Land Rovers in the Baltics

[steve-p]

I've just spent 11 days travelling through Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia and it's one part of the world that Land Rovers have not really penetrated. In fact, I only saw a handful. In Vilnius (capital of Lithuania) I saw a Series 3 with a camper body parked up, obviously a visitor, and on the motorway saw a 110 towing a large trailer. In Latvia, saw none at all apart from in Riga, where the Police have several Defenders. They were garaged in and outside a building near our hotel, otherwise I probably wouldn't have noticed. They don't seem to carry a spare wheel, I guess they think it would get stolen! There were a few privately owned Range Rovers of varying ages too. In Estonia, I didn't see any Land Rover products at all.

More surprising was a small though significant percentage of US manufactured cars, especially in Vilnius and Tallinn. The US dealers must have got in quick after independence, so Land Rover must have been dragging their feet.

[pawsmcgraw]

its strange,in Australasia LR had a 96% market share back in 1970 and now i hear they are down to less than 5%....why?