Land Rover
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Land Rover logo |
Land Rover is a British all terrain vehicle and
SUV manufacturer, based in
Solihull, England. Originally the term Land Rover referred to one specific vehicle, a pioneering civilian all-terrain utility vehicle launched on
April 30,
1948 at the Amsterdam
Motor Show, but was later used as a brand for several distinct models, all
four-wheel drive. Starting out as an internal division of
Rover, Land Rover has designed and manufactured a range of four-wheel drive vehicles under a succession of owners, including
British Leyland,
British Aerospace and
BMW. Today, the marque is part of the
Premier Automotive Group, a division of the
Ford Motor Company, and one of the best internationally known and longest lived nameplates of rugged SUVs after the US
Jeep.
Land Rovers are manufactured primarily at the
Solihull plant, near the major manufacturing centre of
Birmingham,
England. Production of the 'Freelander' has moved recently to the
Jaguar car factory at
Halewood near
Liverpool. Another site at
Gaydon in
Warwickshire is home to the Land Rover research and design headquarters.
Land Rovers have competed in the
Paris Dakar Rally as well as being the vehicle used for the
Camel Trophy as part of a sponsorship deal.
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Land Rover Defender 110 |
The first Land Rover was designed in
1947 in the
United Kingdom by
Maurice Wilks, the chief designer at the British car. It is said that he was inspired by an American
World War II Jeep that he used one summer at his holiday home in
Wales. The first Land Rover prototype '
centre steer' was built on a
Jeep chassis. A distinctive feature is their bodies, constructed of a lightweight rustproof proprietary
alloy of
aluminium and
magnesium called
Birmabright. This material was used owing to post war steel shortages and a plentiful supply of post-war aircraft aluminium. This metal's resistance to corrosion was one of the factors that allowed the vehicle to build up a reputation for longevity in the toughest conditions. The early choice of colour was dictated by military surplus supplies of aircraft cockpit paint, so early vehicles only came in a shade of light green; all models until recently feature sturdy box section ladder-frame chassis.
The early vehicles, such as the Series 1, were designed to be field-serviced; advertisements for Rovers cite vehicles driven thousands of miles on banana oil. Now with more complex service requirements this is less of an option. The
British Army maintains the use of the mechanically simple 2.5 litre 4 cylinder 300TDi engined versions rather than the electronically controlled 2.5 litre 5 cylinder TD5 to retain some servicing simplicity. This engine also continued in use in some export markets using units built at a
Ford plant in Brazil, where Land Rovers were built under license and the engine was also used in Ford pick-up trucks built locally. Production of the Tdi engine ended here in 2006, meaning that Land Rover no longer offer it as an option. International Motors of Brazil offer an engine called the 2.8 TGV Power Torque, which is essentially a 2.8-litre version of the 300Tdi, with a corresponding increase in power and torque. This engine is quickly becoming a popular conversion for Land Rover enthusiasts in Europe.
Challenge of Japanese makes
Since the 1970s, in most remote areas of Africa, South America, Asia and in the Australian Outback the somewhat similar
Toyota Land Cruiser has overtaken the Land Rover as the utility 4x4 of choice, partly because of the better support network and reputation for reliability of Japanese competitors. In Australia at least, pricing is actually comparable or in favour of the Land Rover. Another reason seems to be the 'leadfoot' factor - the
workhorse Toyota models tend to have larger engines than the comparable Land Rover models.
In Britain, the Land Rover fell from favour with the farming community with the arrival of less expensive Japanese alternatives, with
Daihatsu Fourtracks and
Isuzu Troopers becoming a common sight on farms around the country, until rust eventually ended their working lives. However, with subtle improvements to the Defender in the early 1990s, and with the introduction of better, more reliable engines in the form of the TDi (especially the 300TDi) and the new five-cylinder TD5, many farms once again have a Land Rover Defender in their yard.
Company timeline
* 1948: Land Rover is designed by the Wilks Brothers and is manufactured by the
Rover Company* 1967: Rover becomes part of
Leyland Motors Ltd, later
British Leyland* 1970: Introduction of the
Range Rover* 1975: BL collapses and is nationalised, publication of the
Ryder Report recommends that Land Rover be split from Rover and be treated as a separate company within BL
* 1976: One millionth Land Rover leaves the production line.
* 1980: Rover car production ends at Solihull, which is now exclusively for Land Rover manufacture. 5-door Range Rover introduced.
