LR5 Release Updates?

[Surfrider77]

These rumors never end, LR is doing a good job of keeping things quiet.

LR San Antonio thinks the new Defender is slated for 2019 now with a 2018 preview.

http://www.landroversanantonio.com/blog/new-land-rover-defender-will-see-2019-arrival-date/

I wonder if the people in Solihull or other factories read these blogs and laugh at us?

I am certain that LR San Antonio made that Defender page to simply draw clicks to their website on Defender searches. There is virtually zero official info out there yet from Land Rover on the new Defender, aside from a very rough timeline.

 

[Davidinseattle]

It doesn't take that long to switch out the factory. All the tooling has been done. It's just factory set up now. Move the old machines out and move the new ones in and reprogram the existing where appropriate. Most of the components are made off site and shipped in anyway. There's not much to assembling a car anymore. Here's your rolling DT, here's body, here's your interior, here's your car.

For comparison's sake, it took Ford around 8 weeks to retool KS for the aluminum F Series and that was switching from steel body, arguably more difficult in nature than a standard retool.

 

[Surfrider77]

It doesn't take that long to switch out the factory. All the tooling has been done. It's just factory set up now. Move the old machines out and move the new ones in and reprogram the existing where appropriate. Most of the components are made off site and shipped in anyway. There's not much to assembling a car anymore. Here's your rolling DT, here's body, here's your interior, here's your car.

For comparison's sake, it took Ford around 8 weeks to retool KS for the aluminum F Series and that was switching from steel body, arguably more difficult in nature than a standard retool.

Not sure if it makes any difference, but Ford produces about 5x as many F-150s alone as Land Rover produces across their ENTIRE vehicle line-up. Also, there are two different plants cranking out F-150s (Dearborn and KS). They easily could have split the cutover between the plants.

 

[AxelR]

As a student I worked for Mercedes-Benz back in Germany (both in Gaggenau and Rastatt). My assumption is that not many people on the forum I've worked in factories pressing parts, building engines, transmissions, axles, etc or in an assembly plant.
The whole process takes time but by the time the prototypes are running pretty much everything is ready to be set in place in a matter of weeks.
I'm not confirming how short or how long it will take to get to producing the new Discovery but it could be a matter of a very short time. In addition, again an assumption, a lot if not most of the parts will be produced on the same lines than the ones for the RR and RRS...
I would have a tendency to agree with David in Seattle that this could happen really fast once the final version is presented. I'm somewhat hoping for the NYC auto show but it might be unrealistic. We'll see in a few weeks I guess. NYAS starts on 03/25.

 

[Davidinseattle]

axel,

I'll let you know as I am at the NY auto show this coming week for industry/press days. I'm in the industry, so have a lot of background here.

Surfrider, its' the variants that cause more complexity. F-Series has many more model lines and trim codes, so it would actually be more difficult to retool for f-series than it would for the new LR5. having multiple plants is not of consequence as each plant requires a mirror switch out if they are producing the same variants (at least for the first plan). Definitely helps on the next plant without with the same model line as there are things to be learned on the initial set up.

I would be surprised if this took them more than 8-10 weeks to retool and start production, unless there are unforeseen fit and finish issues, supplier quality issues, etc.

 

[AxelR]

I'll be attending as well as I live in Manhattan for a few more months.

 

[Hayseed_LR4]

So should I pull the trigger on a 2016 or wait for the new Explorer, er, I mean LR5? Looking to get a 16 because of the body style.

Will i be a bad idea to get an LR5 in its first year?

 

[AxelR]

So should I pull the trigger on a 2016 or wait for the new Explorer, er, I mean LR5? Looking to get a 16 because of the body style.

Will i be a bad idea to get an LR5 in its first year?

Not sure about a LR5 but a Discovery maybe
I think there's a little bit of superstition when it comes down to 1st year vehicles... I wouldn't care.

 

[Davidinseattle]

I'm in the auto industry. My tip to you: NEVER, EVER buy the beta version. And wait until mid year production for year two as many of the parts from year one are still in bins at the assembly plant, so even if there is a known issue, they either don't have a fix or don't have the new parts.

So, I'd wait until the 2018 MY if I wanted an LR5 or I'd just buy a Ford or some other mainstream SUV that JLR is trying to emulation for volume. Of course, what JLR doesn't understand is that the reason the explorer sells more is the price, not the style!. More people can afford and explorer. So, their sales will jump, but it will be based on push demand and not pull demand.

The mainstreaming of a niche brand is never pretty. The one exception seems to be Porsche. I think they've done a pretty good job of it.

 

[thorgal]

I'm in the auto industry. My tip to you: NEVER, EVER buy the beta version. And wait until mid year production for year two as many of the parts from year one are still in bins at the assembly plant, so even if there is a known issue, they either don't have a fix or don't have the new parts.

So, I'd wait until the 2018 MY if I wanted an LR5 or I'd just buy a Ford or some other mainstream SUV that JLR is trying to emulation for volume. Of course, what JLR doesn't understand is that the reason the explorer sells more is the price, not the style!. More people can afford and explorer. So, their sales will jump, but it will be based on push demand and not pull demand.

The mainstreaming of a niche brand is never pretty. The one exception seems to be Porsche. I think they've done a pretty good job of it.

What you just stated is mostly a superstition based observation.
Yes we could have a few software glitches , but nothing major as introduction of LR3 proved, being miles away in terms of improvement over D2.
I can honestly say that my 2005 LR3 proved to be the most reliable vehicle that I have own and still runs strong at 183 000 miles.