Land Rover

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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. 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.

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.

History

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 has been 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 have bragged about 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.

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.

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.

The Land Rover Wolf is also used by military forces throughout the world. In the UK armed forces, the very 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.

Since the 1970s, in most remote areas of Africa, South America, Asia and in the Australian Outback the Toyota Land Cruiser has overtaken the Land Rover as the utility 4x4 of choice, probably because of the better parts network offered by 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, most farms once again have a Land Rover Defender in their yard.

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. This is in sharp contrast with Jaguar, another PAG brand, which has failed to innovate and appeal to new customers. Land Rovers profits should contiue to rise with the indroducton of the new Freelander at the end of 2006 and the new Defender in the summer of 2007.

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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
• 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 (Midyear) 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

Models

• Series I, II and III - the original off-roader
• Defender - Updated Series line, with a move from extreme utilitarianism.
• Freelander - compact crossover 4x4
• 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
• 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"
• 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).

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.

Concept Models

Land Rover Land e

Land Rover Range Stormer

Abilities

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.

Safety

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.

Quality problems

Recently the Land Rover [[wiktionary:marque|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. [link] In 2004, it narrowly dethroned Kia, as the least reliable nameplate, but swapped places in 2005. (Kia last, Land Rover 2nd last).
• 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 – (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 – 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 [[wiktionary:warranty|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 "[[Wiktionary:transwiki:Crunch time|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.

External links