All Entries Tagged With: "Land Rover"
Land Rover Has Made Its Millionth Range Rover
by Gunnar Heinrich ::: img Land Rover ::: 1,000,000 Range Rovers
IT happened last week at Land Rover’s Solihull Plant. Land Rover marked the auspicious occasion by donating the millionth Range Rover – an “Autobiography” in “ultimate black” – to an auction benefiting UK charity Help for Heroes. The special edition Range Rover is expected to fetch somewhere north of £100,000 ($162,000). Amazing to think that its been forty years and a million units since the first Range Rover Classic.
Range Rover Evoque Evokes City over Country
by Gunnar Heinrich ::: img Land Rover ::: Range Rover Evoque
BILLED both as an urban coupé (naturally) and as “the smallest, lightest, most fuel efficient Range Rover ever,” the Range Rover Evoque – launched today in Paris – marks Land Rover’s grandest departure from the African Safari since the Range Rover Classic first bowed four decades ago.
Land Rover’s been keen to maintain the link to its off-road heritage; a go anywhere, anytime philosophy that’s made their posh Range Rover SUVs the rolling equivalent of catered Abercrombie & Kent tents. Hence, LR PR notes that the Evoque comes equipped with Land Rover’s latest off-roading technological software like Hill Descent Control, Terrain Response, Gradient Release Control and so on.
Pointedly, just as much emphasis is placed on the Evoque’s sporty handling and host of amenities including an “infotainment system” and a “connectivity package” that accommodates iPhones, etc. There are technological frontiers to cover, after all.
That said, the Evoque stands for urban lifestyle first. The new urbane character is signaled externally by 20” tall rims, low profile tyres, LED halo lights, sharply canted roofline and über slick façade. That said, the design itself appears generally appealing if a bit squashed- it’s as though a giant decided to sit on the Range Rover Sport for a spell.
The SUV seems more at home outside the Ministry of Sound than at the wooly foot of Ben Nevis. It’s British bling at it’s best/worst, depending on your P.O.V. Whatever the case, the Evoque has definitely forged a new trail deeper into the urban jungle.
Range Rover Crests 40 Years, Charges Onward
by Gunnar Heinrich ::: YouTube ::: Range Rover 40th Anniversary
RANGE ROVER turns 40 this month.
Reaching back to 1970 and the waning days of rock scene’s “British Invasion” and Harold Wilson’s forgettable premiership, British Safari-destroyer maker extraordinaire Land Rover elected to build and sell a new type of 4X4 slotted for upmarket civilian use to a clueless public.
Henceforth, they called the horizon-broadening vehicle – “Range Rover” or “Range Rover Classic” as we’ve come to know the hydropneumatically sprung luxo-box that Land Rover made in variable quantities up until 1995.
The original Range Rover was deemed so pure of design in terms of form and function that the Louvre elected to display the British SUV as a great example of automotive design.
Many of the Range Rover Classic’s purist DNA (product of British Leyland) are seen in the current generation – the L322 – originally designed intadem with BMW, modified by Ford, and now sold under the Tata umbrella.
The video above is a happy montage of the three principal Range Rover generations in action. It’s forty years observed in the span of 100 seconds.
61 Yrs: Land Rover Defender
The SVX was the Defender line’s last hurrah
By Gunnar Heinrich
BOLTED together in a fashion so simple that a caveman could do it any able do-it-yourselfer could muster, it’s been said recently that the Land Rover Defender née Land Rover “90″ and “110″ has seen the sun set on it’s long-lived production.
Like some aged British sitcom representing a Thatcherite Britain where Foxhunts and whisky were a way of life neither to be outlawed or overly tariffed, the Defenders were the last stand against an overly modernized “tread lightly” off road campaign across the world. Parked next to a Range Rover Sport or a Land Rover Freelander and you can see where the day’s economic realities lay.
Stateside, there was a period in the 1990s where the Defender 90 proved more the alternative boulevardier in shock yellow or jet black. We can thank Land Rover for providing us with an eye-catchingly rugged alternative to your average Jeep Wrangler. Needless to the say, the Jeep’s longevity outlived the Landie – albeit the Defender and its similar ancestry marked time off road for some 61 years.
That makes the Defender series twice as old Mercedes’ tricenarian Gelaendewagen.
It’s somewhat sad that this news came to us on a Friday night in Autumn’s indifferent cool. One would’ve thought a gala of outdoor festivities would be in order; celebrating the past while positioning for the future.
But since Land Rover has no immediate Defender replacement (suggested 2013), this drab bit of news arrives less as a happy so-long to Landie’s simple terra-firma virtues and more the quiet announcement of a low-key funeral held for an old, but patrotic soldier.
On The Original Range Rover…
By John Sweeney
TRUE style can come in some pretty unconventional forms. Take the original Range Rover, for example.
The David Bache penned design of 1970 appears, at first, largely simplistic in its form, yet it has something about it which merits a second look.
Throughout 1970, a Range Rover was exhibited at the Louvre, as an “outstanding piece of modern sculpture”1. The directors of the Louvre intimated that the design was such that either to add or to take anything away from it would be to its detriment.
To my eyes, it is incredible to think that the original Range Rover enjoyed a production run of some 26 years, and that a design which was current in 1970 still managed to be so in 1996.
