avslash
Full Access Member
It hurts me to say this but for the first time I’m truly disappointed in Land Rover. After seeing the bronco and studying it, it makes me disappointed because there isn’t truly a good market for this defender. But the part that really makes me disappointed is knowing that Land Rover can do so much better.
this defender should compete with the bronco and the wrangler, it should be boxy, the top should be removable, the tires should be bigger. The only way I see Land Rover possibly making a profitable profit off this car is making a removable top. People want an open top go anywhere get dirty 4x4 and that’s where the defender should be.
Easy to feel like that, but IMO you can't get ******* into a manufacturer. I still vividly remember GM breaking my heart when I was a kid by killing off the Buick GNX and replacing it with the GM10 version "Regal" before I could get my hands on one. It was a tough lesson in economics for my teenaged self.
The manufacturers aren't loyal to us, they are loyal to the almighty dollar, and if they could drive sales volume by selling purple weinermobiles, they would. Manufacturers build what they think will sell, and then adjust from their based on market experience.
I'm quite sure Land Rover built what their market data and their experience told them would sell. Unfortunately for the somewhat niche users like many of us here, it was not what many of us wanted to see. There is little to no "risk" in the new Defender. To my eye it looks much like the other JLR product currently out their. There is nothing radical or particularly distinctive about it. It is another branch from the same McGovern family tree that has all the JLR product offerings looking like slightly different sized versions of the same vehicle; air suspension, big wheels, low profile tires, smallish windows, et al. The most striking aspect of it to me was the somewhat utilitarian interior by current JLR standards.
Read an interview or two with McGovern. The guy is a pompous ass who thinks if you don't like what he is selling the problem is yours, not JLR's. Likewise, their comments that the Defender had to look the way it does due to modern regulations is utter hogwash; see the revised G-Wagen, Wrangler, and now the Bronco.
JLR brought a bland, sameish product to market, dusted off their most iconic model name to lend some credence to it, and I think they will regret their conservatism in the long run. Of course if it turns out that the Defender makes Suzy soccer mom a little damp in the right places, then McGovern is a genius and I'm just the guy on the internet with an opinion.