best launches in many years. Must have cost a fortune.

What I also found amusing is the quality of the tests done by the journalists. It is clear that 90% knows f-all about 4x4

No matter how good their PR are we will know the truth in the next few months

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[Mad Manny]

Surely, even if CAR wanted to compare it against much cheaper rivals, to be fair, they should have:
Compared it to the Prado at Honingklip.
Compared it to a Rubicon (not the Sahara) at Atlantis Dunes.

Not the other way round.

In fact, if they insist on comparing it to a Toyota at AD, why did they not use the similarly priced LC200 GX?

Either CAR's journalist are extremely stupid, or it was done on purpose...

[BushWacker]

I have a Car collection that runs from 1978 till 2015. Have lost interest in Car.
One thing about the new Defender is that they must have one of the best launches in many years. Must have cost a fortune.

What I also found amusing is the quality of the tests done by the journalists. It is clear that 90% knows f-all about 4x4

No matter how good their PR are we will know the truth in the next few months

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Generally agree though will be a few years
before we can make experienced & objective
opinions/conclusions.
Will this Defender be the last 'new' yet serious 'old style' internal combustion off-roader ?

[Mad Manny]

No. The Ineos Grenadier will be the last new ICE 4x4...