Discovery 3, wheres Land Rover?

Apart from the flak they'd take from the environmentalists it wasn't a particularly testing task. Most Land Rover products could have done the same given a half-decent driver.

SO given that Clarkson is a 4X4 hater of the 1st order, the fact that HE was able to do it makes it a good ad for the car..........

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"Martin Edwards" wrote >

How do you work that out. He liked the Discovery and he owns, or recently owned, a couple of Land Cruiser Amazons for goodness' sake.

Huw

I thought he owned (or at least did own) a Toyota LandCruiser. I seem to recall a bit on the program where he got stuck in it and had to be towed by a tractor (I think) and also a Series II carried on going where lesser makes (BMW?) got stuck. Richard

Well, if you look at LR's advertising overall, then the one thing missing from their ad's (apart fmro a Discovery wading a couple of years ago) is *real* off roading - see Mitsubishi and Jeep ad's for example. Of course, being a true cynic, I'd suggest that they are simply preparing us for their future products where off-road ability comes second to a daft paint job and cheaper production costs.......

Richard

I thought all Clarkson's cars were on loan from the manufacturers - I'm sure I recall him having downer on Jaguar for daring to ask for theirs back....? Richard

beamendsltd composed the following;:

That's 'cos Jeep et al are, in 'the publics' eye, perceived as 'SUV' type vehicles and not true off-roaders in the traditional Landrover sense ... Their marketing guys can see the advantage in projecting a 'rough, tough' image, Landrover appears to want to attract city types with less sense than money and a hankering for driving just off the road .. about as far as it takes to get splashed a little .. ;)

Heheheh, it may be a cynical viewpoint, but it's one I agree with .. ;)

Possibly because Land Rover have realised that they endorsed a very irresponsible bit of marketing, which stomped all over their "tread lightly" approach; they heard all the criticism from both pro- and anti-4x4 camps and twigged that it was rather a silly thing to do in the first place.

David

I actually meant that their ads are far more rufty-tufty off-road than LRs...

Richard

beamendsltd composed the following;:

Which is what I was saying ... Jeeps etc are perceived as SUV's, therefore Jeep advertise them ploughing through the mud and stuff to toughen their image ..

Landrovers are perceived as rufty tufty, even Freelander to those less knowledgable, cars already, so Landrover try to market them as closer to SUV's with much less mud'nshit'mstuff in their ads ... ;)

And the major exception of the ad that gave us "Best 4x4xFar" - the first gen 110 plodding over some places that none of us are ever likely to take one (Like straight up a dam).

Arguably the Freelander "Release to the wild" ones could be considered as counting too.

Always done sensibly though.

P.

So Huw was, like

Exactly! :-)

Nah, compare them to the current and pervious Mitsubishi adverts with the irritating song, and the Jeep in the swamp ads and the LR ads look pathetic - if Jeep & Mitsubishi can show people having fun, then LR are going to lose out. Judging by comments made by customers, and the number on the road round here, the Mitsubishi ad is selling cars. The impression to Joe Public is of a

*real* off-roader. The impression given by the current Discovery III ads with some city slicker going over a dead flat slat plain make the Fiat Panda 4x4 look good.

All in my own opinion, of course!

Richard

beamendsltd composed the following;:

The Fiat panda 4x4 _IS_ good ... bloody good, in my albeit limited experience, for off-roading. I've seen it put to shame some, poorly driven it has to be said, Landrovers at a quarry we use locally.

Very doubtful that any of his personal fleet is anything but 'bought and paid for'.

He was recently bemoaning having to pay full list price for a Ford Focus - as a BBC journalist he is (he claimed) prevented from obtaining any discount in any form from the subjects of his work.

He will, of course, have access to a wide pool of cars that he is 'evaluating', but not that he could call 'his'.

The Mitsubishi market demographic is rather different to the Land Rover one. Compare the most expensive Mitsubishi product (and to a lesser degree the most expensive Jeep product) against the Land Rover range. Land Rover are selling to followers of Rugby Union, the others are selling to followers of football...

If Mitsubishi and Jeep tried to sell their plastic and chrome as being stylish, elegant and sophisticated they would look dumb. Land Rover don't shout about their off-road prowess - it is taken as read. Volvo ads don't shout about safety - it is assumed to be class leading. And an Aston Martin ad with a 0-60 time? Don't be so vulgar....

Our police have just discovered this fact....

But its damned if you do and damned if you don't

If you market it as a tough looking town car, you get it in the neck from the bicycle and bus brigade it you market it as an off roader, the red socks brigade get there knickers in a twist.