British Automobile Brand For Sale

YellowIron

Active member
Jan 28, 2018
28
0
Michigan
Who wants to buy the brand? Tata's stock will jump when the "less prestigious sub brand" gets sold to suckers. Its an easy deal to do. Clearly the Range Rover brand is what has ultimate value and I want very much to help Tata unload their distressed assets. Such as Land Rover.

A restructured Land Rover can make real trucks, improved originals built in America. England in its current state seems too confused to stop LR from going to America and Tata would win so big on this one it is like we are doing them a favor. Share prices always go up when you dump unprestigrous crap, right?

The world needs curvy Range Rover branded vehicles. We need USA built Land Rover utility vehicles and acquisition of whatever is available to run that factory for them at about $.05 on the dollar. :patriot:

Value add comes quick when it's soul gets restored on a brownfield in the rust belt. Just play along nicely here and maybe the jobs and trucks will return.

Time to liquidate that antiquated Land Rover branding, am I right? #RRLUXURY4EVA
 

discostew

Well-known member
Sep 14, 2010
7,706
1,015
Northern Illinois
You should probably get started on your $42,000 discovery. Your burning daylight. Your proving to us that you are a construction guy eho thinks he has the whole automotive thing figured out.

NO CHRIS I WILL NOT LEAVE THIS TOOL ALONE.
 

YellowIron

Active member
Jan 28, 2018
28
0
Michigan
You should probably get started on your $42,000 discovery. Your burning daylight. Your proving to us that you are a construction guy eho thinks he has the whole automotive thing figured out.

NO CHRIS I WILL NOT LEAVE THIS TOOL ALONE.

You're?

Ya, thats the one you wanted.
 

discostew

Well-known member
Sep 14, 2010
7,706
1,015
Northern Illinois
That's what we need around here. Another grammar Nazi who spouts off stupid shit about the automotive industry.

So lets just revisit what your suggesting. You say that Tata is going to sell off the Land Rover side of the company and you also think that the direction that half of the company should go is to sell what? And your going to fix this brand here in the states? I'm not sure tat would work.
 

discostew

Well-known member
Sep 14, 2010
7,706
1,015
Northern Illinois
oh ya sorry about the tool comment. I was confused and thought you were the guy wanting to build and sell $42,000 Discos. My bad.

But I do hate when people start selling off half the brand.
 

discostew

Well-known member
Sep 14, 2010
7,706
1,015
Northern Illinois
Great. So here is what I think bout your thinking on the whole spinning off the lower half of this brand. People in the general public who just buy and drive vehicles don't get to see the ugly underbelly of what makes car brands do what they do.

I started out my automotive career as an Oldsmobile mechanic. Still remember the first time a kid told me us techs or something like that. Had to be explained to that tech is the new word for us dirties. So that being said I lived what happened to Olds. Basicaly in my opinion 2 things happenned to olds, first our customer base died.I worked for a ton of world war 2 widows at 2000 wilson blvd. in Arlington Va. But then as they all died off the place kind of dried up. Cause at that time we still had the 5.7 diesel running around stinking shit up. Then they camme out with the famous pitch " this is not your fathers Odsmobile". Well this is not your father Land Rover.

Land Rover has kind of stopped building what we want. They build what people buy. Most people who buy cars really don't know what makes a good car or truck. If fucking consumer reports says a brand has cooling system problems because the ac didn't work like it should, Hey that's gospel. And these are the ass holes that decide what gets made.

So no matter what kind of car you like today, people are eventually going to want something different. Your dream car is going to go away.
 

YellowIron

Active member
Jan 28, 2018
28
0
Michigan
Stew the dream car lives on. Its a G-Class chassis cab commercial truck. I want to buy that here with a green emblem. Other various body on frame boxy and heavy truck type utility vehicles can be made as well, in various trims.

I feel your Olds pain, which is why I can drop a production line on the Fischer Body site with minimal red tape. Lots of jobs stew.

Keep fighting it. Enjoy those sweet Range Rovers.
 

discostew

Well-known member
Sep 14, 2010
7,706
1,015
Northern Illinois
One problem with splitting the brand and moving production would be the queen. Believe it or not, that fucked up a few deals when Land Rover was first looking for a buyer. BMW was first to get a deal done and they got the Rover Car Group in the deal. That part of the company was the big drain on Land Rover. BMW kept that and brought back the Mini, we all know that story. Never looked into it but I'm sure the queen would not allow production to leave. Who knows?
When Ford bought Land Rover somehow they cut ties with Rover Car Group and the company was profitable. They had a lot to do with Jaguar and Land Rover becoming one. Land Rover is the truck line for Jag. If you can fix Rovers you can fix Jags. It's all the same shit. Now like or hate the product they make today, they sell the shit out of all of it.
Then came Tata. At first I thought we were screwed. And maybe we still are. But the structure of the company is pretty strong. Tata has its own steel mills, so that's huge. Quality steel has become a huge problem here since we allowed dumping of steel into our market. Once our steel industry collapsed the quality took a shit. So they have control of all that.

