Thread: What is wrong with Landrover Australia?

Yep. I does seem that way. But there are still a couple of regional dealers that are a bit more interested in Defenders. I got mine through a Toowoomba dealer who moved mountains to source me one quickly in my preferred colour.

Its a shame but it just seems they do not want to sell or maintain LRs in Australia.

Originally Posted by Diego Luego

Landrover make the most capable 4WD in the world the Defender. So how do they market it in Australia?

Firstly in the Sydney Motor show they display a poorly prepared plain white wagon with absolutely no accessories. The RHS rear door did not even open. The whole vehicle frankly looked crap - even to a Landrover enthusiast like myself. It looked like the poor second cousin that no-one liked to talk about.

Secondly the stealers all (at least in Sydney) had only plain white vehicles. If you wanted anything else you had to order it.

Now, as far as I know there are NO new defenders for sale. If you want one you will have to wait until at least May 2008.

The sales-people turn up their noses when you express interest in Defenders. I should know I am still trying to convince my wife that we should buy a new one.

They should have a mega-bling vehicle on each showroom floor with all the goodies - like the Lara Croft version they had in in 2002.

It looks like they are intent in killing off all demand for the Defender. It is really sad.

And in addition, now that there is a known problem with the sump pan/drive shaft (see post in Defender section) - they won't fix it until it breaks leaving you stranded - what a moronic approach.

I agree, the Landrover sales people in Perth i have talked to don't want to know about you when you ask about a Defender, all over I have found Landrover Australia about the worst sales people out of all the car manuafactures in Australia, no wonder the sales of their vehicles are slowing. It is sad I have grown up around Landrovers, but the next Landrover I buy wont be new and not bought from a dealership.

Well the fact is that they can't supply all the orders they already have, so it is a little pointless advertising a product that can't be delivered, but I do agree about the poor presentation - no excuses for that.

Land Rover UK are only giving them a small dribble of cars to sell, so Australia is not that high up their priority list by the looks.

The Adelaide dealer has a nice red demo.........

maybe Land Rover could try selling a few different models of the Defender that currently aren't available here. If I had the cash I certainly wouldn't mind a 110 HCPU

As far as I can see, the problem is that the Defender does not fit with the rest of the range. The Defender is essentially a utility vehicle, no matter how you dress it up.

Landrover Australia, since the introduction of the Discovery at least (remember the Defender was dropped at that time!), has positioned itself as a purveyor of luxury cars, and the Defender does not fit in that position.

They have got themselves in this position largely by losing the utility market (but kept their luxury market with the Rangerover). This was lost by failure to meet the challenge of the Japanese in areas such as power/weight, durability, reliability and dealer support, and subsequently shutting down most of the dealer network. Retrieving the situation is likely to be very expensive and take a long time, but it seems they are not even trying, perhaps waiting for a completely new Defender design, or perhaps just put it in the too hard basket.

John

Hey......here's a mad idea

With the skill base available here and on other international forums we would, collectivly, have what it takes to run the company........

With "who is going to but Land Rover" still not completely decided........

How about a driver/enthusiast buyout?

Not sure what the individual cost per member would be

I'd be happy to run it too!!

Cheers
Jason