Escaped from work early yesterday and drove into Cardiff to get a couple of JATE rings at Bearmach. When I got there the guy behind the counter said "What's a jate ring?".
There used to be a time when Bearmachs' shop, in its old location, was staffed be people who knew about land rovers. You could go in there and say "I need that little bit that goes between the this and the that" and they'd be able to tell you what it was and if they had it for your year model without evening looking at the catalogue. Now "We only work from part numbers.." is the mantra.
Blame it on the popularisers . . . when LRO (I think it was) first started mentioning an interest in things LR as 'the Movement' I think a lot of people moved in to make a killing!
Just compare a mag of five or six years ago with the latest issue. Things LR have become part of a 'lifestyle' industry. I remember Ian Gough at MANTEC putting it succinctly when he said he could sell anything for anything to someone with a recent coil sprung model but owners of leaf sprung vehicles (rather more common then) had a clear idea of what a thing should be, what it should do and what it should cost.
Businesses have to follow the money, the market, otherwise they simply sink. LR are a case in point. I was at the original launch of the Freelander. It was conceived as an out and out 'handbag'. I asked the chief designer what connection he had with the land - here or anywhere else (this is, after all, a vehicle that claims its premium as a 'land' as opposed to road only vehicle) and he simply didn't understand my question. His concept was entirely suburban, Gymkhana at most.
My wife is involved in Aid / Development and can quote statistics about how LR lost that market . . . becoming over complex, over expensive, unreliable and underperforming unless very basic models were stripped out even more of the 'handbag' accessories.
I'd bet the 'droid at Bearmach could describe in detail four or five different types of A bar and the possible combinations of driving lights and foglights that could be mounted! After all A bars are needed to nudge trolleys out of the way, frontal lights impress the neighbours no end but . . . what use are JATE rings at Sainsburys? Regret, 'the Movement' don't buy them so they won't stock them, in short, you are expecting too much!
Makes me wonder at the number of immaculate, never used Warn winches I've seen on late model Defenders... ditto externally mounted hi-lift jacks etc. Obviously a lot of LR drivers need winches but I can't help feeling that some of this stuff is bought as a macho fashion accessory ;-)
As to the 'huge 4x4 on the school run' syndrome... well it generates a lot of money for the 4x4 manufacturers, dealer network etc. Doesn't affect me though, I could never afford to buy a new vehicle or use a main dealer!
in article sjSFc.35$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe2-gui.ntli.net, Hirsty's at snipped-for-privacy@ntlworld.com wrote on 4/7/04 1:00 pm:
Funny you should mention that... that's just what happened at our local Somerfield ;-) No LR was involved as far as I know... They got away with £17k though!
The single greatest advantage is that it generates a high volume of well worked in secondhand vehicles suitable for my use where cosmetic condition is secondary to basic capabilities.
This is tempered however by the anount of stripping I now have to do. When it was a S3 County I'd just take the dangling fold down steps off. Now it's a major operation ditching aluminium wheels and unsuitable tyres, taking off the dangling stuff, taking out the electrics in the doors and waterproofing the electronics. Not to mention sealing the bloody sunroofs! (By the way Comma have stopped producing Seek and Seal so snap up any old stock you see around!)
Mind you the comfort levels are so much better now suspension and seats have evolved! My back is better now than it was twenty years ago.
Pity the savings that should have come about from higher volume production have been frittered away on glitzy dealerships. Thank heaven parts are sold out after ten years or so - just about when I need them.
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