All About Cars
The USA is a key market for Land Rover. Not only in the last 15 years, over 627,000 units have been sold there, they are also larger models. While the Range Rover Sport (RRS), Range Rover and Discovery have all sold just over 160,000 each in this period, the Freelander only managed 69,000 units. It's replacement, the Discovery Sport (DS) is separated here but if added nearly 77,000 sales. The RRS hit the ground running and has been the best selling model since 2006. 2015 was a record for the RRS as too the Range Rover. The Evoque has done well but cannot quite match those two biggest selling models. The DS will do better than the outgoing Freelander due to its larger size. The Discovery is a solid selling model, but didn't do so well for some years. It had a good 2015 however. From that it is plain the last three years have been stellar for LR USA. A full year of DS sales should make 2016 another successful year.
The fabulous Range Stormer concept of 2004 was brought to life a year later, when Land Rover launched the Range Rover Sport. Some expressed disappointment that it wasn't as extreme as the concept, nor offered in three-door guise. But really, such a model would have struggled to sell. I think the production version got it spot-on. What is it? As its name suggests, it's a sportier version of the Range Rover. And a quite brilliant piece of marketing. It used the more affordable Discovery 3 chassis, but came with all the style of the Range Rover. Buyers may have initially been skeptical - they were concerned that it didn't have the Vogue's size or suspension - but it actually brought a whole new element to the brand. It was the perfect school run, all purpose Range Rover, a worthy cut above the Land Rover Discovery 3 that buyers willingly paid extra for.
Globalization, a process that is still going on, has lowered the barrier for large organizations to expand and hire the right resources irrespective of their location. The employees and the customers are now culturally diverse and are challenging the 'ethno centric' corporate culture. Due to these new emerging realities the complexity and unpredictability for IT development and the implementation has increased exponentially. Ashby's law of requisite variety, states that the internal complexity of an organization should match the complexity of the external environment. Large Global Organizations seem to have taken Ashby's law to their heart and have instituted overly complex business processes and well as complex hierarchal and matrix organizational structure. The downside of adding layers of complexity to an organization is that it slows down the process of decision making. Everyone in the organization wants to do the right thing and more resources are spent to systematize analysis process that aids decision making. These check and balances create an organization culture that penalizes 'off the cuff risk taking mentality'.
Well, for those of you that know me have, undoubtedly heard of my Land Rover Discovery saga. I've had massive and monumental issues with this Discovery. My story is below. If you feel you want to contribute, please leave a comment. This is a letter I send to Land Rover Midrand after the 10th time the vehicle had been their for repairs. Further to our discussion on Tuesday 13th March 2007, I wish to record the following facts. I own a 2002 Land Rover Discovery Series 2 TD5 ES, registration number NNS682GP, purchased from your Land Rover dealership in Midrand early in 2006 for approximately R 220 000 and with 103 000 km in mileage. In the year that I have owned this vehicle, several minor and three major mechanical failures have occurred. Active Cornering Enhancement light on the dashboard shines amber after approximately 80 km of normal freeway driving. This indicates (according to the driver鈥檚 manual) that the ACE system has locked up and is no longer performing its task effectively. No action taken as problem could not be recreated by LR Midrand technician.