That this was so, this author suggests, is testament to the genius of the original design, and of its designer. While the contemporary Range Rover is certainly a worthy design, I cannot help but fell that it has lost some of the elegant simplicity of its forbear.
In typical British Leyland fashion, the design was chronically underfunded throughout its lifetime, but that’s a story for another day.
So that’s the classic Range Rover, then. Unconventionally conventional.
Tata Nano Production Delayed Due To Protests
Tata should count itself lucky. Protest in India was once deadlier.
By Gunnar Heinrich
CHANGE comes slowly and often with adversity.
Or in the case of economic reform in India, as slowly as a 25 year old Jag accelerating on three cylinders and every bit as adverse to the notion of advancing forward.
Trouble is that the country’s industrial progress continues to see many road blocks; thousands in fact.
A good read in the New York Times pointed to the fact that thousands of Indian “peasants” have taken to blocking certain highways surrounding a Tata Motors plant in Singur in protest of the proposed development of their agricultural lands.
In what’s sure to play out with all the melodrama of a Bollywood li’l-man-confronts-high ‘n mighty-bad-guy flick, this story is a likely set back to the Indian auto industry. It’s an industry (and co.) which – fresh off of capturing the crown jewels Jaguar and Land Rover – was about to bring forth the world’s cheapest and cheeriest – the $2,500 Tata Nano.
Not yet, said the rural folk. Production ground to a halt in face of the recent peaceful but prolific protests.
Just How “German” Is Lamborghini?
By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG by BusinessWeek
OR Bentley and Bugatti for that matter?
Catching up with the latest on “German” auto news as I’m prone to do over at the respectable German Car Blog, I continually find myself questioning the site’s self described focus of “delivering news and opinion about Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, VW and Porsche.”
Apparently, BMW and Mercedes-Benz aren’t German enough for inclusion which leads one to suspect the obvious – the blog really just covers the marques associated with the VW-Audi Group.
Fine, but back to the “German” point. Does foreign ownership of a nameplate dictate nationality?
Did anyone claim Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover, or Volvo as American brands just for being members of Ford’s Premier Auto Group? Or might we have really thought Lamborghini as made-in-the-USA when Chrysler owned the raging bull?
I think not. So why insist that the British Bentley, the Franco-Italian Bugatti, or the Italian Lambo as Teutonic? As a concept, it seems oddly foreign.
[Linked: German Car Blog]
Ford Sees Off Two Daughters To Mysterious Indian Suitor
An Arranged MarriageMr. Ford with starched handkerchief wipes a tear from the missus’ misty eye while they wave off their two adopted British daughters – Jaguar and Land Rover.
The neighbors stare unbelieving through their windows. They’re a little stunned not just by the parade of elephants and footmen, but by the fact that Mr. Ford gave not one but two of his daughters away to some mysterious, self-proclaimed maharaja who promised riches beyond the dreams of avarice in return.
Onlookers, the British press namely, are busy tossing rice and singing hallelujah while American bankers stand near with suitcases stuffed with dollars.
You see, this suitor didn’t have the cash necessary on hand to pay for these ladies up front. So, he had to borrow – just like Mr. Ford did last year (times have been tough at the Ford household what with the credit crunch et al.)
The eager maharaja committed to what’s known as a “bridge loan” amounting to a tidy $3 Billion courtesy Citi and JP Morgan >>>. Jaguar and Land Rover’s wholesale price was only $2.3 Billion which leaves $700 million extra for expenses.
After all we’ve got to keep in mind that there’s not one but two weddings and two honeymoons to pay for. But at least for the Fords, they can now breathe a little easier knowing that they’ve rid themselves of two financial drains.
They’re the maharaja’s problem now.
Volvo For Sale. I’ll Roll With That.
Rolling along.(img: Automobile)
Detroit’s influence on Goteborg has produced mixed results, to be kind.
Good: the Ford-initiated XC90 is not only comfortable, safe, and moderately stylish, it has been a real sales booster for Volvo. The SUV would not have been possible without the Blue Oval’s financial backing. And Ford has re-imaged the marque to appeal to families – i.e. the penultimate soccer mom transport.
Bad: the whole family image thing gets boring even to those who buy with school runs in mind.
The V50’s a flop.
Volvo’s reputation for safety is proving to be as much marketing as substance. IIHS gave the S40 sports sedan a merely “acceptable” rating in a side-impact crash test. This means that the driver dummy would have suffered internal injuries and broken ribs if broadsided by an SUV traveling 40 mph. Same results for the larger S60.
By comparison, the Audi A6 was rated “good” in the same test; drivers and passengers would walk away without serious injury.
Good: the new Volvo C70 hard-top convertible is even better than the last convertible – safer (top pick from IIHS) and more refined. The car looks especially sharp in red.
Bad: few but the party faithful will buy a $40K+ convertible from the soccer-mom car company.
Good: Ford has invested faithfully in its Swedish subsidiary and received a profitable carmaker in return.
Bad: The fiscal magic is losing its shine with weaker M.Y. ’07 sales in the U.S.
In sum, it’s been fun (sort of) but Volvo’s ready to roll on down the road.
Sources: [IIHS, Consumer Reports, Financial Times, Morgan & Co.]
