Originally posted by GJarrett
As opposed to spending a few extra billion designing something from scratch, take your newly-acquired Defender, make it US legal, and call it a Bronco in honor of the early model Broncos.
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I'm not a big fan of badge-engeneering, even though I proposed it myself in my first post
And, honestly, I'm not sure that Americans would like to live with some of the Defenders -- uumm -- moods, like water leaking in, heater's main purpose being making noise, not heating the interior
and so on.
But the Defender chassis and drivetrain, mated to the ZF autotranny, is in my eyes as good as it can get -- for not saying, perfect
. Take this platform, and put a real restyled Bronco body on it. A Defender with a Ford badge would more be an Offender than a Bronco, and I don't think it would ever be accepted by the Bronco-community as a real Bronco. But a real Bronco body, retro-styled with design elements of the first Broncos, combined with the best running gear, would make a lot of people happy and would be cost effective for both, Ford and Land Rover. The "real Defender" could remain the no nonsence work-horse, and the Defender with Bronco body could become the sports version of the Defender, our ultimate Wrangler-fighter. They would not compete against each other, but be complimentary, on the US as well as on the European or Australian market.
Somthing similar Volkswagen is doing with the New Beatle. The platform, the base, running gear, frame, how ever you want to call it, is the same as used for the Golf and the Audi A3. The whole variation comes with the body, which makes the whole thing being a completely different car. If I'm not wrong, also the new S-Jaguar and a Lincoln share a lot of parts, so Ford has done it before. Anyhow, sharing parts between models and even brands is so common in the automotive industry, it's not even worth a discussion.