Autocar - First for car news and reviews

Land Rover has put plans for a seven-seat Freelander on hold as it concentrates on implementing its new business plan that calls for sales to rise to around 200,000.

The seven seater was due to surface next year, and as recently as spring this year Land Rover was planning to show a concept of the car, codenamed L486. But a company source said the vehicle had been postponed, "we have other priorities," said our source

Instead, the firm will concentrate on the development of the LRX,...Read the full article

Autocar:

Instead, the firm will concentrate on the development of the LRX, which will be launched as a £30,000 Range Rover in 2012.

in 2012?!!

Only last week Autocar said:

"Land Rover has officially confirmed it will be putting its Range Rover LRX concept car into production in 2011"

http://www.autocar.co.uk/News/NewsArticle/Land-Rover-Concepts/243529/

Indeed, JLR's boss, in conversation with Steve Cropley said:

"When LRX is launched next year..." presumably meaning 2010.

http://www.autocar.co.uk/News/NewsArticle/AllCars/243598/

Blimey, in the space of less than a week the launch of the LRX, 'Baby R/Rover' has gone out by up to 24 months. Is that correct? Is that the latest official info. from Gaydon? If so, that's major news given how much hope had been put on the LRX turning around Land Rover's fortunes in the nearer term. 2012 is shocking and appalling from a business point of view with Halewood soon to lose the X-Type production and Freelander having to soldier on for possibly another 18-24 months, without a 7-seat variant, to keep the whole plant occupied.

And is the £30,000 figure for the Baby R/R official? Again, that's major news, if so. Given that that is almost certainly the base price, it would have to be considered as expensive, even two to three years away, with the larger BMW X1 closest current competitor starting at £22.5k.

PS do you begin to get the feeling Tata/JLR are concentrating on Jaguar and putting Land Rover on a 'holding pattern'?

Is it just me or do others believe that almost everytime a manufacturer gets close to announcing a seven seat model close in price to a five seater they think better of it becuase there is something bigger but much more expensive in the range to do the job, with a better profit margin.

Look at the Ford C-Max a seven seater has been muted for a long time but it was left to Mazda to build the 5 after they dropped a previous MPV not long before Ford announced the S-Max/Galaxy. Now a new seven C-MAX will supposdly be availaible some time after launch. I am not holding my breath.

First, why use a pic of the old style freelander ?

Second, just last week autocar give us JLR info from a Steve Cropley interview and 1 week later change the story. Or is this a case of no news so lets make up a story.

Third, I thought the LandRover LXR was going to be a base entry into the RangeRover experiance at this rate it will be as or more expensive than the Freelander so as will compeate with this for sales.

I am seriously wondering if Autocar are just making up stories to print, if so you are loosing all credability.

What happened to the "cheap" Land-Rover that was meant to come out? I thought the LRX was meant to be this vehicle?

Currently the only new Land-Rover with a book price under £20,000 is a hard-top Defender 90. And where is the mythical 2WD economy Freelander we keep hearing about?

If LR-J is not careful it will follow Rover into the abyss.

 I just don't care.

Autocar:

on hold as it concentrates on implementing its new business plan that calls for sales to rise to around 200,000.

 

No doubt waiting for more money from the tax payer for this failure of a car!

Dorsetdave:

Autocar:

on hold as it concentrates on implementing its new business plan that calls for sales to rise to around 200,000.

 

No doubt waiting for more money from the tax payer for this failure of a car!

More money from the taxpayer? What have they received so far?

As far as I am aware JLR haven't had any tax payer's cash.

bangertastic:

More money from the taxpayer? What have they received so far?

As far as I am aware JLR haven't had any tax payer's cash.

Tata bought this joke of a company and now want our tax paying money!

Crap cars will never sell and Land Rovers are the worst car on the road that is why major companies as BMW and Ford got rid of the rubish!

Am disappointed that the 7 seat variant of Freelander has been put to one side for the moment as it would have contributed to further sales of the brand but I understand that offering a second 7 seater is deemed to compete with the lower end models of Discovery 4 and just after its launch I guess the gloss needs to be firmly placed on this product due to budget constraints and commitments on new model investment.

Dorsetdave:

More money from the taxpayer? What have they received so far?

As far as I am aware JLR haven't had any tax payer's cash.

I can confirm that JLR have not had any state aid and have recently raised funds through private investment which must, (IMO) mean that someone believes that the company has a future and is likely to regain profit from the investment.

Dorsetdave:

Crap cars will never sell and Land Rovers are the worst car on the road that is why major companies as BMW and Ford got rid of the rubish!

 

 

Can you tell me where you get the impression that Land Rover are the 'worst car' on the road? I am mighty eager to hear your reasons why. 

Jaydub:

Can you tell me where you get the impression that Land Rover are the 'worst car' on the road? I am mighty eager to hear your reasons why. 

 

I have had 6 of the rubish before I came to my senses!

Head gaskets, electrics, 3 new engines, 2 new gearboxes, windows never work I could go on and on but as you no doubt work for Land Rover no need as you already know this but won't admit it!

Look at the reliability stats on the net and the problems with LR on google search to prove how crap they are!

Toyota, Jeep and Nissan are all much better!

Well that is bad news, you obviously have had some bad luck with the brand and through your personal experience would not go back fair enough, I could go on about how things have improved but am not going to attempt to be any more of an advert for the brand.

I feel the same about Ford, have owned both a Mondeo and Focus and they have let me down to the extent that I will never buy another Ford especially after delaing with their 'supposed' customer service team, so I guess I should disagree and say that Ford are 'crap' and make the 'worst cars' on the road.