In the the 1990,s Being a huge Land Rover fan I used to cycle to the factory and try to look over the fence where I could. I remember seeing rows of NAS Defenders ready to go to the USA
Solihull site has changed a bit since I left in December 2001! Doesn't look as though the WIP has though! I used to sit by the fishing lake and eat my sandwiches at lunch time 😂.
The lake area and the off road area is part of the world famous Jungle Track. The site has changed a lot over the years since I first visited in the late 80s but would recommend going on a factory visit if you get the chance. Hope you all are fully recovered soon!!
I'm trying to order a 23 Discovery R Dynamic SE and the wait time is 9-12 months here in the US. There are some dealerships that have 50 or more orders in. My dealership has 3 ahead of me. That's just the Discovery! Crazy out there. My dealer is awesome though.
We are living in the most strange times. Discovery is a good car - basically a Range Rover in a more practical shape ! They will not take any orders for the new Defender now in the UK
I did the factory tour that little test track is used for quality control. Can’t remember the exact number but I think it was 1 car every hour goes round it
The building next to the front gate is the customer centre for when you pick your car up from the factory, also the wooded area around the lake is the Jungle track for the Land Rover experience. Also any idea when you will be putting the roof rack lightbar brackets up for sale?
Interesting... As you had such a good time looking round the LR factory in Soihull, I decided to do the same thing with the Defender factory at Nitra, Slovakia. Now, that is *very* interesting..... what was a normal road passing the factory (which I have driven several times) is now a doal carriagway that goes directly into the main car park at the factory and you have to take the exit and a roundabout if you want to carry on on the main road. There is also a new junction being constructed just before you get to the factory exit. Also, thre seems to be masses of space for future expansion of the factory and a large rail terminal for cars just to the north of the factory. Take a look - go to: Nitra, Slovakia and follow the "64" road north out of Nitra until you get to the factory. 👍
@@L663 It definitely would - I drive there regularly, though this month I will fly. Slovakia is a beautiful country, especially when you leave Bratislava and get into the hills and mountains. 👍
No wonder we don't have any Land Rovers in California (USA) they are all parked there. Oh my Lily, sorry to hear about your fall, I hope you get it all worked out because us girl's need our motorbike!
They have speed checks round the factory break it 3 times and your out.Cars with white bits are probably missing things or waiting for special parts to arrive.
Excellent tour round the factory! I've still got the full experience to do at some point, should be good fun! Any news on the OEM Freelander 2 cross bar brackets Simon?
I hope that you're fine now. Very interesting virtual factory tour, thank you 🙂 Can you share more info about your greenlaning location? Nice place and a view from this lonely bench.
Hi Greg - for you I have made a record of the route www.outdooractive.com/en/route/offroad/ridgeway-with-bench/243385767/?share=%7Eztbmgnjg%244ossqln4 I could make a video on how to use Outdoor active !
The Grenadier is to be sold mainly as a commercial vehicle, which requires the 3.5 ton towing capacity and rugged big build. You can actually get the Jimney as a ‘commercial’ of course. The amazing thing with the Grenadier is that they manage somehow to officially classify a five seater, four door van as a ‘commercial’. This is unique I think. I once had a LR 110 County Station Wagon and that needed to be a 12 seater to be taxed as a commercial vehicle. It had rear side windows of course while the Grenadier has blanked off panels behind the B pillar. I reckon its wheelbase is a bit on the short side also at only 115” while the just announced LWB will be 125”. Most current popular one ton four door pickups are about 130” Which brings me to the new Defender 130 which is nowhere near 130” wheelbase and only has an extended arse behind the rear wheels compared to the 110. The world has gone to pot when you can’t tell a Defender’s approximate wheelbase from its model number.
I was there last November driving the new defender on the jungle track and other bits, there were hundreds of the previous incarnation of Range Rovers parked up, which I found strange as the new one came out shortly afterwards, I wonder where they went?
