Thread: Defender Commercial model

7.7 isnt it from memory

Originally Posted by PhilipA

Funny , LRs main market for Defender was organisations that needed extreme off road ability like charities such as bomb clearing, the UN, and for the 90 British farmers.

SWB 4x4s have never been successful in Australia. The 2 door Prado , the 2 door Pajero, the 90 itself even the 2door Rav4 died a quick death. If they bring the 90 in, then it will sell initially to "early adopters" but after a relatively short time will be discontinued. How many 2 door Evoques do you see? I saw one at my local supermarket and had to do a double take as I have never seen one before or since.

I think the Defender 110 will be successful as the old one never was as it looks like a viable alternative to Prado. BUT the pricing will be the thing that kills or makes it. GBP 45K starting price in UK. Hmmm.
That is about AUD 80K and add some options like metallic paint and 100K is in sight. Even Mercedes don't charge that for the ute anyway which is rumoured to be discontinued due to poor sales.
Regards PhilipA

I looked at a G professional ute 6 months ago, $115k plus tray, plus onroad, was looking at around $135k drive away..no way, and there are very few available in OZ. I would rather buy a cruiser for that. But a GXL tray top optioned was $82k, for a single cab. With the removal of the Toyota V8 in the next year or so, I think this thing will do well, particularly in a commercial spec..Im keen to see it in the flesh, after 20+ years buying new Defenders for work, I wouldn't buy another one if it was the same as the old model, its time was/is well and truely done..

I think there are tax reasons why a commercial version is offered in the UK. And aren't the rear seats removed?
On the LRA Defender builder site its possible to specify a basic Defender with steel wheels and ignore all the options offered. Would be interesting to know the price.

A commercial version that is cheaper than a Workmate or cabchassis cruiser, Now there is an idea! Ha!

Toyota Australia might have to drop their Toyota Tax??????? Ha!

JRLA is not that smart!

Cheers

RF

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

I think there are tax reasons why a commercial version is offered in the UK. And aren't the rear seats removed?
On the LRA Defender builder site its possible to specify a basic Defender with steel wheels and ignore all the options offered. Would be interesting to know the price.

Yes, no rear seats. Also, apparently vehicles without rear side glass have a different rego/tax treatment in the UK, and possibly also Ireland.

Same goes for .nl No rear seats and covered rear windows and a minimum door size, roof height and some other stuff gives you a LT registration. That saves a whole lot of road tax and it reduces a bunch of other tax costs on purchase as well, but only if you register it as a legal company. Down here we have the advantage though that you are allowed to modify the car yourself so that it no longer holds the rear seats and so on. We have every model of range rover and disco down here that is big enough modified this way. It's the poor mans way to drive them if you own a business

So yes, I figure a "commercial" version is going to have to happen and if not by JLR themselves, companies will pop up to do it for you.

Cheers,
-P

edit: whilst looking for an example I came across this:Deze bestelauto heeft een BMW Individual interieur - Autoblog.nl we indeed even butcher station wagons to fit the law JUST to drive cheaper... I do apologize for the Dutchies

.... and then there are (as a google revealed) a whole lot of businesses that fit seats back into the commercials .... but I'd presume that the commercials don't have rear airbags, so I wouldn't be putting my family back there. And you'd also wonder about side intrusion bars etc.

2020 Land Rover Defender engineering, specification and options detailed
*
There will also be commercial variants of the new Defender 90 and 110, but these are yet to be confirmed for Australia, with James Scrimshaw, Land Rover Australia’s PR manager, telling us, “We are interested in bringing the commercial variants to Australia and will be ordering evaluation units once they are made available to us.”