Cars of the people

[g7jtk]

After watching cars of the people on bbc4 on Sunday night I was left wondering why range rovers were so expensive compared to the ford pickup

[trowelhead]

Because they are better?

[Tempest_5]

...and a bit of brand marketing.

[A.J.M]

Size, technology, cost to build and units sold?

Ford make several hundred pick ups for every Range Rover sold. So can sell them cheap as they can.
Also aren’t they not subjected to the same tests as a car being classed as a commercial vehicle.
Again, making them cheaper.

[g7jtk]

Then why when the series and defender land rovers were in production were they so expensive and hav a reputation for being unreliable? Surely Land Rover should have had things sorted and seen off the competition.
I assume that the ford and Toyota didn’t go the way the Range Rover did is that either they weren’t capable or the makers said they were not allowed.

[bakerstreet]

g7jtk said:

Then why when the series and defender land rovers were in production were they so expensive and hav a reputation for being unreliable? Surely Land Rover should have had things sorted and seen off the competition.
I assume that the ford and Toyota didn’t go the way the Range Rover did is that either they weren’t capable or the makers said they were not allowed.

Reliability is very difficult thing to quantify. The Defender didn't really advance much in its 32 years of production and some of the shared parts are even older than that. There is only so much yuo can expect from a solid axel 2 tonne house brick.

I've had a poke round a 20165 F150 and they felt a bit low rent inside, but who am I to judge. Foird sell thousands of them every week in the US.

Ford do sell luxury SUVs in the states under the Lincoln brand but even those aren't a patch on the Range Rover in Kudos or ability and they would certainly fall flat here. Even Jeep struggle here again aginst the mighty RR and the Jeep isn't even that unique anymore. Its just a ML in drag.

I personally believe that the Land Cruiser has fallen well behind the RR in street appeal and they are hardly appealing looking cars which doesn't help.

[A.J.M]

g7jtk said:

Then why when the series and defender land rovers were in production were they so expensive and hav a reputation for being unreliable? Surely Land Rover should have had things sorted and seen off the competition.
I assume that the ford and Toyota didn’t go the way the Range Rover did is that either they weren’t capable or the makers said they were not allowed.

Because for years the profits from Land Rover were used to prop up other failing bits of BL.
Robbing them of funds needed to advance the cars and to improve them.

Hell, it took aftermarket companies to make the 4 door classic.

Even now they are still stuck with the ghosts of BL and the working practices.

They were expensive as they were hand built cars with a loyal following.
Even if, they were pretty st.

The problem for Ford is they are a mass market maker of cheap cars.
When they try to make expensive cars, no one buys them as the values plummet on them.
Hence no 3 series rival as no one would buy it.

Toyota has to make Lexus to sell cars upmarket.
RR managed to catch the market at the right time and have then lead it with interiors and prices.