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China orders Land Rovers


DrRob

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copy what technology?

and the wouldn't need 13,000 if all they wanted to do is copy

i really like the copy of a BMW X5 the chinese presented last year. it has beam axles, leaf springs and goes about 80 km/h. maybe they are planning an upgrade to coil springs and a bit more power so they'll propably put X5 bodies on the defender they just ordered.

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The history of Chinese copies is that they make a very poor copy of something reliable. Perhaps they are going to try to do the reverse for a change :P

We had some kit at work that was so faithfully copied it even included the original manufacturer's copyright notice when you turned it on :blink: the thing is, they start off doing bad copies but very quickly overtake the originals in almost every aspect due to faster R&D.

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Airsoft has suffered the same fate. Five years ago it would cost you £300 for an airsoft weapon, now they can be had from £100 odd, and the quality isn't far off. It's pretty much killed off the industry in Japan where it originated, everything comes from China now. There are mixed views on whether it's a good thing or a bad thing.

As for Land Rover, right now 13,000 sales is a good thing in anyone's books.

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  • 8 months later...

13,000 is a great order. It has been going that way for a while though. My partner lives out there, in Beijing, and she has seen a lot of profile for Land Rover in China for a few years now. Apparently, big part of their CO2 offset programme is focussed on China.

It is good that there are 13,000 Land Rovers heading out to China but there are people I know that would disagree though. Even though I live in the country, my main reason for owning a Landy is just cause I like them. To any that would use this to doubt my green credentials, my defender has soldiered on for almost 30 years now! I consider maintaining my old Landy a good way to keep a small carbon footprint. So, even though we've all heard about the pollution in China, it's good to know that they kinda feel the same I guess. There's a good article on it here... http://www.landrover.co.uk/gb/en/about-us/our-planet/our-planet.htm?p=1101

These 13,000 vehicles will last longer than any cheaper copy, so it's a good investment for them as a nation. Hopefully it'll catch on, and there'll be a push for long lasting quality, rather than cheaply produced and disposable. Isn't this something that we in the west can learn from too?

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Great news in current climate :rolleyes:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7915443.stm

I find it interesting that the Chinese are doing business with the Indians...Don't they have a number of Border disputes ongoing? I mean real saber rattling situations....

Oh, I get it the Defenders are to be used for troop transport.... :D

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Bill, I take issue with that.

Perfectly good raw materials? Does that include Lucas? Aluminium that goes furry? Cost cutting to compensate for high labour requirements has reduced the raw materials to junk.

Do Lucas still exist? they were/are? another company very adept at producing brand new scrap metal. I've only found the aluminium goes furry (white rust) in places that are in direct contact with ungalvanised steel such as the body cappings, because Rover forgot the reason why they originally galvanised these parts on series 1,2 and 3's ( electrolosus). Aarrgg !The more I think about how the traditional LandRover insted of evolving as other brands have, has degenerated into a pile o poo the grumpier I get.

Bill.

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there there bill, if land rover were in the business of producing all round good vehicles, you wouldn't have had all that 'fun' over the years rectifying those issues. buying a japanese 4x4 is just cheating.

There is a lot of truth in what you say Callum. The reason I get upset about this issue isn't because I have financial shares in LandRover LTD or anything,but even after 52 years living over here in the Antipodes I still retain emotional shares in UK LTD and get upset when oufits like LandRover seem to go out of their way to sully what was once with a few exceptions a proud engineering heritage.

Bill.

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There is a lot of truth in what you say Callum. The reason I get upset about this issue isn't because I have financial shares in LandRover LTD or anything,but even after 52 years living over here in the Antipodes I still retain emotional shares in UK LTD and get upset when oufits like LandRover seem to go out of their way to sully what was once with a few exceptions a proud engineering heritage.

Bill.

Oh what B*ll*cks Bill. Time moves on, if you don't move with it as a commercial company you die. There are plenty of examples of that. If LR made vehicles like you want them to, they would be out of business within the year.

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Do Lucas still exist? they were/are? another company very adept at producing brand new scrap metal.

Bill.

Ok, sorry about this but [rant mode on]

British cars and British motorbikes were carp. The British motorcycle industry of course is long gone. There are some remnants of the British car industry, jaguar and land rover.

Why were British cars and bikes so bad? Actually in the 60's they were cutting edge in styling and technology. Those old enough will recall the e-types, healeys, range rover, rover p6, mgb, lotus, bonneville etc. All these were streets ahead of anything the rest of the world was producing.

Why didn't they sell in vast quantities and allow the manufacturers to make enough money to continue? Answer, poor components. In particular disasterous electrics. The export markets hated the fact that rain stopped their new british cars and bikes.

Why didn't the auto industry ditch the supplier and use better quality? Answer. Joe Lucas had the monopoly and had signed non-competitive agreements with Bosch and the other major suppliers. The manufacturers had no choice but to use Lucas rubbish. ("Joe Lucas, the prince of darkness" was a standing joke in the states)

Lucas actually killed the British auto industry.

The EU banned non-competitive agreements which effectively killed Lucas. Good. They are now a sub division of a us company. I hope the decision makers ended up destitute, but suspect not.

[rant mode off]

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