Here's what you need to think about. For the last decade or more the big talk was about the automotive market being ripe for start up car companies. Most all systems are available from all kinds of suppliers. I bet the climate seats I fix on JLR stuff is the same as the ones guys are fixing in all the other high line shot boxes. I've done movable roofs for GM and Jag and now Rover with the ?voque. Only one or 2 manufacturers of those.
 

discostew

Well-known member
Sep 14, 2010
7,706
1,015
Northern Illinois
Not to bleed that other thread into this one BUT. I think in that guys price point of what was it $42,000? You might get close with a gavinized Defender frame. A Tomcat body, and a used Discovery for drivetrain and suspension components.
 

Tugela

Well-known member
May 21, 2007
4,754
562
Seattle
Who wants to buy the brand?

Someone is way ahead of you. Perhaps not in terms of buying the brand, but in terms of engineering and producing a 4x4 with the attributes of a Defender. Ineos Automotive is investing $800M in this effort. I hate the name ("Projekt Grenadier") but the concept has merit. Plus they are taking input from anyone - you can go to their website and take a survey where you can tell them all your preferences for hose-down interior, no electronics, coil-spring solid axle, whatever. It sounds too good to be true, but I like the idea of a Defender-type 4x4 with improved build quality.

Unsurprisingly, Land Rover submitted a bunch of design patent applications to retain the Defender shape. Guess they don't want some upstart drinking their milkshake even if they have already walked away from the soda fountain.
 

mgreenspan

Well-known member
Feb 28, 2005
4,723
130
Briggs's Back Yard
The revival of LR as a brand thru a Defender replacement is a moot point. Jeep will come out with their Wrangler pickup end of year. This will lay the ground work for a larger Wrangler Unlimited like the Africa concept. The reason families with 3 kids don't have a Wrangler Unlimited is the total lack of storage space. Once they solve that problem with a big cargo area and load capability from the pickup design they will have the market cornered.

LR has about six months to release their Defender replacement before they are forgotten. No amount of hype and irrational behavior will make it successful when it, in all its hugher priced fully independent suspension glory, is next to a four door Wrangler pickup with solid axles and a lower price tag.

By the time LR releases and sells it Toyota will unveil anything and take any would be buyers in an instant. Jim Ratcliffe's company may have success but is hugely dependent on subsidies from the UK government.
 

robertf

Well-known member
Jan 22, 2006
4,781
356
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Stew the dream car lives on. Its a G-Class chassis cab commercial truck. I want to buy that here with a green emblem. Other various body on frame boxy and heavy truck type utility vehicles can be made as well, in various trims.

Even that is dead. This is the first year of IFS so any foreign market looking for a solid axle utility vehicle is going to have to go with Jeep. The brochure for whatever the newer post TJ wrangler is called highlights many Euro requirements.
 

discostew

Well-known member
Sep 14, 2010
7,706
1,015
Northern Illinois
It would be fucking great if the new defender was a straight axle truck with swivel balls and the whole deal. Maybe that 2.0 diesel. Hand mixer trans on steel springs. Interior you can hose out. Several different wheel bases and a pick up truck version would be cool.

What I think we get is something off the LR4 style platform. Or at least some sort of full frame steel sprung thing.
 

YellowIron

Active member
Jan 28, 2018
28
0
Michigan
Even that is dead. This is the first year of IFS so any foreign market looking for a solid axle utility vehicle is going to have to go with Jeep. The brochure for whatever the newer post TJ wrangler is called highlights many Euro requirements.

The Commercial G has a solid front end. It is sold in a wagon format as well. Built on the military chassis platform.

Lucky for those foreign markets. Jeep is a foreign company.

Italian car companies go broke about as quick as Chrysler seems to. And those assholes at Fiat want free brownfield land and tax credits :smilelol:
 

YellowIron

Active member
Jan 28, 2018
28
0
Michigan
It would be fucking great if the new defender was a straight axle truck with swivel balls and the whole deal. Maybe that 2.0 diesel. Hand mixer trans on steel springs. Interior you can hose out. Several different wheel bases and a pick up truck version would be cool.

What I think we get is something off the LR4 style platform. Or at least some sort of full frame steel sprung thing.

Like the closed knuckle Dana 60 that Dana could produce again and pair with a D70 rear? Maybe factory gearing and locker options too?

How about a Lion V8 goes in there instead of a 2.0?