Grumble in the Jungle
Will the average enthusiast be able to afford any Land Rover in 30 years time?
The classic and enthusiasts Land Rover market is changing at a rather rapid rate. A year or two ago a new Defender door cost £200. Now you will be lucky to get one for £500. People in the know are stockpiling certain bits. I have friends in Australia and South Africa buying up Land Rovers and exporting them to the UK. Crazy considering that they started life in the UK.
Gone are the days where Jaguar Land Rover were only interested in producing new vehicles at a premium price. They are now rebuilding and restoring Series Is and Classic Range Rovers before selling them for the same price as a new big body Range Rover. Not only are they taking on the likes of BMW, Mercedes-benz and Toyota, but they are also after Kahn Design, Urban, Twisted and Tune My Defender. They have silently moved into a whole different market. Obviously they felt the need for an even bigger slice of the Land Rover cake.
I remember being asked by a JLR bigwig at a launch event if I thought there was a market for a V8 Defender. I answered that they could probably sell thousands to just the Arabs and Aussies. You can read all about the V8 Defender on page 16. They plan on only producing 150 of them, but at £150,000 a pop, how many people can afford one? Fortunately for the average enthusiast JLR produced millions and millions of Land Rovers, and there are enough of them still floating about so bottom feeders like me can still partake in the feeding frenzy. Long may it continue….