Land Rover doesn't understand Australia - no ute !

Land Rover don't really care about Australia, or Africa, or any other small markets that were waiting/hoping for a Defender ute. That ship has sailed as these are not the target markets anymore. It will be a rational business decision on Land Rovers part to not compete in a segment with too little ROI for such a small company. The giving up of street cred, cache, links to your roots, etc is another argument entirely, which larger companies like Mercedes can cater for (G-Wagen range), but Land Rover probably can't.

Having said that, given a never ending budget, I'm sure Land Rover would have loved to have a Defender ute though, and I bet a lot of midnight oil (and probably $$ on prototypes) was burned on whether to add it to the model range or not!

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Originally Posted by 16PMark

Or Mexico, not sure where the Navara is built.
I believe the body is completely different, it's just the floor pan that Merc pinched.
So not just a re-badging as such, but near enough, for Mercedes standards.
Hmmm, Mercedes Renault partnership.....would that work for F1...[emoji1787]
Anywho.....
[emoji1783]

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X-Class Benz is assembled in Spain. The body is not from the Navara, and there are variants that use Benz running gear, these would be the dearer, up market ones.

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Originally Posted by Graeme

In Oz at least, a farmer isn't allowed to carry hazardous pesticides (herbicides & insecticides) inside a vehicle but can in the back of a ute.

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But they're allowed to drive a DIESEL. [emoji56][emoji1787][emoji23]

Said it before, and will say it again. The New Defender is the logical successor to the D4. Of course there won't be a ute.

JLR's owners, Tata, make heaps of utes. If they believed that there was a demand then I reckon we would get Tata utes, not LRs. LR has been increasingly distanced from that market, which is now totally dominated by Toyota and Ford, here in Oz.

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Originally Posted by 87County

just re-badged (from Thailand?) isn't it?

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No. Apart from the Nissan F-Alpha platform, and some driveline stuff in some models, it's a different vehicle, and it's made in Spain.

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Originally Posted by goingbush

Wake up sunshine, LandRover don't give a toss about Australia. ( or, it seems, English Farmers)

There will be no Ute.

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Yep agree there and clearly consumers don't give a toss about Land Rover products which is reflected in poor sales of Land Rovers for decades.

I doubt they will ever wake up and build products that consumers want. With the attitude of "why would you buy a dual cab ute" its that stupid arrogance that killed their products in the 70's.

Jaguar Land Rover, lost in their own bull**** while the market leader Toyota keeps selling vehicles.

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Originally Posted by DazzaTD5

Jaguar Land Rover, lost in their own bull**** while the market leader Toyota keeps selling vehicles.

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All old news,the Defender ute was dead months ago,following comments from LR.

Meanwhile, Toyota keep making vehicles that people in this country want.

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Originally Posted by DazzaTD5

Yep agree there and clearly consumers don't give a toss about Land Rover products which is reflected in poor sales of Land Rovers for decades.

I doubt they will ever wake up and build products that consumers want. With the attitude of "why would you buy a dual cab ute" its that stupid arrogance that killed their products in the 70's.

Jaguar Land Rover, lost in their own bull**** while the market leader Toyota keeps selling vehicles.

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And yet LR is now more successful than they have been for over 40 years. They DO make vehicles that people want. It's just that now those are different people.

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Originally Posted by johntins

And yet LR is now more successful than they have been for over 40 years. They DO make vehicles that people want. It's just that now those are different people.

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And yet LR sales are dismal when compared to Toyota, Kia, Hyundai etc etc that DO make vehicles people want.

Land Rover back in the 50's built a vehicle people wanted, a series I Land Rover.
I don't see "successful" anywhere, it certainly isn't build quality, reliability nor sales.
Maybe you mean customer support, which isnt horrific when compared to VW, Merc, Holden.

OK - Being able to access repair manuals, data, info etc etc is second to none from where I sit (you pay for the amount of access and for how long).

It appears I probably can't get 12 bags of goat poo in the back of a new Defender wagon, so I guess I'm not their target market and we'll have to soldier on with our old 110. [emoji6]