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Originally posted by PH4
I maintain the Series parts Catalogue for British Pacific and every time I turn around I have to mark something NLA or remove it from the catalogue and when no aftermarket is equivalent, BP is sourcing companies with NOS part stocks just to keep parts on the shelf when LR discontinues them. There are some parts that only exist new in the parts pipeline.
As I recall, the largest size of oversize pistons have recently been discontinued along with 2.25 exhaust manifolds and the SIIA owners manual. New cylinder heads are 2.5L heads and require a metric bolt set to go with it. The 200tdi is the newest LR engine that will bolt onto a Series gearbox and even the cylinder heads, intake & exhaust manifolds have been discontinued for them.
Why do you think RN has started marketing aftermarket & OEM parts as Proline after spending years of marketing effort to convince LR owners that Genuine is better than even OEM? Because LR is discontinuing parts and RN is scrambling around for alternate sources of parts as well. RN just put up this "Proline" screen so customers could not see the behind the scene aftermarket product scourcing. That's a little scary to me because some brands I really trust and some I've had really poor luck with and prefer to avoid. And of course you can not accurately compare prices since you don't know the brand and RN has their own propriatory parts numbering system.
What's scarier to me is that fewer North Americans are buying Series parts, esp since petrol went over $3.00/gal. and the cost of parts from the UK has skyrocketed as the dollar has plunged. That means fewer orders from customers, = few orders from the US parts distributors = fewer parts sold by companies who make the parts = more genuine, OEM & aftermarket parts being discontinued. North American with only about 14K Series rigs sold new is the world's largest market for Series parts outside the UK and possibly including the UK.
Heck even Range Rover Classic and Disco I parts are being discontinued by Land Rover. At least many Defender parts fit Series rigs, so they are parts sources for non-purists.
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