Everyone loves Doug DeMuro. The YouTuber that knows the best quirks and features of nearly every car on the planet. DeMuro recently appeared on The Smoking Tire Podcast with Matt Farah and Zack Klapman. This was an incredible, three hour long podcast that saw DeMuro talk through so many things including his 2020 Land Rover Defender that he owns. And most importantly, he talks about the quirkiest problem you can have with owning such a car. It is a car that for the most part, DeMuro really likes.
The latest Land Rover Defender has received plenty of positive reviews over the last year or two. It's one of the best looking off-roaders currently available and is not as giant as many of its rivals. But while it is a car that DeMuro did mostly like, there was one very odd issue with it. It's just one of a multitude of incredible topics that DeMuro talks about with Farah and Klapman, ranging from the Defender, to his Ford GT and the changing demands of the used car market. But back to that Defender.
An Unusual Quirk With Land Rover’s Classic Off-Roader
DeMuro talks about how he was one of the first people to own the Defender, and that it was fun to have people come up to him in awe of the new off-roader. The Defender is a Land Rover classic, and for a while it was one of the hottest cars of 2020. And they looked much more Land Rover/Range Rover than it was a Jeep or something. Although he did feel that the magic of that wore off pretty quickly. But there is something very unusual about that car.
The Defender had some 50,000 miles on it in two years of DeMuro owning it. But something DeMuro did not like about it was the fact it did not have steering assist. So he gave the Defender to his wife, but one day after she scraped into a pole. Not ideal! Over to the body shop it goes, and he is also given the cost of the repair bill for the Defender. But DeMuro is then told that he needs a new door for the car, but there are no doors for it! This despite it being a car that is in production and not discontinued.
DeMuro Needs A New Door For His New Bronco-Style Defender
The door that was in fact damaged was effectively stuck shut, and would rub up on things if you tried to open it. Naturally, that is a bit of an issue for DeMuro and his wife. So after calling his dealership and finding out that Land Rover were having difficulty supplying large panels for spares, he discovers Land Rover itself was buying cars back after accidents. Something that really did puzzle DeMuro quite a bit. That means things are getting more difficult for DeMuro, and it would become a thing he had to make a video on.
After some time, he finally finds a door, the one door in the entirety of the country. That door is as we speak going on the Defender, and will ensure his wife can finally use it again. But that has put DeMuro in a bit of a tricky spot. He is wondering if he should just sell the car in case this happens again! It took two and a half months to get the door and $5,000 for it to finally get fixed. That is a long time to have a car pretty much out of action.
The Missing Door For His Defender Is One Very Unusual DeMuro Quirk
DeMuro was just stunned about the whole situation. What made it even more of a surprise was that this is now the fourth model year for the Defender. So you would think that spare parts, big or small, are somewhat easier to source. Apparently though, according to the body shop the car is getting fixed at, this is a problem with a lot of new cars. Particularly those like the Defender and the Mercedes EQS. The automakers simply want to build full cars, and not take panels off the line to sell.
The Door Is Quite An Important Part Of Any Land Rover Defender
DeMuro thinks Covid-19 is partly to blame for this problem, as well as the demand for new cars. Land Rover itself is still sitting on thousands of orders for the Defender, Range Rovers and more. So they have to keep building cars and fulfilling orders. That is why it took so long for DeMuro to finally get his hands on a new door. Now though, he does have it and the chances of it happening again are quite unlikely. So maybe DeMuro will hang onto the Defender for a little bit longer.
Source: TheSmokingTirePodcast YouTube Channel