Excellent piece of grade A corporate guff.

 

l am right with you here.
l think it's a crazy idea to kill of the Land Rover name, it's got history going back to 1949.

Can you imagine Jeep doing that? Land Rover are throwing away their heritage.

 

They had press releases about spinning Bronco off as a brand two years ago along with Mustang and possibly Raptor. They're also talking about EV's being a fully distinct brand.

With Bronco, to me it works because it's so different from their other vehicles. The Bronco centers with focus on Bronco heritage and a small off-road track make sense. They would showcase their accessories and options so much better and make it a unique buying experience.

Defender is just not that unique within LR and this moves strips the heritage away.

Bronco is also much higher volume and the store wouldn't feel as dead.

 

well here's my perspective as a non JLR follower until I fell in love with the Defender design.

The current Land Rover Naming system is convoluted. They're trying to simplify it.

Not a fan of their idea, but I will say that it's because of the fact they use Range Rover as a model that is confusing it all to begin with.

These Make Sense:

Land Rover Defender
Land Rover Discovery

These don't
Land Rover Range Rover
Land Rover Range Rover Evoque
Land Rover Range Rover Velar

In the world where characters are limited (social media, whatever) and a worldwide language (i wonder what all that above translates into?) plus none of that rolls off the tongue much does it? I can see why someone wanted to rebrand, why you'd ditch Land Rover though seems like someone spoke to the wrong group, that's like Jeep dropping Jeep and just going Wrangler and Cherokee.

Jaguar has a bigger issue though with the brand, Ford buying them, turning them into fancy tauruses and then ditching it really screwed the brand and it's 'what it's known for' away. I'm hopeful 'high end performance EV' is what they go for, but I doubt I'd be able to afford it, cuz I'd love a two door convertible one.

 

As a long-time Land Rover enthusiast, I've always resisted the urge to criticize the evolution of the utility model. Every time there is an update, someone will say "But it's not a real [insert model name here]." My view is that things evolve. Where would Land Rover be if the utility models had stuck at the Series IIA step? Out of business, that's where. I have a friend who feels similarly about his beloved F-150, and I always tell him: Dude, just go buy a Model T if that's what you want.

But spinning Defender off as a brand seems like a dumb idea to me. The brand's strength derives from Land Rover.

 

Seems like a lot of hand-wringing here, but the article I read when clicking the link says: with the Land Rover name being retained as an overall 'trustmark' for off-road technology and capability.And, “A spokesperson added, somewhat confusingly: "Land Rover will remain.” Obviously all very confusing but it seems the Land Rover badging is not going away. In any case, it won’t affect my sleep. Maybe our Land Rover badged Defenders will go up in value for ‘sentimental’ reasons.

 

LMAO...you are so correct Lightning. This kind of corporate BS is precisely why I left the disastrous corporate world. They can take their emails, Zooms, excel spreadsheets, reviews, Salesforce CRM, frivolous travel, mindless meetings and stick it all where the sun will never shine 😂

 

Before ya'll wreck another perfectly good set of panties....Remember, you are referencing an article that appeared in Motor Trend...

 

I tell all the people (99.999% of whom have never driven a Defender or Series of any age or generation) who say that the Defender is not a "real" Defender that I am old enough to remember their fathers (or even grandfathers) saying that the coil spring Defenders were not "real" Land Rovers and only cart springs were acceptable for any kind of utility vehicle. And time passed, and now the coil spring defenders are the "real thing" and unibody, independent suspension L663 is not.

I love series land rovers and defenders, but after a lot of seat time in both, I know that I would choose my 2022 110 every time for any kind of activity, on or off road. Times change and thank goodness for progress.

 

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Jaguar Land Rover to introduce car retail agency model by 2024 | Manufacturer (am-online.com)