LRA's latest brain explosion...D90 dead!

Ive cross posted this posting , but it seems its more relevant on here.

Yeah , Ive said before on many an occasion I would love to have spent a day in LRA's marketing department (is there such a thing??).

It took us a while to actually find a LR dealer that had one and even then had to wait a while for the new shipment to come in , where were the adverts??.....newspaper releases??...anything??..not a bloody jot , and then they wonder why they havent sold hardly any of them.

The reaction we get anywhere out there is usually....I never knew you could get these over here,well you know what....you cant now cos LRA had their finger up their browneye while being swamped with the Far Eastern stuff.

They could have sold D90's by the proverbial truck load yet they seemed as embarrased by that thought like a red headed step child.



Makes your blood boil........


And thanks again to LRA for dropping the price and making the re-sale value a joke when it comes to changing over , why do I have to pay for your collective screw up?.

Titheads the lot of em.

Climbing down from the soapbox in anger.......Next............

Yep, it was when i found out they were not importing them anymore that I ordered mine.....too good to miss (especially at the dropped price, sorry expat). Think I got the last morgan grey one in the country.

Am also a bit worried about the new disco. It looks like it will be an awesome car, with great capabilities, but i fear the price rise will make them hard for LRA to sell in Aus.

Picked up the D90 today, will post pics and info in the morning. Dealer said he could sell heaps of them at the new price.

I was reading an old issue of Land Rover International, spring 2004 edition.
There's an article in there about "the new man in charge of LRA" His name's Steve Mortens and he carries on about how Land Rover's lost touch with it's customers, and how they're going to get take the market back from toyota.

He drives a D90 himself, so why does he think people like us don't want to?

If anyone wants a copy of this article, let me know and I'll email it to you.

Disco95 -- I would love a copy of the article in relation to Morten's customer service passion.

I agree with Expat, that LRA marketing is woeful. Even understanding that they are not going to match Toyota for marketing $$ (no-one can), what they do do in terms of advertising is disjointed without a constant message...can anyone tell me what LRA's equivalent of 'Oh what a feeling is'? And we are the LR fantatics.

The D90 could have been their 'hero'product (sorry to sound like a marketing ******) had they marketed it properly. The great analogy is Subaru and Mitsubishi with their STi and Evos...they don't sell too many at their inflated prices, but they are the hero car for the brand. What is LRAs????

When we were looking last year at the D90, it was the LR dealer in Parramatta, they had one yella model in the showroom. I explained to the salesman I was dead keen, but wanted to take it for a drive. His answer was sorry, this is the only one we have and we cannot get it out. He did not offer for me to come back during the week, but offered me the 110 to drive. Sorry....but I am not going to part with $45,000+ on a car that they will not even let me drive. It is like being offered a Subaru Impreze RX as a test drive, when you are wanting to buy the WRX.

LRA and specifically their marketing, need a real wake up call.

[quote="p38arover"]Want a D90? Ring Matthew at Modern Motors at Dungog. Mobile 0419 492 372. He has a bright yellow demonstrator.

Well the way you wrote it, it states Matthew works in Dungog like I said I dont know anyone called Matthew who actually works for Owen cheers Dennis

Can confirm no more D90s to AU according to my sources.

Yes, rather hopeless of LRA on the marketing front on all Defenders really.

I dropped in to the local dealer to pick up a Defender brochure a couple of days ago. I was after a D90 brochure, but they only had one on the Defender range.

I mentioned that the D90 had come down in price, but didn't include the Bullbar that came on the 110. The salesman told be the next batch of 110s will be de-spec'd and not come with bullbars. Don't expect a drop in price, they just promise not to raise the price.

If there's an enterprising soul out there, I think there would be a big market in Aus. for ex-MOD 90's. Just buy a couple of container loads of ex-NATO stock and bring it over. Paint some bright and accessorize them - for those with time<$$$ and sell some raw to those with time>$$$.

I'd imagine they are discontinuing them in Oz because they were asking WAY to much for them and simply couldn't sell them.
They were about $50k i think which is a lot of money for a two door esky with crappy ergonomics. Look at what its trying to compete with at that price. If someone is going to spend that much money on a car you expect a lot more.

I reckon if they were $35k-$40k they would have sold heaps!

Quote:

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Originally posted by TuffRR
I reckon if they were $35k-$40k they would have sold heaps!

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which is fine if they can make money at that spend...

maybe to many flash display premises and big $ managers and not enough of the basics like "lets move the units off the show room floor" like they orta...

LRA obviously believe that there are no more people willing to buy a real 4wd anymore, getting rid of the defenders, getting rid of the live front axles in new Discos, putting spare tyres under the back of the new discos. It seems obcious they are going for the toss pot toyota client base who wouldnt know a real 4wd drive if it bit them on the arse.

Seeing as profit is the bottom line, LRA is going to start going down the line of toyotas sheep following, all this will do is encourage road biased children carrying AWD large cars. We will lose our identity and go down the line of toyota, making it hard for real enthusiasts to enjoy their passion without some ****** raining on your parade.

:evil: :evil: :evil: