As far back as I can remember, Land Rover has had an established practice of issueing a statement, only to do the opposite a few months later. As late as Ist quarter, 1992, Colin Green personally wrote me to say Land Rover had No plans to market the Discovery in North America. Guess what appeared that fall? Must have been a spur of the moment decision (which probably saved the company).
They recently stated that they would no longer offer the TD5 in the Defender, after this year, but have also said that they will introduce a new platform, to replace the Defender, in 2007. That leaves 2006 in question. Will there be no Defenders produced in 2006, or will they produce them but use a different engine, presumably the BMW diesel? Who knows what they will do, but it is certain, the Defender sales have been falling for several years and despite having a 22 year run, quality is pretty much unchanged. My instinct tells me that Ford knows what the consumers of the blood and guts, no frills Land Rover want, so it's not likely to be some testosterone injected high street cruiser, or Chelsea tractor, but hopefully a new, improved utility truck with the spirit and capability of a real Land Rover, but with the quality and safety features necessary to sell it worldwide. Everyone seems to think that the US is the only placee you can't buy a Defender because we've set too demanding a safety standard, but the EU, as well as many other countries have ever tightening requirements for both safety and emmissions, that the present Defender will soon be without much of any market except for the most rural areas. While there are vast area of open spaces in S. Africa, Australia, and the US, the vehicle still needs to meet the requirements of the most urban areas like Capetown, Sydney, and Los Angeles.
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