Yes there is a real issue with supply and I do feel for car companies - if they can make the cars they can sell them for good money but just getting the parts is the difficult bit. Not helped by the problems in Ukraine that apparently make a lot of the wiring looms for cars.
Yes I have the connectors in stock - mine has stopped working ( i think its the switch ) so i need to investigate that. The main release still works just my additional one so we may need to spec a better switch
@@L663 ah understood! Shows why you guys are always right to test/use things yourself properly! Look forward to buying one once you have it 100%. Keep up the good work!
If you want to know the date of the satellite images you need to launch Google Earth, search the location, zoom in and check out the images and if you look at the bottom you will see the imagery date. The Land Rover Jaguar views show a date of 4/19/21 or 19th April 2021.
Yes that seems correct - I did google this and some people said that date could not be relied upon - after comments on this site i now have Google Earth Pro downloaded and you can see the timeline history for the site - very interesting. The newest data is alas April 2021 so still no idea what the site currently looks like !
@@L663 April 2021 Probably Covid Lockdowns at this time, which explains the empty car parks. And many new vehicles on site, awaiting transport to all parts of the globe
Yes i downloaded google earth pro ( based on the comments here ) and yes that seems to be the date of the image. Interesting there are no more up to date images available even on pro.
George George George..... please remember when driving off road..... have your thumbs outside for the steering wheel!!!! Wether it be mud ruts or rocky tracks... get them thumbs out of the inside of that sixth wheel!!!! Four wheels on the road.... one spare wheel and the steering wheel.... makes six!!!! Regards Ian 👨🎤⚠️⚠️😇😎🤔👍✊🇺🇦✊🇳🇿
All those parked cars probably waiting for processing chips or other components that are either in short supply or held up due to brexit. Whoops should have waited a minute more and you mention the same theory.
@@L663 If they build around 10 cars an hour or up to 100 cars a day, or around 30,000 annually, any delay in shipment overseas, which is done by the boatload as often as not, soon has car parks filling up. Hopefully car parks at their destination country are not full of unwanted cars, which used to be a common sight even within the UK years ago. Some new cars rotted away for years in fields.
I work at the factory all those new cars pilled up are waiting for computer chips! LoL just joking but I wish Land Rover would hurry up and make my Defender 110 :-) Why is the audio so poor in this video during the factory tour even at full volume on my laptop.......?
Hi - I just downloaded this and trying to use it - i found the timeline tool and the latest image they have is April 2021 which seems to be the date of the images in my video.
Glad to see you up and about after C19….😱😀 and pleased to hear that Lily survived her bike accident. Hopefully you will get all the bits you need…if you run into problems then a friend of mine runs a motorcycle restoration and repair firm who I’m sure will be delighted to help if need be. George is doing well and gaining confidence…The Stig will be off and away with his friends soon…new adventures to face! Now JLR…that is a bit worrying if they have so many new cars parked up…are they 2021 version RR and RRS?…if so, how will they move them on with new 2022/3 models now on sale? I noticed even from the JLR Configurator that a number of things that were standard are now options or have disappeared…is optimum options spec now back in 2020 and we are going downhill ever since? I read a few weeks ago that there are already 10,000 new Range Rover orders on the books and the Jubilee celebrations showed plenty of current RR in use so have they secured electrics for that model leaving those old ones part finished and maybe..heading for a stripping and crushing shed?? Strange times.🫢🫢🫣🫣🧐😀😀😀Richard.
We are all doing fine and ready to start work on Monday - actually I have been working all the way through - doing some site maintenance cutting the hedge - clearing the guttering etc. Thanks for the offer of help with the motorbike but i think we will be mostly OK - we were worried that the knocker gear pedal could have caused a problem with the gearbox / casing but it seems OK. The rumours are that there are 1000's of new L405's parked up waiting for missing parts ?
