[QUOTE username=DaveB userid=8923052 postid=1332849879]Ineos have never said that the American market was a prime target for them.
Top three are;
Finally;
North America: I have never been there so only what I have seen and read. The basic design does not really fit the US market at all. Not large enough, powerful enough or cheap enough" {LOL}. "Not modular enough for the Jeep/bronco market and not luxurious enough for the SUV market. Maybe Canada will have more potential than the US.
Just my thoughts and happy to accept I may be wrong.[/QUOTE]
I'll give my take as someone from the United States.
I think the IG fits a niche in the U.S. similarly to the hole that was created with the LRDefender... it's basically those who want a closed cab work/fun vehicle hearty enough to tow both the family and a trailer. The United States has a higher number of extreme environments within close proximity than most countries. For example, lots of high mountain ranges, rockies, long stretches of flat lands, large roads lending to towing lots of heavy equipment, all within the same country, which means we have extreme vehicles for those extremes. The IG doesn't seem amazing as the king of any of those extremes and is more of an "all arounder"... but many want that here, too.
As for the Jeep and Bonco - they're both lighter, more nimble rigs designed toward rock crawling - something very popular in the United States... hence the large tires many are concerned about the IG being able to adapt to over here. (
video of rock crawling). "Off road" in Australia means something a little different than it does in the U.S. Here we go offroad for the sake of going off road, whereas in Australia it appears you're going off road to get somewhere... usually very long distances in which you must not break down (or else...). When we break down, we're not THAT far from repair or towing, so some of our favorite vehicles can be less "bomb proof" and more refined for, say, climbing the toughest obstacles... even if we break parts doing so. Of course we also have desert areas where we don't want to break down which is where you see our rigs adapted very similarly to European/Australian rigs.
The IG is significantly heavier than both of those (Bronco/Jeep) while being only very slightly larger in footprint. IG towing is basically double that of the Bronco and Jeep, at the expense of offroad prowess. The IG being a general work and off-road worthy rig isn't in direct competition with either of those... though they are all in the same "offroad worthy" vein. We in the U.S. don't really have anything like the IG since the Defender and Land Cruiser had their nuts removed in the latest models... and Land Cruiser isn't really being sold here anymore. The 4-Runner is also more inline with the Bronco and Jeep... lighter, doesn't tow much... more for playing in the snow/mud/rocks. It's clear to me that Bronco and Jeep are far superior to the IG offroad in terms of taming the extremes, but IG adds significant boost to towing capability and overall ruggedness in stock form, which many Americans value, particularly if they want a large cab vehicle instead of a truck bed. Our trucks get huge and can tow tons... but many people want to haul the family in the rain/snow while they tow, and the truck bed isn't always the best option for everyone, so the IG has it's place here... I just don't know how big of a place it has.
It's gonna be very interesting to see how it sells in the United States. We generally respect the LRDefender and there is certainly a following here. I think it's just because our land has lots of fun obstacles on it so we like to "crawl" on them... really beautiful landscape while doing so... lots more elevation. If I'm not mistaken, there are more orders for the IG from North America than the rest of the world... can anyone confirm or disprove?
Naturally we're not as keen on LandRover stuff... largely because European parts are very expensive over here and fewer mechanics are trusted to know how to fix them than Fords, GMs, Japanese rigs or Toyotas etc.. The IG makes tons of sense to me in Australia and the like (once you get more fuel capacity). That said, I think our farming families will be very interested in the IG as it's kind of a "do a range of thing pretty well" rig. It's not particularly powerful, flexible, and doesn't tow a ton, but it DOES do all of those things to a very acceptable degree, and that cannot be ignored. Americans are already looking for how to hone the IG to be great at what they really want it for, just like the rest of the world. I hope launch goes well in Europe!! We in The States are wiggling in our seats as you all get to play with them for probably more than a year before we do. We are watching eagerly! The spirit behind the IG is what ties us all together no matter which land we're on.
Curious though where'd you get that to know it? I'd love to look into it.
