It appears that Jaguar-Land Rover is going to move production of their Defender model from Slovakia to The US, and because it would be built here by Stellantis, it would be based on existing Jeep architecture–most likely the Wrangler.
https://www.motor1.com/news/805153/jaguar-land-rover-us-production/
Jaguar-Land Rover built by Stellantis with Jeep parts. Somehow that just does not sound encouraging.
What could possibly go wrong?
And one point in Land Rovers life they were owned by Ford.
They still going to sell it for 2x what other SUVs go for?
JLR might continue to build the original Defender in Slovakia and maybe export it to the US. The article says that Stellantis will build new models under the Defender badge, making the Defender more of a product line. If they want an increased US presence, having their designs built by a us company with existing, underused plants makes sense. Will it work? Who knows? We will just have to wait for the model line to be announced and see how unlike a Jeep or Land Rover they are.
I wouldn’t touch a Defender with a10-foot pole
you couldn’t PAY me to get one
you want a small fortune?
Start with a large fortune and buy a Defender
One article stated that tariffs are one of their reasons for shifting production to The US.
In any event, the price point for every Rover model–including the Defender–means that they will never sell in huge numbers, no matter where they are made, and whether tariffs are imposed on them, or not.
A neighbor of mine owned one. He bragged about it when he bought being a great vehicle. He owned it for only 2 years because it was so unreliable. Now owns a Lexus.
One of my neighbors bought a Rover about 10 years ago. It wasn’t a Defender, but I don’t recall which model it was. Because it was in the shop so often, and because he was driving a loaner so often, the joke on the street was, “What color is Tom’s Rover THIS week”?
When the warranty ran out, he dumped it and bought VW Jetta, which has been much more reliable.
A vehicle must be HORRENDOUSLY bad, if a VW Jetta is a big step up in reliability
Well, I didn’t say it, but…
One of the few ’buy backs’ I saw was a guy I knew with who got a loaded Range Rover. They never could fix all the problems, bought it back.
Couple years ago you couldn’t get doorsfor the defender after an accident. Doug Demuro and at least one other YouTuber ran into this. The you tube channel l the fast lane bought an early defender with steel wheels and the middle seat in the fridge but had tu different a replacement from land rover after even with factory techs helping the electrical issues couldn’t be solved. Factory wanted it back to tear apart. Land Rovers you buy for image and the experience, not expecting reliability.
You lease Land Rovers and turn them in before the warranty runs out. Then the LR dealers sell them to suckers that want everyone to think they have money…
They rapidly then have NO money trying to.keep.them running!
When Ford bought JLR over 90% were leased or financed. About 20yrs ago One dealer here went to the California dealer auctions and had a row of 3-4yr old Land Rovers with the Cali dealerships spare ture cover still on.
During the India leg of Land Rovers trio round the world in 2nd Gen Discoveries the journalist P.j. O’rourke said “so I bought a discovery 2, Bill Baker took one around the world with no major problems, and what happened when I took mine around the block is none of your business!” A momentary distr6until hus family bought his and hers Suburbans.
I worked with a guy that bought a Jaguar XJ-S. It would stall at random and Jaguar couldn’t fix it. A lawyer friend composed a letter for him requesting an exchange. Someone knocked on his door a couple months later. It was a Jag representative with his new XJ-S. The rep drove the old one away after completing the paperwork. This one didn’t stall.
???
One of the main reasons older Land Rovers were so sought after in places like Africa is because for decades the parts were about 95% interchangeable from one year to the next. There were spare parts everywhere.