@@L663It is good to read that you are back tomorrow…work never stops! It is concerning if there are thousands of unfinished cars on site…what will happen to them in the current market if they start appearing in 6/12 months time? I fear my scrapping idea might happen. In 1979 I had a factory visit at Chrysler where they were building Alpine, Horizon and Avenger models…outside was a huge carpark filled with part finished cars that had bad mistakes made on the production line. The build quality was truly dreadful so they had a number apprentices all unscrewing, hammering or cutting “good bits” off and the rest went for scrap!
In the the 1990,s Being a huge Land Rover fan I used to cycle to the factory and try to look over the fence where I could. I remember seeing rows of NAS Defenders ready to go to the USA
Solihull site has changed a bit since I left in December 2001! Doesn't look as though the WIP has though! I used to sit by the fishing lake and eat my sandwiches at lunch time 😂.
The lake area and the off road area is part of the world famous Jungle Track. The site has changed a lot over the years since I first visited in the late 80s but would recommend going on a factory visit if you get the chance. Hope you all are fully recovered soon!!
I will try and get myself on a visit
Hi 👋 nice to see you
👍👍
Nice video, thanks for sharing!
I'm trying to order a 23 Discovery R Dynamic SE and the wait time is 9-12 months here in the US. There are some dealerships that have 50 or more orders in. My dealership has 3 ahead of me. That's just the Discovery! Crazy out there. My dealer is awesome though.
We are living in the most strange times. Discovery is a good car - basically a Range Rover in a more practical shape !
They will not take any orders for the new Defender now in the UK
I did the factory tour that little test track is used for quality control. Can’t remember the exact number but I think it was 1 car every hour goes round it
Seems to make sense - fascinating that it is in the middle of the site !
Interesting video 👍👍👍👍👍
May have misheard but did George have his clutch down at 13:18? Freewheeling downhill means no engine braking and so less control of the vehicle. 🙂
Yes you were correct - we decided we should have had it in low ratio to get more engine braking - we are still learning !
The building next to the front gate is the customer centre for when you pick your car up from the factory, also the wooded area around the lake is the Jungle track for the Land Rover experience. Also any idea when you will be putting the roof rack lightbar brackets up for sale?
Interesting... As you had such a good time looking round the LR factory in Soihull, I decided to do the same thing with the Defender factory at Nitra, Slovakia. Now, that is *very* interesting..... what was a normal road passing the factory (which I have driven several times) is now a doal carriagway that goes directly into the main car park at the factory and you have to take the exit and a roundabout if you want to carry on on the main road. There is also a new junction being constructed just before you get to the factory exit.
Also, thre seems to be masses of space for future expansion of the factory and a large rail terminal for cars just to the north of the factory.
Take a look - go to: Nitra, Slovakia and follow the "64" road north out of Nitra until you get to the factory. 👍
Hi John - I need to have a look around some other plants too .. a trip to Slovakia would be good in The Stig !
@@L663 It definitely would - I drive there regularly, though this month I will fly. Slovakia is a beautiful country, especially when you leave Bratislava and get into the hills and mountains. 👍
No wonder we don't have any Land Rovers in California (USA) they are all parked there. Oh my Lily, sorry to hear about your fall, I hope you get it all worked out because us girl's need our motorbike!
Hopefully we can get Lily back on her bike this week !
They have speed checks round the factory break it 3 times and your out.Cars with white bits are probably missing things or waiting for special parts to arrive.
So its OK to speed like crazy - just stop after you have been caught twice !
@@L663 no you lose on site parking privileges so have to park outside plant and walk miles
Hope all is well with you Simon , Take care .
All good - just like a cold that was not too bad but lingered !
Excellent tour round the factory! I've still got the full experience to do at some point, should be good fun! Any news on the OEM Freelander 2 cross bar brackets Simon?
I hope that you're fine now. Very interesting virtual factory tour, thank you 🙂 Can you share more info about your greenlaning location? Nice place and a view from this lonely bench.
