It was during the tour in 2015. There were gkn supplied chassis's being transported to the track to start assembly. When questioned about why they never applied waxole or similar during production they said they create the base vehicle and the buyer has the option to apply additional protection or not. It would make production messy and the fumes would be a problem. Dealers will apply it if requested.
The way I see it LR will never do right in the minds of some owners. Scratch through a galvanised chassis and it will rust. The tour opened up a different mind-set for me. They're a business and need to make money. It cost less money to produce one design of engine than two, which it whey the tratter got the 300Tdi when the disco did. Same when the Td5 came out. Owners and magazines go on about how LR upgraded the tratter... it did, but it made financial sense to do it which is where most of the decisions come from. That's the reasoning why they didn't make many changes over the years. They have to make a profit to stay in business. Hence why they supply to the demands of buyers wanting the newer vehicles.Generous of the dealers to do that, I expect it is reasonably priced too!
And so kind of the folk at JLR to let the new owners customise their vehicle with underbody protection if they choose. Must give them a feeling of responsibility, and a sense of pride in ownership!
They said they did make money. If they didn't then they wouldn't have made them for so long nd therefore stopped sooner. When asked why they stopped making them for the military they said they couldn't meet the spec for bomb proof and also the biggest issue they had was the military wanted to pay around £15k to £15.5k, when the public or business will pay £22k upwards. Slightly different spec but in essence the same time/cost to build on the track.
That's right. They made a profit which was said to be ok but it wasn't high enough when compared to other builds. They didn't mind the type of assembly as the design wasn't practical for robots + the cost to convert would be considerable. It's a shame they stopped it but they were cornered into starting again which most won't accept but it's how it goes.
A lot of tratter parts like panels were made in the factory for the track and some were shipped out to other retailers who sell them on. So some of the panels peeps bought over the years were genuine LR without them eggspecting it.
