BMW bought Land Rover to rip off the technology and then sold it
Now thats must be the beginning of the Urban Myth for 4wd's
If they wanted to rip off the technology they would do like every other car manufacturer buy a couple units reverse engineer them to find out the hows and whys and then produce their own models no need to buy the diary to sample the milk.
You are quite right - and in fact, that is how the Landrover got started, by buying a few jeeps and copying them.
However, you will note that despite this, Rover needed to make a lot of changes from experience - it is probably no exaggeration to say there were more changes made in Landrovers from 1948 to 1951 than from 1951 to 1983. Similarly, Toyota started with making Jeep copies in the early fifties, and had to make a lot of changes. (Even Willys, starting with Bantam's blueprints, needed to make significant changes)
Even if you make exact copies, (and nobody does) having the finished product does not mean you know how it is made - things like how to finish the surfaces of parts or how they need to be heat treated (and most importantly, which bits of this matter).
Now I don't know if this is why BMW bought Landrover, or if the reason they sold it was that they had got the information they needed, but it would make sense.
John
John
JDNSW
1986 110 County 3.9 diesel
1970 2a 109 2.25 petrol
"How long since you've visited The Good Oil?"
'93 V8 Rossi
'97 to '07. sold.![]()
'01 V8 D2
'06 to 10. written off.
'03 4.6 V8 HSE D2a with Tornado ECM
'10 to '21
'16.5 RRS SDV8
'21 to Infinity and Beyond!
1988 Isuzu Bus. V10 15L NA Diesel
Home is where you park it..
[IMG][/IMG]
Offer them a $ for Jag and get them to chuck in Land Rover as well, for another $.
The bean counters will see the sensibility of this idea
Here's the plan, which'll stop Ford losing billions:
1. Ford dump LR and Jag for 2$.
2. New owner shelves Jag temporarily.
3. New owner rationalises LR line - one platform/chassis down the prod line - p1ss off the Hippo, sorry Freo people. Only diesel versions and only two motors V6, V8 diesels, no petrol.
4. Existing/new prod line (one platform/chassis) Range Rover, RR Sport, Disco3. Rationalise models.
5. Three variants sold to the world, as above.
6. Get the designers to put a Jag sedan on the standard platform.
7. New jag sedan 4wd created and sold to the world.
8. All use one platform and only (one of) two diesel donks.
9. Defender: Given there are now three redundant lines (as a result of the Ford dump), and one common platform/chassis, reintroduce a second line.
The one common chassis, including motor(s)/box/tfer, underpins the all new Defender, which is a basic vehicle. (aftermarket can spec it custom)
10. Problem solved - except for the Hippo and whatever an Etype is called this week.
11. Prod line 2 runs a short platform/chassis which gets the Hippo bodyshell.
12. Having made gazillions of $$$ on this plan, the new owners reintroduce the original Etype, which runs off prod line 2 (only one run per year) and keeps old semi retired aluminium body beaters in a happy occupation.
13. I'll have one of each, I'm not greedy.....
GQ
Of course if this actually happens, we then know the new owner is an AULRO fan and I'll a % or 2...
GQ
i thought jag was the problem
isn't jag the one running at losses, and the whole reason landrover gets sold is to sweeten the jag deal......
i dont think anyone would buy jag on its own
Our Land Rover does not leak oil! it just marks its territory.......
Just my luck... my 3 favourite car manafacturers
LR, Aston & Jag
I might start liking Holdens and see if i can Jinx them instead![]()
The big pity is that Land Rover has now lost the know how to design new engines, and now the Ford engines like the Ford TDV6, The TDV8, the Volvo 5 cylinder diesel in the Freelander, the Transit diesel, and the petrol V8s will not be available to Land Rover at the same price as now. Also the Explorer v6, but nobody should lament that.
What do they do?
I think this will be a BIG problem for Land Rover as they never had much money for new engines , hence the old 3.5-3.9-4.6 going for so many years.
Unless a big manufacturer like VW or someone picks them up, I think they will slowly fade away, because their cost base will just increase and increase because of their low volume.
Regards Philip A
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