Brand seperation

[rovertech]

I wanted to let everyone know that Land Rover is officially seperating the Range Rover brand into int's own car line. Range Rover will offer the Evoque, Sport and full sized RR while Land Rover will offer the LR2 and LR4 and starting in 2013 two variants of Defender and possibly a third. I am excited to see the Land Rover brand go back to its roots I was excited to get this news and wanted to share.

 

[Dave Legacy]

Interesting, makes sense since most ignorant people think they're seperate brands anyway. My insurance company calls my car a Range Rover LR3. This is a very US Market thing, but I'm surprised this will be the case worldwide. None of these Defender variants will be offered in the States, right?

 

[Antichrist]

I am excited to see the Land Rover brand go back to its roots

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Good one.

None of these Defender variants will be offered in the States, right?

There seems to be stronger rumors one or more will be. I'll be very surprised if they even remotely resemble the Defender.

 

[roverrocks]

Land Rover will never go back to their true roots. There's no money in it. The world has changed too much in the last half century and the luxury/off road 4x4 market with it. Those simple days of simple 4x4's is long gone. Any Defender that makes it to the U.S. shores will be a luxury electronic 4x4 like the LR2 and LR4 which definitely are not True Root LR's.

 

[KyleT]

they started the brand separation a while ago, some US dealers started switching last august.

Range Rover will be the premier brand and Land Rover will be the regular. It is rumored that after the LR4 is out of production, the land rover name will decease. the New range rover sport will have a 7 seat option essentially replacing the disco/lr4

the Lr2 is moving production to india.

The defender as it sits will make it though production a little longer, but there has been no replacement other than concepts.

The Evoque and new range rover models are the ones to look out for. teh new desins will be cool, but how close they are to LAND ROVER heritage, is unknown.

 

[Douglas S.]

Land Rover will never go back to their true roots. There's no money in it. The world has changed too much in the last half century and the luxury/off road 4x4 market with it. Those simple days of simple 4x4's is long gone. Any Defender that makes it to the U.S. shores will be a luxury electronic 4x4 like the LR2 and LR4 which definitely are not True Root LR's.

Jeep sells a lot of Rubicons....

 

[craig]

FYI, Scott didn't mention it, but his info is from a corporate meeting at the dealership he works at.

 

[Paladin]

Here we go again.

 

[Antichrist]

Jeep sells a lot of Rubicons....

A Rubicon type Defender can't compete in price with a Rubicon.
Even if you take a UK spec bare bones Defender and convert £ to $ it's priced higher. Now add in additional costs of meeting US specs, plus import costs and it's in the price range of people who want all the electronic and other luxury stuff. Not all want it, but not enough don't.

 

[Paladin]

You can't convert £ to $ on car prices. It doesn't work like that. The Brits get screwed harder on car prices than the Canadians even. Just look at many cars that are available in both countries. So the Defender wouldn't cost as much as you think.

Designing a car to meet US specs from the ground up costs virtually nothing. Doing it AFTER it's been designed (as in the case of current Defender) would cost a lot. But if you design it in in the first place, the cost is minimal. That's just a red herring they use all the time.

 

[roverrocks]

How many Defenders did LR sell in the 90's in the U.S. when for a few years they were actually available here? The answer is not many and Jeep did not sell the Rubicon then as they do now in 2 door and 4 door versions. A true hard core Defender of some kind is NEVER coming back to American shores. The Defender name may return to these shores but only as a bastardized name on a high-end premium mall crawler for Rodeo Drive and Aspen.

 

[Zinhead]

I was at the local dealer checking out a LR4 for the wife, and the salesman reported that the Defender would be coming back to the US on a chassis based on the LR4/RR Sport. That means separate frame, but independent suspension. Hard and softtop two doors and four doors would be available. He did not know what a 90 or 110 were. :ylsmoke:

I never understood why LR never re-introduced the Defender when they were redesigned a few years to incorporate air bags. Mercedes sells a handfull of G-wagons each year, but the profit margin is astronomical. LR should be able to something like that with the current Defender.

 

[REDROVER]

have u guys seen the new land rover lr4 advertise on tv? wow embarrassing. if Justin bieber drives a new range rover than we know the end of land rover brand as top 4wd is here

o well. if i will ever want to buy a new land rover it will be a beautiful jeep Rubicon, screw new land rovers, i don't want no steering wheel warmer i want good reliable 4 x 4

 

[Antichrist]

You can't convert £ to $ on car prices. It doesn't work like that. The Brits get screwed harder on car prices than the Canadians even. Just look at many cars that are available in both countries. So the Defender wouldn't cost as much as you think.

Considering the D90 sold in the US for over $28k when the Wrangler was selling for a little over $12k, I think what I said was pretty accurate. I could be wrong, but I don't think so.
NAS Land Rovers have been priced higher than comparable Jeeps at least as far back as 1973, when I was first looking at new ones.

 

[Paladin]

Just as a point of discusion, Wrangler pricing in the UK:

http://resources.chrysler.co.uk/2011/jeep/pdf/pricelist.pdf

£26,990 for a 4dr Sahara. That equals $43,484 USD. Just to show you can't just convert the numbers, it doesn't work.

Land Rover Pricing:

http://www.landrover.com/gb/en/lr/defender/compare/price/

£25,320 for a 110 Station Wagon

£27,580 for a County which might be more comparable to the Sahara

£31,650 for a XS top of the line.

I can't speculate on what caused the pricing of the original Defender. It might have had to do with the fact that they amortized the cost of the EPA/DOT testing over few vehicles. The cost of the roll cage. Cost of the advertising. Or maybe they just *wanted* to charge a high price to make it appear "premium".