DSC-off wrote:

Buzz word of the moment from JLR regarding the Defender replacement is Premium Durability.

My expectations for any vehicle is that it is fit for purpose, regardless of the cost.
To me Premium Durability suggests there is a premium price to be paid for a vehicle that is durable, ie capable of performing the tasks it is intended for.

A vehicle fit for purpose, that does not necessarily require a premium price.
So that leads me to think the L663 Defender will be foremost a premium priced vehicle, with durability added.

What are your thoughts on this?

What planet are you on

o4dn wrote:

What puzzles me, and sorry in advance if that hurts some feelings here, is that Land Rover scores very low in each and every car reliability survey.

I was reading the other day a survey about car reliability ran by an independent consumer magazine here in France, and LR ranks down #27.

Low-cost makes such such as Dacia are much higher in the list (#11), for the fraction of the cost!

Another recent survey in the UK ranked the Peugeot 3008 as the best car to own:

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/best-cars/dri...18-results

Not a single British make in the top 10... So, I wonder what "premium durability" means for LR, reliability or overpriced vehicles.

I've never taken part in one of these surveys, but I wonder what the questions are like and how they represent age and history of a mark? We all know for example that Renault had a similarly bad rep as JLR back in the day, but seem to have improved. Is that perhaps the case with JLR but may not be reflected because of historical experience? And what sort of people are likely to take the test? A car 'enthusiast' who loves cars for being cars, or the sort pf person who has them for space, for getting 'from A to B', who like a good warranty over looks, and frugality over speed, and for whom buying a top-of-the-range JLR would not be on their radar. If that is the case, perhaps (and I'm only playing Devil's advocate here) the only JLR owners likely to review are those who have had so many problems they feeled compelled to make a stand. Put it this way, I would suspect you get far fewer TripAdvisor reviews from regular customers on the very most exclusive restaurants/hotels/first class airline cabins etc than the clientele of medium or low level 'better value' venues.

Dacia was only taken over by Renault in 1999, with their first car sold a year later. But it was 2004 that Dacia started selling in the West. So were a survey to be conducted by owners of cars from the last 15 years only, where would JLR come? As I said, I have no idea about the questions asked. Also, is there likely to be more negativity from a customer who suffers a fault with a premium brand than a standard or indeed cheap brand?

With regard to France, French mags are hugely biased towards French marks. You can have the recent launch of the most revolutionary Tesla, or the fastest Lambo, most Luxurious Bentley or safest ever Volvo and that month's cover will be occupied by the latest Twingo. Look inside and the centre page reviews/tests will be French day-to-day models, anything foreign/prestige being a footnote. If you read their articles, opinions and awards, it's all geared to the French (including Dacia) motor industry. If the rest of the world vote a Korean car as Car of the Year in the same year the French will vote a French one.

Finally, there is a cultural bias in France, which the French happily accept, towards wealth and leading on from this anything that is associated with wealth and ho the wealthy express it. Owning prestige items such as cars, watches etc is seen as very un-French (outside of Paris and the Cote d'Azur), so a brand like JLR will always be looked upon with suspcision (and this does not include their views on anything 'English'), so most (by no means all) French would rather admire a 500.000k Renault 19 thn a brand new RRS, even if the Renault had suffered faults all its life and the RRS was perfect. So, not wishing to French-bash, but their association with their car industry is somewhat partisan. I'm not saying ours (or others) aren't as well, but they have a unique level of rose-tinting on their specs!!  Monsieur Le Grenadier

I've not been everywhere, but it's on my list.....

2011 Puma 110DC - Corris Grey