* 1986: BL, now known as the Rover Group, is privatised and becomes part of
British Aerospace* 1987: Range Rover is introduced to the U.S market
* 1989: Introduction of the
Discovery (Disco I to enthusiasts)
* 1994: Rover Group is taken over by
BMW. Introduction of second-generation Range Rover.
* 1998: Introduction of the Freelander
* 1999: Introduction of the second generation of Discovery (Disco II)
* 2000: BMW breaks up the Rover Group and sells Land Rover to
Ford.
* 2002: Introduction of third-generation
Range Rover* 2005: Introduction of the third-generation
Discovery/LR3* 2005: Introduction of
Range Rover Sport* 2005: Adoption of the
Jaguar AJ-V8 engine to replace the
BMW M62 V8 in the Range Rover
Land Rovers, particularly the commercial and military models, became ubiquitous throughout rural areas and in the developing World. The Land Rover featured in the South African movie
The Gods Must Be Crazy illustrates the love-hate relationship many owners feel with the earlier Series 1, 2 and 3 vehicles. In the US, the 1960s TV series
Daktari featured a Land Rover that was the subject of Corgi models that still frequent ebay listings.
Since the very beginning all Series and Defender models have been used in a military capacity. Often this has entailed just slightly modifiying civilian models, but some dedicated military models have also been developed. The Discovery has also been used in small numbers, mostly as liaison vehicles. Two models that have been designed for military use from the ground up are the 101 Forward Control from the early 1970s and the Lightweight or Airportable from the late 1960s. The latter was intended to be transported by helicopter.
Military modifications includes 24 Volt electrics, convoy lights, electronic supression of the ignition system, blackout curtains and mounts for special equipment and small arms.
Military uses includes light utility vehicle, communcations platform, weapon platform for
recoilless rifles,
TOWs or
machine guns,
ambulances and workshops.
One famous adaption of Land Rovers to military purposes is the "Pink Panther" models. Approximately 100 Series IIAs were adapted to
reconnaissance use by the British special operations forces
SAS. For desert use they were often painted pink, hence the name. The vehicles were fitted with among other gear a
sun compass, machine guns, larger fuel tanks and smoke dischargers. Similar adaptations were later made to Series IIIs and 90/110/Defenders.
[Bob Morrison: Land Rovers in military service, Brooklands Books 1993, ISBN 1-85520-2050]Series and Defenders have also been uparmoured. The most widespread of these is the
Shorts Shorland, built by SHorts Brothers of
Belfast. The first of these were delivered in
1965 to the
Royal Ulster Constabulary, the Northern Ireland police force. They were originally 109" models with an armoured body and a turret from the Ferret armoured car. Later they were upgraded a parallell with Land Rover's upgrades to the base vehicles, and they are still marketed. In 1990 there had been more than 1.000 produced.
[Shorland.info]The most radical conversion of a Land Rover for military purposes was the Centaur
halftrack. It was based on a Series III with a V8 engine and a shortened belt drive from the
Alvis Scorpion light
tank. A small number was manufactured, and they were used by among others
Ghana.
The
Land Rover Wolf is also used by military forces throughout the world. In the UK armed forces, the more expensive
Pinzgauer, now built in the UK, is increasingly common in roles previously the preserve of the Land Rover Defender such as ambulances, artillery tractor and weapons platform with 188 Pinzgauers in service and 15,000 Land Rovers.
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1986 Land Rover Defender 90 |
The Range Rover has helped to define the Land Rover brand as much as the traditional Series and later Defender vehicles. Its upmarket image is peerless in the SUV market and led to a proliferation of products with the introduction of the Discovery/LR3, Freelander and Range Rover Sport.
By the late 1990's Land Rover were concerned that the brand was fragmented in the eyes of customers who saw a collection of products, which had little relation to each other. In order to exert more leverage from marketing-spend, a re-think led to a departure from the traditional 'mud and guts' advertising to more aspirational and luxury orientated marketing to better reflect the true customer-base.
This product strategy has kept Land Rover in business. In 2005 it was the most profitable part of Ford's Premier Automotive Group (PAG) brand portfolio. In cities like
Seattle, large Land Rover dealers now occupy sites that once sold Ford, Mercury, or Nissan lines.
[William O'McKay Ford, Pacific LM / Nissan (Seattle), Melody Nissan (Bellevue) ] Land Rovers profits should continue to rise with the introducton of the new Freelander at the end of 2006 and the new Defender in the summer of 2007.
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Series I, II and III - the original
off-roader*
Defender - Updated Series line, with a move from extreme utilitarianism.
