Land Rover still riding high
After nearly 60 years West Midlands 4x4 maker Land Rover is riding higher than ever in public favour.
Whether it is the redesigned Discovery, the newly launched Freelander or the tough original Defender, it seems we can't get enough of the nation's most loved off-roader.
At a time when the environment brigade is in the middle of a fierce campaign against such gas-guzzling giants, Land Rover continues to put on sales.
The reason is that, after six decades and four million vehicles, Land Rover has become an British icon.
Originally built for farmers and country folk who needed a tough, basic civilian version of the Army's Jeep, it has become the must-have motor – as familiar in Chelsea and Kensington as at country fairs and livestock markets.
For more than 20 years it was simply a workhorse, a byword for the sort of tough vehicle that could be driven on the road but could tackle the worst that English weather and muddy countryside could throw at it.
It was in 1970 that Land Rover broke into the luxury car market with its Range Rover, which became a stalwart of the country set and the must-have motor for aspirational up-and-comers.
But it hasn't all been plain sailing. Part of the Longbridge-based Rover group in the 1990s, quality control at the Land Rover factory in Lode Lane, Solihull, was almost a national joke and the vehicles attracted a reputation for poor workmanship and breakdowns.
Land Rover still came up with vehicles that tickled the fancy of the driving public, with its Discovery aimed at the more general driver, and then the Freelander, the Solihull firm's bid for the more trendy, baby off-roader market.
Sold to US car giant Ford by BMW in 1999, in the deal that created the doomed MG Rover business, Land Rover got backing to spend hundreds of millions on drawing up new and stylish vehicles.
The launch of the Discovery 3 in 2004, followed by the fast and luxurious Range Rover Sport and, most recently relaunch of a new Defender and a new Freelander, has seen sales hit an all time high with more than 190,000 sold last year.
America fell for Land Rover and is the largest single market for the 4x4s.
