D3, it's great but is it true sales have been disappointing?

My take is Landrover have their pricing out of tune with the market. My 90 with bits and pieces was 50K new. Thats not a good deal for the money but i always wanted one and am happy the with the decision and plan to keep my 90 forever. how many are they going to sell though? not many... if they were 35K it would be a different story...they did drop the price but it seemed too late...Whats better, more on the road with a lower margain or less on the road and make a higher margain on less units...?

When i checked the prices of the disco while being great value, the price though on the TDV6 with leather [need HSE spec] was almost 90K on road. Even in SE spec it was a 75+ grand on road....again not many takers at that price so it becomes a nice to have....then they correct the pricing a bit and they become more reasonable, but maybe too late.

The Rangey sport though in TDV6 is a winner I think in terms of pricing. Rangey badge and all the extras....when its about the same as the TDV6 you can see thay have the disco pricing out of whack....

my thoughts anyway...lets see what they do with the new defender....

This is interesting...

I believe LRA has some very fundamental problems with their business.

The D3 is just symptomatic of the bigger problems which have been looming for the past decade. LRA has presided over a massive decline in all market segments (softroader, Defender, Disco, RR) in what has been an exploding 4WD market.

Look at the basics of any business and Landrover has problems with every link in the chain.

- Channel/Distribution to market: declining in presence; slow unresponsive product delivery (2 out of 5).

- Marketing/Pricing: pricing is comletely out of whack (D90 vs Wrangler?, Freelander vs RAV?, D3 vs Prado/LC100/Patrol?). More importantly, what marketing there is (very little) is not targeted to the Australian market, but a cut and paste from Europe. Toyota is now a defacto part of the Australian culture based around outstanding marketing (0 out of 5). LRA could not do worse than sacking all their marketing managers and poaching Toyota's head marketers.

- Reputation: Poor, but more importantly the marketing does not address or try to overcome the perception issues (2 out of 5).

- Service Culture: Indifferent at best, but certainly not industry leading (2 out 5).

- Product: D3 excellent, RRS excellent but confusing, Defender outdated, Freelander out of the market, RRV great by confused (3.5 out of 5).

TOTAL 9.5/25

Finally, while the D3 is certainly the best in the industry, all the other parts in the LRA chain are NOT industry best or even close in some respects.

I cannot help but get the 'P76 Blues' when thinking about the D3....awesome product but let down from within.

The bigger question is how long does LR have in Australia before we see the Rover saga repeated???

Advertising is definitely one of their weakest points.

In the D3, they have the ultimate 4x4 but their not telling anybody.

Very strange because the next round of awards are due soon and if it goes to anything else LRA will have completely missed this great opportunity to cash in on all the free publicity they have been getting.

Very Strange.

Quote:

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Originally posted by drivesafe
Advertising is definitely one of their weakest points.

In the D3, they have the ultimate 4x4 but their not telling anybody.

Very strange because the next round of awards are due soon and if it goes to anything else LRA will have completely missed this great opportunity to cash in on all the free publicity they have been getting.

Very Strange.

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Drivesafe, where have you been hiding?

http://www.4wdoftheyear.com.au/

and many, many advertisements. They're not exactly hiding their light under a bushel.

cheers,

hmm, link no work,,??

I think LR have been VERY selective in the placing of their ads.

rmp, it’s TV adds they need.

It’s no use advertising on the net or in 4x4 mags.

Most people who buy 4x4 mags already have a mindset and there is very little chance of changing there minds.

Net adverts reach the smallest market and in Australia it’s a very small market.

TV advertising will reach the new comers and with the right type of campaign, they could have an advert set to push both the Toorak Tractor factor based on a vehicle that just so happens to be the best off roader as well.

They couldn’t loose but they aren’t trying.

rmp, when was the last time you saw an LR ad on TV. The last one I saw was not for the D3 but for the RR and I have not seen any ads for the RRS.

