On Sat, 17 Apr 2004 16:47:46 GMT, "Exit" <
[email protected]> wrote:
|R. David Steele wrote:
|> Why can't the US get Defender 90s, 110s and 130s?
|
|The main problem is that LR and Ford's marketing dept have trouble seeing
|where they wouls fit in to the US market. They would be smaller than many US
|pick-ups but would be more expensive to buy. They do not have the comfort
|and luxury of a typical US pick-up and most of the market demands this. The
|sheer utility of a Defender and the off-road ability would of course be
|superior to most pick-ups but perhaps still not create a large enough market
|to make them viable. LR continually say the no longer sell Defenders in the
|US because of emmissions and passenger airbag issues - this of course is
|nonsense as they sell thousands of Discoverys with exactly the same engine
|and emmissions and fitting a passenger airbag is not beyond the engineering
|wit of Lode Lane either. On the upside, the US will definitely get the new
|Defender based on the T5 chassis in a few years, so you'll have to hang on.
Word was that we were going to get the TD6, not the TD5. And you
forget that we have a midsize and compact size pickup market.
All most all the big trucks have smaller brothers.
|>
|> Why can't we have diesel powered Landies?
|>
|The two biggest problems are that US diesel is very porr quality with a high
|sulfur content and modern high-tech turbo-diesels won't swallow it. The
|other problem is that petrol is cheap and there in very little diesel-car
|culture in the states yet. It would however be great to drive a 30mpg TD5 in
|the states so you can tell all the tree-huggers who think you drive a
|gas-guzzling SUV to **** off!
We have low sulfur diesel now. I have a VW Jette TDI back in the
states. In fact the US environmental laws are far more harsh
than anything in Europe.
BTW, Jeep is suppose to sell the Liberty with the Mercedes Common
Rail Diesel but that not yet happened.
|> And why doesn't the US military use the Defender as a basic, and
|> cheaper, vehicle for the average troops?
|
|Politically, it is very difficult for the US to procure non-domestic
|military kit. Even when the US military decided they must have British
|Harriers, the top brass had to lie to congress and leap through all sorts of
|hoops to make them look American before they could purchase them. Same thing
|with the British Chobham armour used on all abrams tanks. The US Rangers
|bought some special Defenders called RSOV but I doubt they will ever figure
|very highly.
LD is now part of Ford Motor Company, just as Jeep is now part of
Mercedes.
