Jaguar Land Rover are going to close *something*, either a Jag factory or a Landy factory, they can't make up their minds yet.
Unfortunately they seem to have little choice as the Jag and luxury 4x4 buyers aren't buying and the Landy owners who need one are either making them last longer or buying cheap Japanese pick-ups.
The BBC say the unions aren't kicking too hard, they know it's inevitable...
On or around Thu, 24 Sep 2009 16:43:46 +0100, William Black enlightened us thusly:
Of course, the option of making more basic, more useable and less expensive motors doesn't seem to appeal to them... even the defender now comes with aircon and f*ck-knows-what accessories and plastic trim all over it.
"Austin Shackles" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...
Austin, I just recently bought a 2003 Dodge Ram quad-cab pickup (the heavy-duty 2500 version) for a *lot* less than the equivalent 130 Hi-cap quad-cab pick up. It has space, legroom, comfort, air-con, leccy windows, central locking, and a half-decent stereo that you can actually hear because the vehicle has been fitted (by the manufacturer, no less!) with something called soundproofing. Now, I know it's wider and longer, and the steering wheel is on the wrong side, but on LPG it costs around the same to run as a TD5 130. It has a chassis that would put the Forth Bridge to shame, and axles that are seeeeriously heavy-duty, with matching massive prop yokes and hardy-spicers. The transfer box gives 4L, 4H, 2H and N, and it has a 5-speed auto with lockup in both 4th and 5th, and a limited slip rear diff.
I can't help but wonder - instead of concentrating on the upmarket "bling and image" buyers and pandering to the soft-roader image-conscious buyers and sticking their heads in the corporate sand, had the top people at Solihull actually looked at what was selling in great numbers in the real world and came up with a decent rival then maybe the company wouldn't be in the current sticky situation it's in. Pandering to the idle rich is great - when you're in a boom, but when the boom turns to bust and you find you've destroyed or ignored your original grass-roots, bread-and-butter market, then beware. My gut feeling is this:- had Landrover bought something like a Dodge Ram or Chevrolet Silverado or Ford F350 for evaluation and produced a new model defender with decent styling, coupled to seriously heavy-duty underpinnings and decent engines (not just "barely adequate" ones), then scaled it down to around 90% of the USA market size, would there really be so many Jap 4x4's on the UK's roads today, or would there be a Landrover majority once more? I still have my 110, I can't bring myself to sell it after 17 years....! Badger.
AC has been an option on Defenders for years.
But yes, twenty grand is a bit steep these days for a basic 90 hard top.
Especially as you can pick up a new Ford Ranger 4x4 double cab for less than £16,000...
Not quite:
Eh, A RR smaller than a Freelander? Or a 90?
They are trying to separate out the RR vehicles and the LR vehicles to two different vehicle types/brands. That's why the Disco, Freelander and the Defender are described as LRs and everything else is RRs, two brands, one utility and the other very up market. Therefore they see no problem with a small up market RR type vehicle, a stylish 3 door perhaps based on the Freelander, but designed and built like a RR and, of course, with the appropriate price tag.
Erm, sorry, but you *bought* a *dodge ram*? The dumbest truck in existence?
What are you, mad?
Even a Range Rover is more tasteful!
I can see the Defender plant 'heading East'.
It's an almost perfect vehicle to build and sell in India where labour costs are low and skilled garage mechanics scarce and there's a crying need for a decent utility vehicle.
'Lightweight' = 'no chassis'
The only problem with that is as a pickup supplier Japan is a good bit closer - they have an ethic about not sacking local workers and moving production to save costs something the Dysons etc of this world might like to consider. Much as I love Solihulls finest given a 20k pickup budget I think this would more likely get my vote
The point is that it's not made in India and Toyota don't give their Indian partners the plant to make modern vehicles. The Indian made 'Toyota' (called a 'Qualis', looks to me like an old Land Cruiser but no 4x4 gear underneath) still has leaf springs.
India levies 25% duty on all imported vehicles plus 25% luxury tax on imported 4x4 vehicles...
Move the Defender factory to India and you've got domestic production.
Rather begs the question why LR didn't move old plant to produce the SIII in India once the 90/110 was introduced you would think that would have been an ideal tool for the subcontinent low tech no stupid electronics to fall over, unless Toyota beat them to the punch? Tata of course may have a lot of other plans still to see the light of day at least some will involve extracting money from this one eyed govt.
DerekW
No idea, unless LR at the time had other things to do with the process machinery, like flog it to Santana...
And a replacement vehicle for the Indian army.
That's supposed to be the Mahindra Axe, which has been 'evaluated' by the Indian army for about three years now, with nobody anywhere saying how good it is...
So it looks like the Axe may get chopped
Especially as the Israeli company they're supposed to be getting the clever bits designed by has gone horribly quiet...
In message , William Black writes
Just like the G-Wagon replacing Defender Wolf then.
Lots of the new 'light vehicles' designed with a load capacity of more than two tonnes seem to be having technical problems.
Keep a look out for something named the 'Tata LSV', which may just be the new Defender, the spec sounds very familiar...
The split windscreen could be on its way back...
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