Thread: The philosophical 2018 Land Rover Series VI / Defender / 'Icon'...

Originally Posted by Didge

Spot on! Absolutely spot on MrLAndy!!!

Cheers Didge.

Originally Posted by steane

I agree completely. This is why it's difficult to find good older Defenders now. People don't look after them and once they are 'let go' their decline becomes very expensive to rectify.

Look after them and there isn't a whole lot to worry about.

Perhaps more accurately, it is difficult to find good older Defenders because the people who look after them are not parting with them, and the only people relinquishing them are the ones who treat them as disposable.

John

McGovern intends to "broaden the appeal" of the Defender and is "looking at 100,000 vehicles a year", up from the current 20,000.

For me, this decreases the appeal because I like driving a niche vehicle - so I don't want 5 times more Defenders on the roads as I don't like following the herd. Baaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!

Originally Posted by RVR110

McGovern intends to "broaden the appeal" of the Defender and is "looking at 100,000 vehicles a year", up from the current 20,000.

For me, this decreases the appeal because I like driving a niche vehicle - so I don't want 5 times more Defenders on the roads as I don't like following the herd. Baaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!

Absolutely. Well said RVR110. Now we're getting somewhere in this discussion. Quality over quantity...and I mean quality of experience. Something only a hand built Defender can offer. (This is afterall the source of the Defender wave).

Why is selling 'more units' and 'broad appeal' the holy grail? All other Land Rover models already target this market. I would argue that a new Defender that is still in part hand built, is seriously heavy duty and that sold in low volumes (what company doesn't have a loss leader?), would keep the credibility of the Land Rover brand alive. Not everyone wants to go on a fully guided package deal cruise. It's the same with vehicles, but the options for not following the crowd are almost non existent unless you're very wealthy.

Originally Posted by MrLandy

........
Why is selling 'more units' and 'broad appeal' the holy grail? ......

Because the vehicle meeds to be completely redesigned and tooled to meet legislation round the world, and the only way of paying for this is to sell enough vehicles. The Defender as it is at present has had a lot of these design and tooling costs paid for many years ago, when labour costs were a lot less.

A replacement vehicle has to face these costs at present rates, and improved accounting practices, MBAs everywhere, and company legislation mean that this will be enforced, where it wasn't sixty years ago. If they do not sell enough, the these costs per unit will be too high.

Hence the need to have broader appeal. This does not necessarily mean that they have to aim for the same market they are already serving with other models - they may come up with something that meets a market nobody has thought of or at least seriously addressed. Rover did this with the original Landrover, and again with the Rangerover, and even arguably with the Discovery, and the Freelander (although not the last in Australia).

John

Originally Posted by MrLandy

Why is selling 'more units' and 'broad appeal' the holy grail?

Because they're a business. I find it ironic that the high production volumes required for (commercial) survival of the Defender is the very thing that will kill it for many of the people who used to buy them.

Originally Posted by RVR110

McGovern intends to "broaden the appeal" of the Defender and is "looking at 100,000 vehicles a year", up from the current 20,000.

For me, this decreases the appeal because I like driving a niche vehicle - so I don't want 5 times more Defenders on the roads as I don't like following the herd. Baaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!

You will be in a classic Defender, not the retro one, so you will be entitled to have an air of disdain.


Will we be expected to wave at the new Defender, , my arm will get tired if they are too popular

What was the reaction of the Series crowd when the first coil Defender arrived, it's going to be similar to that methinks