Rover is bye bye

[rmel]

Fini, Done, Kaputt -- too bad.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/28/autos/lan ... index.html

[Garrycol]

There is a new vehicle in train - just with a different name - they could have kept the old name but for marketing purposes will be dropped.

[cascade.king]

The Series/Defender is dead.
Long live the Series/Defender!

[GenevaPinz]

This one is a puzzle to me.
Jeep managed to completely re-invent and improve the Wrangler over the last 20 years, with limited complaints from "purists" who had considered switching to square headlamps on the mid-90s YJ a sacrilege. Sales keep going while they stuck to the spirit of the earlier models. Why Land Rover gave up on such an evolution with their most iconic product, and decided to flush it all down, give enough time to the most hard-core followers to buy elsewhere and then start anew, I really don't understand. I am in no way a marketing expert but this makes no sense to me.

[63rover]

There have long been rumours that Tata will pack up the plant and move it to India and restart there with an electronically less complicated truck for the 3rd world. They will have fewer safety and environmental regs to meet.

[GadgetPhreak]

My theory is that with all of the brands/models being brought back very successfully (charger, challenger, GT40, etc.), that Land Rover is setting the name aside for a few years to create pent up demand and then will re-release it to capitalize on the buzz generated. I wouldn't be at all surprised for it to just be a ploy and they will just release again right away. The power and value of social media marketing is equal to, or better than, traditional marketing, making a move like this extremely powerful if done correctly.

Time will tell

Ben

[GenevaPinz]

My theory is that with all of the brands/models being brought back very successfully (charger, challenger, GT40, etc.), that Land Rover is setting the name aside for a few years to create pent up demand and then will re-release it to capitalize on the buzz generated. I wouldn't be at all surprised for it to just be a ploy and they will just release again right away. The power and value of social media marketing is equal to, or better than, traditional marketing, making a move like this extremely powerful if done correctly.

Time will tell

Ben

Interesting. I don't think any manufacturer can afford to mothball a successful car/truck to create demand, I believe they need to milk the good ideas here and now in order to pay for R&D and develop (or at least survive)... but I am no car industry guru, and my lack of faith in the power of social media might just be another sign of ageing...
so indeed, time will tell

[GadgetPhreak]

Interesting. I don't think any manufacturer can afford to mothball a successful car/truck to create demand, I believe they need to milk the good ideas here and now in order to pay for R&D and develop (or at least survive)... but I am no car industry guru, and my lack of faith in the power of social media might just be another sign of ageing...
so indeed, time will tell

Oh, no expert here either - just an "armchair quarterback"

I do some work with the Auto Industry and have a fair bit of product development experience (hardware and software product development and business & strategy management for Microsoft) so I'm extrapolating what I have observed to this scenario.. who knows if the translation works accurately or not.

I completely agree that the Defender is a strong brand, the question is do we think it's a strong brand because of our areas of expertise and interests. How strong is the brand actually with the average consumer worldwide.. I don't know. I can imagine that it's not as strong as Jeep Wrangler is, and maybe that is what Land Rover sees as the opportunity, how to take the brand more mainstream.. It's fun to observe and wonder though.

Ben

[Garrycol]

The current Defender will not meet upcoming safety requirements and given the way it is built it would be too expensive to make the vehicle compliant.

The new vehicle will fulfil the same role as the Defender and Land Rover could have called it a Defender but they have taken the opportunity to start with a new name. Remember the Defender name has only been around for 26 years and before that it was just a Landrover (insert wheelbase here). The name Defender was a break with that tradition (with uproar at the time) just as cutting the name Defender is now.

Really the Defender was a bit of a dinosaur that was well past its useby date.

The new Defender - pick a pic - your guess is as good as anyone elses. https://www.google.com.au/search?q=new+ ... 9MM0k5o%3D

Garry

[VinceAtReal4x4s]

I wouldn't be surprised if the Wrangler goes the same way soon. (no big loss there)

[GenevaPinz]

I completely agree that the Defender is a strong brand, the question is do we think it's a strong brand because of our areas of expertise and interests. How strong is the brand actually with the average consumer worldwide.. I don't know.

This made me wonder about my own perception of the Defender...
I live in Switzerland (mountain country with strong currency), which upon researching the subject seems to always have been a big market for the Defender compared to the size of the country: with a population of just 7 million, Switzerland's LR importer received around 10% of the special edition Defenders ("Celebration Series") produced last year.
...and the place where I go usually on vacation is Scotland, which is without surprise a strong market as well with a lot of rural, hilly country in the UK itself...

So I must admit that my perception of the Defender's popularity is probably (heavily) biased!!

[audiocontr]

I wouldn't be surprised if the Wrangler goes the same way soon. (no big loss there)

Being in the industry - I have to disagree. The Wrangler market share is gigantic within its class. No reason for Chrysler to pull it back. In fact, the steady wrangler sales keep many of their lesser models afloat.

Jeep has such a tight hold that Ford has nothing in their line up to compete.

[Garrycol]

Might be great in the good ole US of A but is crap everywhere else. They have a poor reputation for build quality and reliability and are not popular here in Aust.5

Garry