Wednesday 18th December 2019

Land Rover swallows up Bowler

Saved from administration, Bowler will now be part of the JLR Special Vehicles empire

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Nothing like a bit of good news just before the festive break, is there? And that's what we have here, Jaguar Land Rover having acquired off-road experts Bowler for its Special Vehicle Operations branch.

Bowler will complement SV (more performance and luxury in production cars), vehicle personalisation (which does the one-offs) and Classic (the old stuff) in the SVO portfolio, Jaguar Land Rover describing the fourth business under the umbrella as a "natural fit". Makes sense, too, given Bowler was always best known for its wild Land Rover derivatives like the EXR-S, and there already having been a previous brand partnership with the Defender Challenge of a few years back.

SVO MD Michael Van Der Sande said: "For almost 35 years the Bowler name has stood for innovation and success, with a reputation forged by its participation in the world's toughest off-road motorsport competitions. It's exciting that we're now in a position to participate in and lead the Bowler brand's future as part of Jaguar Land Rover."

The focus for now is, understandably, on maintaining some stability for Bowler customers and staff during the transition; that's more crucial than ever in this instance, given reports that the acquisition saved the firm from administration.

After that, though, who knows? It would great to see Bowler, with its reputation, given some of the more extreme SVO projects to run with and realise - the cancelled Discovery SVX surely being the most obvious one.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves for now, though; the news, and the very good news, is that Bowler has been saved from a very perilous situation by surely the best manufacturer for it. With a new decade imminent, let's hope the new partnership can realise its considerable potential in the 2020s - we'll bring you more soon!

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Search for a Land Rover Defender here

[hothatchery7]

With JLR being quite close to the ropes currently, it seems like a bold throw of the dice to perhaps try to reconnect with the ‘off-road’ customer base. Either way hats off to them for saving a British company in these uncertain times!

[James_33]

hothatchery7 said:

With JLR being quite close to the ropes currently, it seems like a bold throw of the dice to perhaps try to reconnect with the ‘off-road’ customer base. Either way hats off to them for saving a British company in these uncertain times!

Its a very bold throw when the bowler on carwow recently was i believe £135,000, not saying it won't have buyers, but hardly appealing to the masses is it?

[talksthetorque]

Looking forward to some four pot diesel 2WD Evoque cabirolet "Bowler" special editions

[100SRV]

hothatchery7 said:

With JLR being quite close to the ropes currently, it seems like a bold throw of the dice to perhaps try to reconnect with the ‘off-road’ customer base. Either way hats off to them for saving a British company in these uncertain times!

Bowler have a great heritage and will be a good addition to the JLR "portfolio", hopefully we'll see more factory involvement in the European Baja events and similar in the future.

[hothatchery7]

James_33 said:

Its a very bold throw when the bowler on carwow recently was i believe £135,000, not saying it won't have buyers, but hardly appealing to the masses is it?

I do agree that there are some extremely high priced bowlers out there however there are more basic models from around the 30k price mark.

I realise that it’s abit unrealistic to hope JLR will launch a bare bones bowler edition at a reasonable(ish) price

[Reciprocating mass]

Great it will either be bespoke proper off road cool or it will become a sad demise to a vinyl sticker just like
The very sad demise of overfinch

[donkmeister]

Of course, this could go like when AMG were brought into Mercedes... Yes the cars became arguably less extreme, but they were still pretty mental but far more accessible. The base models also became designed with the high performance AMG variants in mind.

Agreed that we will end up with Bowler-badged gash in the same way every office car park is now littered with cars that have an AMG badge but sound remarkably like a four cylinder diesel, but hopefully we'll also end up with mass-production of the equivalent of the x63S range of Mercedes.

[oldtimer2]

Sounds like a good move for SVO to add Bowler. It also preempts Bowler falling into the hands of Grenadier. Several possibilities could emerge to enlarge the Bowler offering such as competing in the Dakar and Baja events, as well as Land Rover`s own series such as the current Trek or a re-invention of past challenges like the G4 or Camel Trophy as a new Bowler Trophy. Land Rover, as far as I am aware, has not competed in the Rallye des Gazelles and its newer US counterpart, although there has been dealer participation; if Rolls Royce is now competing in such events with its Cullinan, where is Land Rover?

[Miserablegit]

Good luck to them - not sure what JLR will do with the brand but better than it falling into liquidation. I note the article says "given reports that the acquisition saved the firm from administration." but Bowler have been facing a winding up petition for months now :

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/3383585

[Triumph Man]

talksthetorque said:

Looking forward to some four pot diesel 2WD Evoque cabirolet "Bowler" special editions

The cynic in me agrees with you that this will end up being the case... It's the next "AMG-line"

[Plate spinner]

talksthetorque said:

Looking forward to some four pot diesel 2WD Evoque cabirolet "Bowler" special editions

I fear you are correct. I can see Bowler becoming a trim / options pack.

[Jonny TVR]

I wonder how much they paid for it. Why did Bowler fail?

[AngryPartsBloke]

donkmeister said:

Of course, this could go like when AMG were brought into Mercedes... Yes the cars became arguably less extreme, but they were still pretty mental but far more accessible. The base models also became designed with the high performance AMG variants in mind.

Agreed that we will end up with Bowler-badged gash in the same way every office car park is now littered with cars that have an AMG badge but sound remarkably like a four cylinder diesel, but hopefully we'll also end up with mass-production of the equivalent of the x63S range of Mercedes.

Why? Land aRover don't do this currently. Why would they start with Bowler.

[Dave Hedgehog]

Jonny TVR said:

I wonder how much they paid for it. Why did Bowler fail?

people want 700bhp oil burning SUV luxo barges for the school run, they dont want real off roaders

[300bhp/ton]

James_33 said:

hothatchery7 said:

With JLR being quite close to the ropes currently, it seems like a bold throw of the dice to perhaps try to reconnect with the ‘off-road’ customer base. Either way hats off to them for saving a British company in these uncertain times!

Its a very bold throw when the bowler on carwow recently was i believe £135,000, not saying it won't have buyers, but hardly appealing to the masses is it?

Yet it makes sense how that same Bowler ended up in so many YouTube reviews recently.... if it had the weight of JLR loaning it out for review.

[C7 JFW]

Delighted to hear that those jobs can be saved and what an apt buyer too.

[Turini]

Or instead of the criticism it could be seen as a strong consolidation exercise to gain ownership and control of the Bowler brand for enhanced models.

Didn’t do Mercedes any harm when they acquired AMG and it’s been a long time question mark over JLR not evolving the Defender to same heights as the G Wagon - sales of those high end models aren’t exactly slow and I’m sure they add a strong ROI on the development cost when integrated with the model lifecycle costs

[3rd]

hothatchery7 said:

hats off to them

For saving Bowler.

[anonymous-user]

I'm looking forward to the merchandise. A Bowler hat in black would be awesome.

[anonymous-user]

And JLR can make Bowler models for modern times. Looking forward to the e-Bowler.