RE: Projekt Grenadier to get BMW engines

[daveco]

JxJ Jr. said:

HerniaHotline said:

Surely a complicated and expensive (multi-turbo?) BMW setup is going to be impractical in the "low infrastructure" environments they would like to market to?

Exactly, how widespread are BMW parts, diagnostic equipment and expertise amongst the towns in the Outback, or across Africa, or indeed the Scottish Highlands?

To me it smacks of what they could get rather than what they might have wanted. Far more obvious choices are Ford, Mercedes, Fiat, Toyota, etc. but they have vehicles (off road and/or commercial vehicles) that this would compete with, so they wouldn't be keen to supply. BMW doesn't so nothing to lose there plus this is amongst the most credible vehicle start ups so they'll be able to pay their bills.

I say this as a fan of BMW, their 4 cylinder petrol and diesel engines are absolute pants. The 6 cylinder diesel and petrols are fantastic, preferably the more straight forward NA petrols and single turbo diesels if reliability is the main concern.

[cybertrophic]

W12AAM said:

As much as I admire this chap & when this "New Defender" was announced about 3-4 years ago, I did think it would be good to have a true British replacement, as LR were not sure when the replacement would be & where it would be built.

Since then; A few years have slipped by & the new LR replacement will be ready very soon (eclipsing this model). I also see there is a German Project Manage for Project Grenadier; It may be built in Portugal (rather than Blighty - Wales?) and now its being fitted with German engines.

You might as well wait for the Slovakian built LR replacement at this rate...and this "Project" is certainly not what I thought it would be :-A truly British, Designed and built replacement for LR's Defender.

Yeah. Totally agree - wasn’t it supposed to be the Defender for the UKIP-voter/Real Ale drinker who yearned for a Land Rover without BMW engines?

The TDIs were always the safest bet as their diesels were based off Jaguar’s 2.7V6 turbo diesel and that clapped on for years - the petrol engines were almost as bad as the over-bored Rover V8 that pissed coolant and warped heads (I know - I’ve loved and cursed those old V8 for years). If they want the “world car” ability of the old Defender, it needs to be low tech: i’d Be thinking the Mercedes van CRD that Chrysler used in things like the PT cruiser as they have torque, albeit not top end power, and will do intergalactic mileages. Or an Isuzu or Nissan unit. Something without turbos, or complex ecus to go wrong.