Just back from a few days in Berchtsgaden. Well snowy conditions and very hilly. Saw one Freely. Bit of a dis-appointment to see not a single Full Fat, RRS, Disco Sport, D5, D4 or F Face. Precisely two Ewoks seen. Most popular vehicle seemed to be the VW Tigy but many many hundreds of Suzuki Vitara/SX Cross thingies, Subaru- Foresters/Outbacks/XVs, plus fair smattering of High Undies, ItchyPussies, Rav 4s, Jeeps and Volvos. Seems that the much trumpeted rise in JLR sales to Germany may have faltered somewhat. Ralf Speth blames Brexit as he is quoted recently as saying that JLR’s European sales team have reported customers turning their noses up at British cars after the vote to leave the EU.
Think the reasons why potential German customers may be turning up their noses is because JLR do not offer the right products. What was by far the most popular British car on the roads? - Well nice very late model Defenders, SWB and LWB - some with snorkels and big A/T tyres. were everywhere. So we now have nothing to sell them at the vast small 4x4 SUV/cross over end of the market and nothing to sell them at the rugged end. No doubt he will be blaming import duties once we are out! Odd that Suzuki, Subaru and the rest of the Japs, South Koreans etc seem to be able to sell there.

I think it’s a case of people buying what does the job . In the area you visited a 4x4 is probably a necessity. The lowest cost of entry into new LR ownership with 4x4 is around £30,000 list ? If you have that to spend you have an awful lot of choice. If you have less than than that to spend say £15 - 25k you still have a huge amount of choice but it excludes anything JLR. 2009 GS Auto Zermatt Silver - Sold June 21 after 10 years of ownership

2016 Subaru Outback SE 2.0 diesel SE Premium Lineartronic Sold 2024 after 8 years and 80k miles . Best Car I ever owned !

2023 Toyota Hilux invincible X 2.8 Auto .

Yep, its a very specific requirement there in winter - 4 x 4 on winter tyres. Two wheel drive cars on winter tyres were barely able to get up the steep hills even before the snow started to lie. JLR no longer do rugged at any entry point, large vehicle or small, and have simply brand engineered themselves out of competing. Can't blame the customers or Brexit for that.

"......... and have simply brand engineered themselves out of competing......."

Ever thought ...... that is their marketing strategy ??

Why should JLR compete in the mid to low end of the market ......... when they can have the high end.......... to themselves. !

Have you ever run a company ??

.

It is indeed the JLR marketing strategy Largered, and drives everything they do nowadays. Its just a crap one

Time will tell .......

.

D3/4 are rugged machines Even the D5 is a rugged car they can all cope with the harshest terrain. The D5 May look like it will fall apart but it’s a phenomenal machine in the rough.

The Defender is simplistic which is more the point. LR need a simple low cost entry level vehicle, cheap to run and modify and easy to maintain also more importantly reliable. Not necessarily rugged. 21MY Defender 90 S 3.0 D200

I see in the car mags today that JLR are inching towards getting a new Defender out - looks like its on the D5 platform rather than the last concept they offered a few years ago. Pity a bit late coming to market to say the least. We can but hope as to it's appeal to the market sectors where the brand once meant something.

Will be far too expensive for the common man I suspect. FL2 MY10 TD4 GS traded in at 2 years
FL2 MY13 TD4 GS Current

Tradewind 35 wrote:

I see in the car mags today that JLR are inching towards getting a new Defender out - looks like its on the D5 platform rather than the last concept they offered a few years ago. Pity a bit late coming to market to say the least. We can but hope as to it's appeal to the market sectors where the brand once meant something.

Tradewind 35 wrote:

Just back from a few days in Berchtsgaden. Well snowy conditions and very hilly. Saw one Freely. Bit of a dis-appointment to see not a single Full Fat, RRS, Disco Sport, D5, D4 or F Face. Precisely two Ewoks seen. Most popular vehicle seemed to be the VW Tigy but many many hundreds of Suzuki Vitara/SX Cross thingies, Subaru- Foresters/Outbacks/XVs, plus fair smattering of High Undies, ItchyPussies, Rav 4s, Jeeps and Volvos. Seems that the much trumpeted rise in JLR sales to Germany may have faltered somewhat. Ralf Speth blames Brexit as he is quoted recently as saying that JLR�s European sales team have reported customers turning their noses up at British cars after the vote to leave the EU.
Think the reasons why potential German customers may be turning up their noses is because JLR do not offer the right products. What was by far the most popular British car on the roads? - Well nice very late model Defenders, SWB and LWB - some with snorkels and big A/T tyres. were everywhere. So we now have nothing to sell them at the vast small 4x4 SUV/cross over end of the market and nothing to sell them at the rugged end. No doubt he will be blaming import duties once we are out! Odd that Suzuki, Subaru and the rest of the Japs, South Koreans etc seem to be able to sell there.

My late father went to berchestgaden in March 1945 in his Lancaster with 617 SQN,and left a bit of a mess!  gone
P38 v8 auto no problems,great howle from exhausts when giving it welly
Td5 auto head gasket,no5 pot not uncommon but good car.
1st Tdv6s manual epb problem fixed under warranty(stealer said"never heard of this before,i suggested he looked at d3 forum.
2nd Tdv6 se auto epb
3rd Tdv6 xs auto 2008,swmbo,s favourite.

Largered wrote:

"......... and have simply brand engineered themselves out of competing......."

Ever thought ...... that is their marketing strategy ??

Why should JLR compete in the mid to low end of the market ......... when they can have the high end.......... to themselves. !

Have you ever run a company ??

.

every vehicle that goes down the line ....... will yield a margin / profit for any company. What is the margin on a Freelander 2 compared with a RR Evoque ?
For every Defender that shipped out of the factory LR were loosing hundreds of pounds ........ on every vehicle.

LR could build more lines ? what they can't do is double or treble the line speed, to produce commodity products.

as for brand awareness, that is why LR deleted the Freelander range. How many LR models are built now, compared to the high number of RR models.

LR is, and has been, changing its just that some owners (and previous owners) ........ are not.



PS I help run a company on OFEX, which later conducted an IPO for full listing. Its share price started at 60p ....... but rocketed to £28.80. That is why I retired at 48 !

.

A good man that can retire at 48 on just £28.80.  FL2 MY10 TD4 GS traded in at 2 years
FL2 MY13 TD4 GS Current

yes,the rest of us mere mortals must have got it very wrong indeed!  gone
P38 v8 auto no problems,great howle from exhausts when giving it welly
Td5 auto head gasket,no5 pot not uncommon but good car.
1st Tdv6s manual epb problem fixed under warranty(stealer said"never heard of this before,i suggested he looked at d3 forum.
2nd Tdv6 se auto epb
3rd Tdv6 xs auto 2008,swmbo,s favourite.