And while on it, I obviously like Range Rovers but that TV ad is just crap. It misses the point completely.

I agree, a lot has to do with advertising and marketing.

Prices are a bit high, but LR could learn a lot from Toyota. A lot of the Toyota reliability legend has come from successful marketing, the reputation of the early corollas, and good fleet incentives.


Holden didn't dominate Ford for so long in the passenger car market because the Commode was a better car than the Falcon, it wasn't. They dominated because their fleet deals were better. This gave a public perception that Holdens were much better than fords as more fleets were buying them.

Being the best 4WD on the market isn't enough. Marketing is not about what a product is, it's all about what it is perceived to be. :roll:

The other issue is that while we consider the D3 to be a direct competitor to the LC 100 series and the patrol - much of the public see it as a medium size vehicle which is in competion with the Prado and Pajero. This is reinforced by the 4x4 mags that also list the D3 as a medium 4x4 and is not lised against the other big 4x4s in their stats. This is where price comes in as the D3 is far more expensive than the equivalent Prado or Pajero.

It is up to LRA to fix this, but I am not sure the they are interested in this market - their marketing indicates to me that while the D3/RRs might be full on 4x4, LRA is actually after the niche BMW X5/X3 market. The problem is a BMW owner would never be caught dead in a Landrover and BMW does have the snob value and there is a lot of brand loyalty.

LRA marketting campaign should be directly targetting the 100 series and patrol and go after market share rather than max profit on each vehicle sold - they should identify the typical red neck Toyo drivers concerns about Landrover and develop campaigns to address this - in your face marketing such as 'Buy a Toyota recovery vehicle' should also be used.

In my view - identify real opposition, price accordingly and market, market, market ( also lets make more of the D3 functions manually controlled rather than computer controlled eg - manual setting of ride height, manually set the cdl etc - the fear of electrics is driving conservative buyers away)

My thoughts

Gazzz

Garry, the D3 ride height is manually adjustable through three levels: Access, Normal & Off-road. It's only extended mode that can't be manually set. Also the DSC can be switched off (absolutely necessary on sand). IF LRA was doing proper marketing then you'd know this. It would be really great though, if it was possible to activate the diff locks manually, but there is no car on the market with electronic locks that allows this (I don't know the technical details so maybe it's not possible??)

I think that the public just need education about electronics. They're good enough to put men on the moon but not good enought for a 4WD??

I remember 15 or so years ago when I got my first mobile phone. No-one would talk to me. Now if I don't take one with out me, I get abused for not having one!!

A clever marketing campaign could easily overcome public perceptions. And Garry your spot on, LRA need to identify the opposition, being toyota & nissan, and attack their weaknesses (of which there are many) in an intensive ad campaign. 8)

Oh, and LR needs to understand 80odd litre fuel tanks are too small!!!

Jamo - you are spot on - I must admit I thought everything happened automatically depending on what terrain setting you set.

As far as electronic diff locks are concerned - there is a switch - it is just activated automatically by the electronics - I am sure a decent auto electrician could putb in a switch somewhere but we shoudn't have to do this - it should be available

I also wonder if the cars are just becoming too technical? With diff locks fitted to the rear of both vehicles is a D3 any more capable offroad than a Disco 1 at the end of the day - more refined - yes, safer -yes, better to drive - yes, more fuel efficient - yes, a better dual use vehicle - yes: but is it actually more capable offroad - I doubt it - but I haven't driven one - but I did note the huge rear wheel lift when the D3 left the road on the car show on SBS just prior to him climbing that virgin hill that already had wheel tracks on it. I don't think a disco 1 would have quite lifted its skirts as much.

At the end of the day it is perceptions and to most people into 4x4s in Australia - Landrovers have a reputation of being expensive, having poor resale value, very capable offroad, overcomplicated, unreliable, uncomfortable (defender), and generally cantankerous.

This perception needs to be fixed - the problem is that a lot of it is true.

Garry