*
Freelander -
compact crossover 4x4
*
LR2 -
compact all-new compact SUV coming to North America Spring of 2007
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Discovery/LR3 -
mid-size off-roader*
Range Rover -
full-size luxury off-roader*
Range Rover Classic - the original Range Rover, produced from 1970 to 1996
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Range Rover Sport -
full-size luxury crossover 4x4
There have also been models developed for the
Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom) (
MoD)
*
101 Forward Control - also known as the "Land Rover One Tonne"
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1/2 ton Lightweight - airportable military short wheelbase from the Series 2a
*
Land Rover Wolf - an uprated Military Defender (Also known as Snatch Land Rovers)
* 130 Defender ambulance
At the
2004 North American International Auto Show, Land Rover introduced its first
concept, the
Range Stormer (Gritzinger, 2004). A "green" concept known as
Land e was recently shown.
The armoured police vehicle, the
Shorland, was not a Land Rover produced model but was built from Land Rover parts by
Shorts of
Belfast. These were used by the
Royal Ulster Constabulary and
Ulster Defence Regiment until the
1970s, when a more conventional armoured
Land Rover Tangi was built.
The use of Land Rovers by the UK and Commonwealth military as well as on long term civilian projects and expeditions is mainly due to the superior
off-road performance of the marque. For example, the short wheelbase version of the Land Rover Defender is capable of tackling a gradient of 45 degrees, an approach angle of up to 50 degrees, a departure angle of 53 degrees and a ramp break-over of up to 155 degrees - greatly superior not just to urban
4x4s but to military vehicles such as the
HMMWV and
Pinzgauer High Mobility All-Terrain Vehicle. A distinctive feature of all Land Rover products has been their exceptional axle articulation (the degree to which the wheels have vertical travel, with high amounts allowing them to maintain contact (and traction) with the ground over uneven surfaces), which is currently 7 inches (178mm) at the front axle and 8.25 inches (210mm) at the rear on basic Defender models.
Road accident statistics on a model-by-model basis from the UK Department of Transport show that the
Land Rover Defender and
Land Rover Discovery are the safest cars on the UK roads (measured in terms of chance of death in an accident) - between three times safer than the safest
Volvo models, twice as safe (half the death-rate per accident) compared with the
Jeep Cherokee and
Toyota Land Cruiser and only matched by the
Mercedes-Benz S-Class and
Jaguar XJ.
Recently the Land Rover
marque has built a negative reputation for reliability and build quality, and this is reflected in its showing in various industry quality and dependability related surveys, as detailed below.
* US
J.D. Power and Associates Vehicle Dependability Survey for 2005 (published 8th July 2005) places the Land Rover marque last (
Kia second last). This is the fourth year that it has been in the last or second to last place in the survey. This study was based on responses from more than 55,000 US based original owners of 2000 model year cars and light trucks at three years of ownership. [
1] In 2004, it narrowly dethroned
Kia, as the least reliable nameplate, but swapped places in 2005. (
Kia last, Land Rover 2nd last).
* Tied for last (with
Hummer and
Porsche) in the 2006
Consumer Reports (US) car reliability survey. It was only one of 6 makes that did not have a model whose reliability was "Good" or above (joined by
Mercedes-Benz,
Volkswagen and
Jaguar); its highest-rating car was the LR3, which got a rating of "Poor". In addition, 56 percent of people who owned a 2003 Range Rover reported problems, as did 61 percent of 2002 Freelander owners--both the highest among all cars for that model year.
* Land Rover Discovery 6th-from-the-bottom of 100 models for reliability in an
Auto Express (UK) 2002 survey.
* Joint 16th-from-the-bottom in 144 car 2002 J.D. Power's
What Car? (UK) magazine customer satisfaction survey.
* Land Rover had joint highest average cost in warranty claims for cars up to 10 years old in 2002 UK Warranty Direct index â€" (based on full-maintenance leasing claims).
* Land Rover Discovery was joint second-to-last in 2002
Which? (UK) magazine reliability survey of cars up to 2 years old â€" however, only 35 Land Rovers were in the sample.
* Land Rover was 3rd least-reliable of 31 makes of car in 2002
Which? (UK) magazine reliability survey of 2000-2002 model-year cars.
* Least-reliable of 32 makes built 1997-1999. Spate of engine power,
gearbox and exploding
clutch problems (which Land Rover reportedly has refused to repair under
warranty).
* 89% of Land Rovers were reported breakdown-free in 2003
Which? (UK) magazine J.D. Power's survey.
