I saw today an ad for the new LDV Maxus, the replacement for the Pilot (nee Sherpa).
Is it a re-badge job like the Primastar / Master / Vivaro, or a legit own effort?
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As far as I know its all LDVs own work, and cost them half a billion pounds to design and develop.
Ben
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As far as I know its all LDVs own work, and cost them half a billion pounds to design and develop. Ben
Yup.
www.ldvmaxus.com/overview.htm
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Thanks, i had found the site, i just wondered if it was PR puff and the £500m was somebody else's money. Fair play to them.
Incidentally, browsing www.austin-rover.co.uk, i found that the original Sherpa cost £3m to develop, being a part bin special. £8m for a brand new van was apparently too much money back then!!
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If it cost them 500m to develop, how come they've ended up with a previous-generation LWB Transit in everything but the headlights?
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Saw one today (minutes after reading this thread), seems decent enough. What is the origin of the engine ? (2.5 Common Rail Diesel)
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I *think* the engine's a VM unit.
Styling wise, there's not much you can do with a van. You obviously want a large box shape for the back and a sloped front for aerodynamics. So it doesn't leave much for the designers to play with.
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The front of that van reminds me so much of something. I'm doing my head in trying to thing what exactly.
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Adam
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I'm pretty sure it reminds me of a pickup. I thought maybe the Isuzu Rodeo but I'm not sure now. X is right though - a van is a van. People don't or rather shouldn't care all that much what it looks like. As long as it's reliable and runs well, and you can shove a load of stuff in the back then they're all much of a muchness I imagine.
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Adam
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I *think* the engine's a VM unit.
Yes, VM, confirmed in this photo: www.ldvmaxus.com/engine.htm
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The van was developed in partnership with Daewoo and was to be built in Poland. When Daewoo went bust LDV raised venture capital to buy the tooling and ship it back to Birmingham, the van is all theirs now. I hear there is a smaller one on the drawing board to replace the Pilot.
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I wonder if the Maxus will still be on the road in 2035? The Pilot (or old Sherpa) I think hit the roads in 1975...
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Styling wise, there's not much you can do with a van. You obviously want a large box shape for the back and a sloped front for aerodynamics. So it doesn't leave much for the designers to play with.
That's true. Van shape is van shape and most vans adhere to that. But even so, you can normally tell them apart. I'd swear this van was a rework of a Transit in the same way that a Daewoo Nexia was a rework of an Astra.
*shrug*
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Saw one on the road the other day, good looking van, looks rather like a ..... yawn ..... zzzzzzz.
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Sorry, nothing against LDV, it is just, well, a van.
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