I have to agree at least in part without the Freelander Landrover would
have joined a great many of the BMC groups other marques on the dusty
shelves of history that model kept Landrover solvent and even out sold its
rivals but ...it suffered from design faults. Design faults are something
that had dogged the UK car industry until it died despite our taxes being
used to prop it up for years rather than admit the problems and deal with
them. That  along with  rediculous management decisions  fighting between
management of divisions management and workforce and petty accounting cost
cutting measures that cost far more than they saved.
As Landrover stands they have a world leading car in the F2 ( which is far
closer to the RRC than many will admit to) that may again save the company.
They have an improved record of reliability which still has a long way to go
to compete with most of the rival manufacturers ( not Mercedes who seem to
be suffering as badly) . If the treehugging lobby continue to strengthen
the bigger cars will be an albatross around the neck of Tata  at least as
far as european sales are concerned question is what about the rest of the
world ? and how long will Tata want to continue on that path ?. There is a
huge market building in the east as those countries become more affluent but
why would they buy Landrover. Certainly there is no historical admiration of
the brand,Toyota occupy that position. The upper 1 or 2% of income earners
may want a visable  statement of their wealth  but there are Lexus Mercedes
and BMW all with desirable 4x4's in the range I find it difficult to predict
what Tata will do next but I suspect the green oval is likely to find its
way onto something unusual that trades on the rough tough image of the brand
built up in  India a successor to the 101 maybe and armoured military truck
certainly there is a demand out there and Tata do know how to build then
tough?

Derek
Kato 200Tdi Disco
Scooby Outback Wagon

No idea about reliability, but as I said they are not wanted. A few
have had test drives and report "very nice CAR, but no use to me",
usually commenting that they are simply too well appointed, i.e.
you'd have to take your wellies off before getting in etc.

Again, NO ONE HAS BOUGHT ONE!!! It's nothing to do with warranties
(you can get your servicing done anywhere now, we look after a couple
of L322 Range Rovers and a Sport). The customers still come in, but
for the older vehicles they have bought instead.

On the Defender front, we now have a major national enterprise as a
customer, and several local "fleet" operators, one of whome has chopped
in their entire Transit fleet for Defenders and are extremely happy
bunnies. So far the only major issue has been a failed transfer box,
quite possibly due to abuse - but that is a warranty issue. I could
start on about the customer who bought an ML.......

My point about getting back to their roots is that there is a market for
workhorses and currently for Chelsea Tractors. The former are currently
to be exempt form any tax changes, the latter are going to become
increasingly considered anti-social (see the collpase of the US "SUV"
market) - they will, in one way or another, be legislated off the roads
in the next decade or two (I don't agree that should be done, but that's
life, look at everything else that's been banned recently without
bothering to ask anyone). Work vehicles have a future, and LR still have
enough of a reputation to survive in that market. In the "car" market
they are far too small a player to survive and have no tradition in
that market either - anything new from now on in the "car" market
class is just going to be a re-badged Tata "gobal" eurobox, possibly
with big wheels, much as the Freelander II is platform shared by
Volvo and others that were in the Ford group.

Cheers
Richard