Beginning with the Discovery Series III (LR3 in the US) model, one of the replacement power plants for the new model will be a 4.2 L V8 engine developed by
Jaguar (Jaguar is also part of the Ford Group).
Some of the service problems in US specification Land Rover Defender and Discovery models are related to the
Rover V8 petrol engine, as Land Rover increased the displacement and otherwise modernized the engine, which was designed in the late
1950s by
General Motors for
Buick. The same engine has powered a variety of other British cars, including the Rover 3500 and Triumph TR8.
Most
European,
South African and
Australian specification Defenders and Discovery models are now equipped with the TD5
diesel engine and reliability has still proven a problem as detailed in the surveys above. Part of the problem is also caused by the manufacturing methods used. The Defender is still largely hand-built, with aluminum body panels mounted on a steel chassis. This makes it very hard for the vehicle to have the same rigidity and inter-panel sealing as is found on modern vehicle. The 1980s saw numerous cut-backs to the utility Land Rover line (at that time, the Ninety/One Ten range), which included the replacement of the galvanised metal body cappings (as used since 1948) with simple painted items. This led to rapid corrosion of these parts. Similar economy measures were put in place. Recently increased investment under Ford has seen the return of the galavnised cappings, and design changes to reduce corrision (such as the introduction of a one-piece rear door on Station Wagon and Hard Top models, which previously had doors made from panels over a steel frame).
Land Rover still makes heavy use of the British Leyland parts bin on its older models (the Defender and Freelander in particular), and this as well as its parts-sharing scheme often cited as the cause of many malfunctions, it now appears that Ford is attempting to legitimately address the Land Rover quality issues. It was reported in the
Birmingham Post on 27th May 2004 that Ford's
senior management have given the Land Rover plant 8 weeks to come up with a "road map" to address the quality issues at Land Rover and bring its competitiveness up to global standards in 5 years. Ford has threatened Solihull with closure unless significant improvements are realised, and with no replacement for the
Jaguar X-type on the cards, it seems likely that there will be sufficient extra capacity at Halewood in the coming years to accommodate the entire Land Rover range.
Land Rover's
CEO described this as "
crunch time" for Land Rover.
Despite the recent drops in quality, it is rumored that 75% of all Land Rovers produced since 1955 are still on the road. This figure may be misleading, due to the wider range of vehicles and much higher production of recent years. Although the simplicity of build & cross compatability of parts with many of the earlier models together with the enthusiasm of many owners has ensured many vehicles have stayed on the road, the longevity of individual vehicles may also tend to hide any improvements in production quality as assembly faults, once fixed, may stay fixed, and so may only matter to the first buyer. Enthusiasts of the marque and commercial users often point out that the mechanical components of the vehicles are very tough and reliable, whereas other manufacturers not only produce models with assembly faults which are recalled, but do not tend to remain as reliable as
Land Rover products in the long run. It is also true that much larger proportion of early
Land Rover Discovery, the first vehicle to be produced in very high numbers, remain in everyday use than can be said of rival manufacturers.
General information
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Land Rover USA Dealerships and Models*
Discoweb - Land Rover Discovery web site
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The Land Rover FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions about Land Rovers
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Owners clubs and online forums
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Land Rover Official website*
Landrover UK Forums Independent Land Rover Enthusiasts Forum - News, Views and Tech Help
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Land Rover Extreme website*
Land Rover News - Land Rover news all in one place
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LR4x4.com - The Independent Land Rover Forum
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Land Rover Repair Forums (LRRForums)
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Series 2 Club*
Svensk Land Rover klubben - Swedish Land Rover Club
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Ottawa Valley Land Rovers - Canadian and North American Land Rover Club with events throughout the year and a monthly newsletter
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Land Rovers on cardomain.com*
Land Rovers Only website - Largest LR owners website
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Muddy Oval - enthusiast website
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Camel Trophy Owners Club*
The Keynsham Camels - Ex-Camel Trophy vehicles enthusiast site
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Land Rover Addict Forums*
Land Rover Owners Club of Victoria - Oldest and largest Club in Australia
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Land Rover Lifestyle - U.S. based enthusiast magazine
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ORRP 'Off-Roaders' Rant Page' - Land Rover forum for adults only
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Camel Trophy forum*
Land-Rover Off-Roader - Small Scale Land Rover Site
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LandyOnline - Land Rover News in Africa
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The D-90 SourceLand Rover Ads
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Land Rover 'Go Beyond' by Nicolai Fulgsig*
Land Rover Advertising, Canada, USA, & Australia
