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Land Rover - CKD Land Rovers for the public?

Subject: 50 per cent off New Land Rover Defenders!
Date: Sun, 16 Mar 97 16:30:26 -0000
From: Simon Ward-Hastelow 

50 per cent off New Land Rover Defenders - its official - but there is a catch, you have to build it yourself.

The following article was printed in the April Edition of '4x4 and Landrover Mart' in UK:-

"News is slowly filtering through to dealers that the Defender 90 and 110 is facing severe production crisis. Since the reorganisation of the production lines when the new Range Rover was first introduced, a depleted workforce have slowly been falling behind, Current stock levels are resulting in a four month lead time for new orders with the knock-on effect of customers being persuaded to buy hte more expensive Discovery. As an interim solution Landrover Ltd. have decided to release CKD (Completely Knocked Down) kits to the UK dealer network. CKD is basically the supply of an entire vehicle complete and ready for final assembly. The CKD system has been successfully employed in Africa, Asia and Central America ever since the release of the Series IIa, so it has now been decided this exciting solution may well become standard practice if the Defender is to continue production after the launch of the all new CB40 baby. Dealers have been advised the kit of parts will cost about 50 per cent of the list price with estimated labour times lifting them approximately to the level of current prices.

Just how Landrover expects dealers to spend 150 man hours to fulfil one order is beyond me, however, dealers have been considering releasing an unlimited number of the unbuilt kits to the public. A new Defender 90 for 7,500 UKP (plus of course the build time). The down side is that Landrover will probanly withdraw warranty liabilities and the like but it is literally a small price to pay for a 90 or 110. Better Start Saving. Details now available, all enquiries should be directed via Network Services on +44-(0)-121-700-1496"

I thought this may be of interest to some of you, how about importing a kit to the US and building a new defender exactly to the spec you want?!

Simon Ward-Hastelow, Orpington, Kent, UK

But ...

From: Trevor Easton
Subject: Defender CKD -NOT
Date: Wed, 26 Mar 1997 08:46:00 -0500
I followed up with great interest the post about Defender CKDs. The number from the article had been disconnected (I wonder why) so I contacted Land Rover UK via their general fax number. There was a prompt response from a Mr. Simon Maris, manager -NSC markets . The reply boiled down to this:-

The original article was a hoax.
Land Rover are not facing any production crises.
Land Rover's workforce has been expanded.
The Range Rover is built in a different facility and has no impact on Defender production.
There is no attempt to dissaude a Defender buyer by pushing the Discovery.
The Defender is "the definitive utility vehicle".
The Discovery is aimed at the leisure vehicle market.
Dealers have no assembly mechanism for CKD kits.
The contact number was from their computer systems area.
Basically a non story.

BUT !!!!!
LRNA if you read this. IT WAS A NICE IDEA.