Hi Greg - for you I have made a record of the route
www.outdooractive.com/en/route/offroad/ridgeway-with-bench/243385767/?share=%7Eztbmgnjg%244ossqln4
I could make a video on how to use Outdoor active !
The Grenadier is to be sold mainly as a commercial vehicle, which requires the 3.5 ton towing capacity and rugged big build. You can actually get the Jimney as a ‘commercial’ of course. The amazing thing with the Grenadier is that they manage somehow to officially classify a five seater, four door van as a ‘commercial’. This is unique I think. I once had a LR 110 County Station Wagon and that needed to be a 12 seater to be taxed as a commercial vehicle. It had rear side windows of course while the Grenadier has blanked off panels behind the B pillar. I reckon its wheelbase is a bit on the short side also at only 115” while the just announced LWB will be 125”. Most current popular one ton four door pickups are about 130”
Which brings me to the new Defender 130 which is nowhere near 130” wheelbase and only has an extended arse behind the rear wheels compared to the 110. The world has gone to pot when you can’t tell a Defender’s approximate wheelbase from its model number.
I was there last November driving the new defender on the jungle track and other bits, there were hundreds of the previous incarnation of Range Rovers parked up, which I found strange as the new one came out shortly afterwards, I wonder where they went?
Rumours say they are still there... 1,000's of them....waiting for parts.
@@L663 They should ask you to make them!
Hello simon, hope you all feel better soon. Take care. I think most car companies are having problems now and the electric will suffer more.
Yes there is a real issue with supply and I do feel for car companies - if they can make the cars they can sell them for good money but just getting the parts is the difficult bit. Not helped by the problems in Ukraine that apparently make a lot of the wiring looms for cars.
Great detective work guys! Any update on the interior rear tailgate/door release for the new defender by any chance?
Yes I have the connectors in stock - mine has stopped working ( i think its the switch ) so i need to investigate that. The main release still works just my additional one so we may need to spec a better switch
@@L663 ah understood! Shows why you guys are always right to test/use things yourself properly! Look forward to buying one once you have it 100%. Keep up the good work!
The "silo" is a water tank for the sprinkler system
That would seem a wise precaution - fire has to be a big risk at the site - especially with all the cars parked so close !
Hope you are feeling better.
I was not too bad - but on the mend now
Down load google earth pro on PC. Use history date function to scroll back on time line - also give date of image
Thanks - I will take a look at that now !
The latest image they have is April 2021 which seems to be the date of the images i was using !
Did you notice you can scroll back to 1946
Also the mobile version of Google earth give’s greater resolution when in 3D when used on PC
Hi Simon, hope you get to feeling better boss
Yes feeling better already
Makes you wonder there is such a long waiting list for New Rovers after seeing these cars stacked up .
But which models do they have stored ?
@@L663 Hundreds of those new fangled Defenders I wouldnt wonder !! LOL
They obviously don’t use the test track to source squeaks and rattles 😂
If you want to know the date of the satellite images you need to launch Google Earth, search the location, zoom in and check out the images and if you look at the bottom you will see the imagery date. The Land Rover Jaguar views show a date of 4/19/21 or 19th April 2021.
Yes that seems correct - I did google this and some people said that date could not be relied upon - after comments on this site i now have Google Earth Pro downloaded and you can see the timeline history for the site - very interesting. The newest data is alas April 2021 so still no idea what the site currently looks like !
@@L663
April 2021
Probably Covid Lockdowns at this time, which explains the empty car parks.
And many new vehicles on site, awaiting transport to all parts of the globe
Boom Boom!! 💥
Google imagery shows date to be 19 April 2021
Yes i downloaded google earth pro ( based on the comments here ) and yes that seems to be the date of the image. Interesting there are no more up to date images available even on pro.
@@L663 hi Simon - I checked a couple of my other satellite image sources and the stockpile appears to be increasing
@@Tassie-mania What other sources are there available ?
