Mind you none of them are regional towns, regional city's sure
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Oh FFS, Land Rover had some brilliant country dealers that sold heaps of cars, think Teasdales in Singleton, (now Singleton Mazda) Modern Motors Dungog (the very first Land Rover dealer in Australia!) and culled the lot in the early 2000's because they didn't fit into the prestige, cooperate image they were pursuing!
I talked to Evan Teasdale at length at the time, it was disgusting how they were treated.
One of the few that were retained was Suttons Motors in Alice Springs, and their volume sales these days is Subaru.
Land Rover were following the Lexus model.
They don't give two figs about off road, outback touring, country customers, etc.
They just want prestige sales.
SImples
FFS, is that fully fully sick? [emoji1787]
They have great country dealers, new ones are opening all the time, as ive already pointed out.
As i already pointed out, it was mentioned JLR dont have regional dealers and its simply false yota brigade rubbish, facts dont lie.
Now that they have reliable vehicles and impressive build quality these days, more dealers will open. However the current dealers are enough to support the sales, most people use indies these days anyway, who just get their parts in the same time or quicker.
It always amuses me how toyota fans have to post up facts like this to reassure themselves of their purchase.
Its like Apple fans or Samsung fans saying their product is better because they can get their cracked screens fixed at all the factory shops, we have more shops than you so we are better haha.
Any phone shop in any mall will fix it and probably faster and cheaper than the apple or the Samsung dealer.
This threads about the new defender not about how many shops toyota have around the country, honestly we dont care. If we wanted a toyota we wouldnt be here talking about the defender [emoji1787]
As for not caring about a real four-wheel drive is or country drivers, well already that's false buy them opening up dealers in regional country towns in recent times and insuring their vehicles can drive over any terrain comfortably and reliably.
I never really viewed the current defender as a prestige vehicle.
I think the new defender will be a utilitarian vehicle right through to a prestige utilitarian vehicle.
A bit like the professional g wagon through to the luxury g wagon.
I wonder how rivian will do with a zero dealer network.
But they aren't opening country dealerships.
They had a very good country dealership network and they abandoned them.
When I first went to Alice Springs I was blown away by how many Defenders and Disco's were running around.
And the fact I noticed is even more impressive as I didn't have a Land Rover at the time!
I think it was around 1999/2000?
The Upper Hunter was the same, Disco's and Defenders everywhere because Teasdales were a brilliant dealer.
Land Rover have been trying to kill Defender since it was absorbed into PAG by Ford.
It didn't fit into their corporate plans.
They want Land Rover to compete directly with Lexus. Not Toyota.
It got a slight reprieve with Tata ownership.
The fact was it cost them nothing to keep production going and they sold every single one they built. The reason it was only 25,000/year it's because the bloody thing was hand built, it was ridiculously labour intensive compared to modern production techniques, and the line was so antiquated until Ford came among.
A good mate was a consultant engineer to LRA during those years, he had worked for them previously on the Perentie and I got to know some of the other engineers there too.
They've all gone now, retired or moved on, but I got an inside view of what was going on, and I doubt if things have changed much in the intervening years.
Defender will be a sophisticated, capable SUV, aimed at a relatively affluent, aspirational market.
It will be selling an image, an idea.
It won't be a rugged, utilitarian 4x4.
Exactly. Except they are silly IMO. And that is problem. ...A company who’s entire reputation is built on vehicles supposedly designed for off road adventure, but weirdly not aimed at markets outside the city. I don’t get it and I’m clearly not the only one ...it would seem that the increasing majority who want a vehicle designed for the bush will continue voting with their feet.
It’s chicken and egg, but the golden geese obviously remain Hilux and Landcruiser. ...I remain dumbfounded that Defender and a new Land Rover ute we’re not re-developed more than a decade ago.