There have been a few very vocal voices on here advocating for all the benefits of all the traction control tech and how time marches on etc... So I ask you- what do you think about this? Do you feel you are being further removed from the decision making, solving the puzzle of man and his/her machine overcoming the great challenge? Where would you draw the line? What if one day the Land Rover Defender is something you get to and punch in a GPS coordinate to the top of a mountain trail and it just takes you up there without you ever touching any controls- would you enjoy that? Is that even "off-roading"?
As one of the vocal people on one side of the issue, here's my take.
Much like older "analog" sports cars where the connection to the road is more visceral, more tactile, there is pleasure in being able to master the machine in the absence of any kind of aid - traction control, launch control, active suspension, anti-lock brakes...and with a manual transmission. To me this is epitomized by vehicles like the old air-cooled Porsche 911 (through the 1998 911 S) - it was rear-engined, rear-drive, fully manual, and if you didn't respect it then it was unforgiving. But master it, and there's scarcely a more rewarding vehicle to drive fast. Depending on how old one was you also had to understand how to choke it given your elevation, operating temp, etc. to keep as many of those horses running as possible - often by just listening to the engine and adjusting the choke between the seats. All of your senses were engaged. And fast was a relative term - a Civic Type R would blow the doors off a 1998 911 S on a mountain road, but that 1998 911 S feels fast as flaming hellballs when you drive it well. The pinnacle of modern sports cars are represented by vehicles such as McLarens, Ferraris, and yes, still Porsches - with extremely sophisticated computerized systems and aids that maximize the vehicle's capability while pushing the limits of what an "average" driver can do farther. And let's face it - it's *
way* fun to drive really fast on the road, just like it's fun to conquer a 25-degree slope full of rock steps, mud, and loose babyheads. Even blunt instruments like the Dodge Demon are mind-bogglingly complex technical juggernauts compared to a 1960's equivalent.
The same applies to off-roading. In "analog" vehicles, *you* are the traction control, the transmission, the diff locker, etc. - and that's great. You have to know your vehicle and the terrain, and it takes different skills to solve off-roading problems in those vehicles. Nothing wrong with that. It's enjoyable, it's stimulating, mentally and physically. And if all you want to do is solve off-roading problems in the most analog manner possible, then more power to you - then old CJ's and Series I's with gobs of aftermarket mods are the tools to have - the more rare and beautiful the better. What technology does here is the same as for modern sports cars - it pushes the envelope of what a driver can do, without expensive and time-consuming modifications. I don't boulder my D5 because that would be absurd - I have no desire to add 40" of articulation on my D5 (if that was possible) because that's not why I offroad. I offroad to go and see places and to do other things, and so I want a vehicle that does the hardest things I will encounter in those endeavors with ease. I enjoy driving, but driving is not always the destination for me. To me, overlanding is equivalent to a "Grand Touring" vehicle - like an Aston Martin or a modern 911 Carrera 4S - something that is enjoyable and comfortable to drive far, in which and after which you will see beautiful things and have fun doing it; and while there are vehicles better suited to more specific purposes, there are few that are as well-suited to such a wide range of conditions. My D5 does that, and while you could modify an old 911 or even a modern Civic Type R to be as quick or well-handling as a 2019 911 Carrera 4S, the Carrera is just better at what it does off the lot. Same as my D5 - it's more capable, more comfortable, more efficient, and safer than anything that's come from Land Rover before it.
I also argue that the advances in technology on the design side, as well as investments in testing from Tata that are now bearing fruit, mean that newer Land Rovers will be (and have been shown to be) more reliable with higher initial quality than any generation before them, starting in about 2014 - the 2014 RRS (same platform and drivetrain as the D5) was rated more dependable after 3 years by JD Power than the Audi Q7 and the Acura MDX. So maybe they won't need to have engine swaps to eliminate cylinder liner failures or encounter other "named" problems such as "The Three Amigos" and so on. We can argue all day long about how well the electronic systems will hold up over time on a D5, but nothing will resolve that argument except time. And no Land Rover of any past generation of those being argued as better by others has ever had good reliability. Nor have they generally been used for their original purpose off the lot -
according to TFL Truck, on average, the first time a Discovery of any of the first four generations has been off-road is on the third owner, after which time the vast majority of depreciation was absorbed.
As for autonomous driving - I don't like it, but I can see the application. What if you were able to get into your Land Rover Discovery 9 and punch in a GPS coordinate and it just drives you to the top of the mountain? Well...if I'm 85 years old, or maybe if I'm someone who has lost the use of my arms and legs, this may enrich my life in ways past generations of off-road machines can't. Or what if I'm injured in the backcountry, and I can't drive, and I need to get out? Maybe I can enable those features, and the vehicle will take me back to civilization. In fact, Land Rover, as the sponsor for the Invictus Games, has been prototyping mobility assistance for off-road driving for all of these purposes - there's a video but they've restricted access to it. The key for me is having an option to drive myself - just as in modern performance vehicles where you can disable traction control, launch control, etc, I should be able to disable autonomous driving features if so equipped.