"Jaguar Land Rover eyes new factory in Poland"

[rebbonk]

Having been involved in customer clinics for the previous incarnations of Defender, I'd say it does matter.

Truth be told, Defender was profitable (despite the best efforts of L/R sales department) and that was down to the enthusiasts. Lose the enthusiasts and you have a product that simply won't pay its way.

Believe it or not, L/R never understood the product properly, hence their ridiculous move to pitch it to the yuppie market. - Yes it sold a few, but not sufficient to cover a fraction of the vast engineering cost that went on behind the scenes.

[dutchman]

The new Defender will be pitched even higher upmarket I read.

[rebbonk]

L/R sales and marketing didn't have a clue. It was a bl**dy agricultural tool for God's sake: fitting it with central locking, air-con, etc etc. was ludicrous.

I just hope (but have serious doubts) that they've identified a decent sized market for this vehicle.

Several of the products in the current (and recent past) JLR stable have failed to cover their investment/development costs. Whilst running (say) a sports saloon as a prestige (but possibly a vanity) product can be a reasonable sales ploy, when it's half your product range that fits that particular bill you aren't going to last very long. Looking for cheaper countries to produce in is often the first sign that management have got the product strategy wrong, but don't have the guts to address the real problem. I've seen it all before, these companies don't learn from their past mistakes.

I wonder how much longer Tata will put up with the lacklustre performance of the current JLR management?

[dutchman]

Everyone's worst fears realised. It's not a Land Rover, it's a luxury SUV:

Would love to hear Scotty Kilmer tear it apart!

[rebbonk]

Past lessons haven't been learned. That vehicle will be competing for the same buyers of their other offerings.

[dutchman]

And every other manuafacturer on the planet. When the Range Rover was first launched it was the only vehicle of its kind anywhere in the world, now everyone and his brother is making one. Also Rover have a poor reputation for reliability to start with and all those gadgets will be a nightmare to fix.

[rebbonk]

The poor reliability reputation is rightly deserved. Too little in house development and testing is carried out, they prefer to use the customer!