George George George..... please remember when driving off road..... have your thumbs outside for the steering wheel!!!!
Wether it be mud ruts or rocky tracks... get them thumbs out of the inside of that sixth wheel!!!!
Four wheels on the road.... one spare wheel and the steering wheel.... makes six!!!!
Regards Ian 👨🎤⚠️⚠️😇😎🤔👍✊🇺🇦✊🇳🇿
Wise words ....
All those parked cars probably waiting for processing chips or other components that are either in short supply or held up due to brexit. Whoops should have waited a minute more and you mention the same theory.
Hi Huw - the images were from April 2021 - would be interesting to see how many are there now ! need to find some more upto date images
@@L663
If they build around 10 cars an hour or up to 100 cars a day, or around 30,000 annually, any delay in shipment overseas, which is done by the boatload as often as not, soon has car parks filling up. Hopefully car parks at their destination country are not full of unwanted cars, which used to be a common sight even within the UK years ago. Some new cars rotted away for years in fields.
@@L663
I’ve just tested positive for Covid, for the first time. Is this transmittable through the internet? LOL
I work at the factory all those new cars pilled up are waiting for computer chips! LoL just joking but I wish Land Rover would hurry up and make my Defender 110 :-)
Why is the audio so poor in this video during the factory tour even at full volume on my laptop.......?
Sorry i may have got the audio balance wrong !
Hundreds of Range Rovers waiting for semiconductors.
Maybe 1000's
❤️❤️🙏🙏
Google Maps Pro will give more up to date photos and allow you to zoom in closer with decent resolution
Hi - I just downloaded this and trying to use it - i found the timeline tool and the latest image they have is April 2021 which seems to be the date of the images in my video.
@@L663 apologies, I use it at work and normally find the pictures more up to date, obviously not in this case 😕
Those parked Landies were probably because all the dealers were closed and couldnt take vehicles. CLEAN YOUR KEYBOARD!!! ;-)
Yes keyboard needs a clean !
Crap
Fair point - but I was just getting over covid.... cut me some slack !
Glad to see you up and about after C19….😱😀 and pleased to hear that Lily survived her bike accident. Hopefully you will get all the bits you need…if you run into problems then a friend of mine runs a motorcycle restoration and repair firm who I’m sure will be delighted to help if need be. George is doing well and gaining confidence…The Stig will be off and away with his friends soon…new adventures to face! Now JLR…that is a bit worrying if they have so many new cars parked up…are they 2021 version RR and RRS?…if so, how will they move them on with new 2022/3 models now on sale? I noticed even from the JLR Configurator that a number of things that were standard are now options or have disappeared…is optimum options spec now back in 2020 and we are going downhill ever since? I read a few weeks ago that there are already 10,000 new Range Rover orders on the books and the Jubilee celebrations showed plenty of current RR in use so have they secured electrics for that model leaving those old ones part finished and maybe..heading for a stripping and crushing shed?? Strange times.🫢🫢🫣🫣🧐😀😀😀Richard.
We are all doing fine and ready to start work on Monday - actually I have been working all the way through - doing some site maintenance cutting the hedge - clearing the guttering etc. Thanks for the offer of help with the motorbike but i think we will be mostly OK - we were worried that the knocker gear pedal could have caused a problem with the gearbox / casing but it seems OK. The rumours are that there are 1000's of new L405's parked up waiting for missing parts ?
@@L663It is good to read that you are back tomorrow…work never stops! It is concerning if there are thousands of unfinished cars on site…what will happen to them in the current market if they start appearing in 6/12 months time? I fear my scrapping idea might happen. In 1979 I had a factory visit at Chrysler where they were building Alpine, Horizon and Avenger models…outside was a huge carpark filled with part finished cars that had bad mistakes made on the production line. The build quality was truly dreadful so they had a number apprentices all unscrewing, hammering or cutting “good bits” off and the rest went for scrap!