Defender lives on?

[Randylandy]

Just reading the latest landy monthly and in Dave Phillips column he is saying he is getting rumors the current defender will continue in production in India with possibly the 300 Tdi making a come back.

[firsttracks]

Cool, that the 300tdi could be making a come back. Not so cool that the defender won't be made in Britain

[87County]

Even so, probably wouldn't be available here.

[DiscoMick]

There could be a good market in India for a basic workhorse like the Defender, particularly with the reliable easily-maintained 300Tdi, if it was distributed through Tata's big network there.

[Pickles2]

I've read the article. He is talking absolute RUBBISH, and is using his "position" to promote a totally unreasonable, impossible, unrealistic, position with respect to what, He sees, will be the new Defender.
The "TRUE" position is that He, nor anybody else, has any idea at this stage, what the new Defender will look like, or in fact, any FACTUAL details, about it AT ALL......but, I await such FACTUAL info with great interest.
Pickles.

[Michael2]

Last I read, it was more expensive for Tata to build a Freelander in India than the UK, due to bureaucracy, so I imagine a labour intensive car like the Defender would send costs way high.

Current builders of Defenders, like Ottocar in Turkey, may be a more realistic hope for a Classic Tdi.

[p38arover]

I've heard the same as Michael noted above.

I think the Defender would be a good vehicle for India to build. Lower wages and probably people who would do a better job of building it because they'd want it to be a success and, as such, for them to keep a job.

Whether Tata could recoup the cost of moving the plant is an unknown.

[DiscoMick]

Is he talking about building a new Defender or the current one in India? Incidentally, what about LR's deal with Chery to build the Freelander in China? Could there be a Defender angle to that?
The Defender can't meet crash rules in Europe and the USA, but I assume they don't apply in India. Not sure about China.

[Don 130]

As far as I'm aware, land Rover sold all the design,moulds etc for the 300 tdi, to MWM of Brazil (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MWM_International_Motores)That is how the HS 2.8 was developed. I don't think that egg could get unscrambled, and that leaves your reporters theory needing Land rover to buy in HS 2.8 engines from Brazil for the project. Makes it sound unfeasible to me.

[Rurover]

Maybe the 300 TDi proposal will be in the same class as the Indian Morris Oxford and the Royal Enfield motorbike.

ie. Old, reliable British "classics" that are somehow kept in production by a local manufacturer.

Alan

[p38arover]

Regarding what Michael wrote above, see: Ratan Tata rules out manufacturing Jaguar and Land Rover (JLR) in India - Economic Times (http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-12-17/news/35868718_1_jaguar-land-rover-tata-nano-jlr-and-corus)


MUMBAI: Ruling out any possibility of manufacturing Jaguar and Land Rover (JLR) in India in the near future, Tata Group chief Ratan Tata has said that some "silly taxes" make even their assembly here costlier than the imports.