Ineos Grenadier, do you reckon it'll take off?

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Originally Posted by scarry

I don't think it has anything to do with marketing.

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Really? I think it has everything to do with it. Marketing isn't just TV ads. Marketing is having sales people driving out to farms at 06:00. Marketing is aggressive pricing. Marketing is spending big on a dealer network. Marketing is fixed price servicing. Marketing is the promise, not always honoured, of a brilliant warranty. Marketing is guaranteed buyback.

I'm not saying all of those are bad things, because clearly they are not. But Only Toyota was capitalised enough to offer them decades ago. LR was broke. So was Nissan. In so many ways the Patrol is a better car than the LC, and if Nissan had been in the financial position of Toyota back then, well, who knows?

Imo, the LC is the greatest loss leader product of the last century. Which is also marketing. As Tom said, Toyota are brilliant at it. But the South Koreans are catching on fast.

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Originally Posted by Tins

Really? I think it has everything to do with it. Marketing isn't just TV ads. Marketing is having sales people driving out to farms at 06:00. Marketing is aggressive pricing. Marketing is spending big on a dealer network. Marketing is fixed price servicing. Marketing is the promise, not always honoured, of a brilliant warranty. Marketing is guaranteed buyback.

I'm not saying all of those are bad things, because clearly they are not. But Only Toyota was capitalised enough to offer them decades ago. LR was broke. So was Nissan. In so many ways the Patrol is a better car than the LC, and if Nissan had been in the financial position of Toyota back then, well, who knows?

Imo, the LC is the greatest loss leader product of the last century. Which is also marketing. As Tom said, Toyota are brilliant at it. But the South Koreans are catching on fast.

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You can still do all the "marketing" you like and have a product that does not sell well,if it is not the product(whatever it is)that people want.

Or some may buy the product but then find out it is not good at this or that,and they wont buy it again,and the word will get around.

It is the Chinese that are catching on the fastest.

Thinking more about this "Marketing"[bigsmile1]

Every vehicle we have bought new, other brands,and numerous work vehicles which are this brand,not one of those "marketing" suggestions came into the equation.
Not one
Nice to have a dealer close for sure,but not essential.I used to do a 130KM round trip to drop the D4 off for repairs and servicing.Nice to have the 5yr warranty and the previous 3 yr,but every manufacturer had this anyway.Ford is actually one step ahead offering a free loan car while the vehicle is in for servicing or repairs,which is helpfull.

Well the dealer rang me early May and said our grenadier has been made and is on the way. Only six being dispatched to the local dealer here on the Sunshine Coast out of about 30 that they have orders for. Ours is in the first six. The dealer wont even get their demo car as they are prioritizing customers first. Must be a lottery as a friend in the SCLROC ordered his before me and wont get his for a while yet. They are saying it should be here in June. But apparently there is a few minor bits missing that they will dealer fit here. The suppliers didnt have them ready before they shipped the vehicle. I have no idea what they are, but it appears they will airfreight those bits out to Australia hoping they get here around the same time as the car. Also there is a lot of delays at the ports with biosecurity concerns of cars that have been stored overseas for a while getting bugs living in them.

So we shall see.

Is a game that all the manufacturers are playing at the moment. Delivery depends on what you ordered and what parts are available to build a vehicle from

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Originally Posted by scarry

You can still do all the "marketing" you like and have a product that does not sell well,if it is not the product(whatever it is)that people want.

Or some may buy the product but then find out it is not good at this or that,and they wont buy it again,and the word will get around.

It is the Chinese that are catching on the fastest.

Thinking more about this "Marketing"[bigsmile1]

Every vehicle we have bought new, other brands,and numerous work vehicles which are this brand,not one of those "marketing" suggestions came into the equation.
Not one
Nice to have a dealer close for sure,but not essential.I used to do a 130KM round trip to drop the D4 off for repairs and servicing.Nice to have the 5yr warranty and the previous 3 yr,but every manufacturer had this anyway.Ford is actually one step ahead offering a free loan car while the vehicle is in for servicing or repairs,which is helpfull.

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Ford can no longer always provide a courtesy car, to many issues, to many customers dropping cars back for faults and not enough loan cars

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Originally Posted by Deefa

Well the dealer rang me early May and said our grenadier has been made and is on the way. Only six being dispatched to the local dealer here on the Sunshine Coast out of about 30 that they have orders for. Ours is in the first six. The dealer wont even get their demo car as they are prioritizing customers first. Must be a lottery as a friend in the SCLROC ordered his before me and wont get his for a while yet. They are saying it should be here in June. But apparently there is a few minor bits missing that they will dealer fit here. The suppliers didnt have them ready before they shipped the vehicle. I have no idea what they are, but it appears they will airfreight those bits out to Australia hoping they get here around the same time as the car. Also there is a lot of delays at the ports with biosecurity concerns of cars that have been stored overseas for a while getting bugs living in them.

So we shall see.

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Have you joined the Grenadier forum? If not I suggest you do, good luck and let us know how it goes and initial impressions

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Originally Posted by discomatt69

Ford can no longer always provide a courtesy car, to many issues, to many customers dropping cars back for faults and not enough loan cars

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Haven’t had that problem yet,but yes,we are getting tired of the issues.One is going in later this week,again.[bighmmm]
A real nuisance when we need the vehicles on the road all day everyday.
Loan car is helpfull,but there is only so much gear we can fit in a tiny road car.

When I bought 2 new Dual cabs for work, the only thing the Boss said was "No Fords, No Navaras - not making those mistakes again' [biggrin]

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Originally Posted by Homestar

When I bought 2 new Dual cabs for work, the only thing the Boss said was "No Fords, No Navaras - not making those mistakes again' [biggrin]

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Yes we will be doing the same,back to the ultra reliable brand we had before.That is if we can get what we want,and there is no long wait.
The advantage of the Ranger is it has 15K Km services,instead of 10K,so when doing heaps of k's,its more convenient,and free loan car as said.
I recon they are slightly more comfortable as well.

Vans,yes wouldn't go near a Transit,i know some that have.....

Anyway,see how we go and what happens next time.

Someone sent me a link to the New Ranger forum,all sorts of issues and problems,but they are the places the complainers love to complain,so in the whole scheme of things,who knows what is really going on.

Yes, the Ranger was the most comfortable of them all when I test drove a lot.

Don’t get me started on Transit Vans - They drive better than a Hiace but can’t come close to them regarding reliability. Having driven a couple of each model the Transit spent a lot more time at the dealer getting repairs and I actually can’t think of a single time my Hiace’s ever went to Yota for repair or at all as we used to service them ourselves. Some had 300KKM on them as still ran fine.