The Land Rover reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Jul-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Land Rover

Land Rover was the name of one of the first British civilian all-terrain utility vehicles, first produced by Rover in 1947. Eventually, the Land Rover division was split off from Rover, and produced an expanding range of four wheel drive vehicles under a succession of owners, including British Leyland, British Aerospace, BMW, and, from 2000, Ford in the Premier Automotive Group. Land Rovers are manufactured in Solihull, England (near Birmingham) and exported around the world.

The first Land Rover was designed in 1947 by Maurice Wilkes as a farm vehicle that could be used for everything from ploughing feilds to driving to town, base on Willys Jeeps he had seen in action in World War II. In fact the first land rover the centre steer was built almost entirely from Willy's Jeep components. Then and since, their most distinctive feature has been their bodies, constructed of a lightweight proprietary alloy of aluminium and magnesium called Birmabright (being rustproof, this contributes to the vehicle's longevity); most feature sturdy ladder-frame chassis. The vehicles are designed (or some would say feature brilliant lack of design) to allow them to be field-serviced. For instance, ads for Rovers have bragged about vehicles driven thousands of miles on banana oil.

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 early series 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 Defender is also used by military forces mainly in countries within the British sphere of influence, specifically the British Commonwealth. 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.

Since the 1970s in most remote areas of Africa, South America, Asia and in the Australian Outback the Toyota Land Cruiser has very strongly overtaken the Land Rover as the utility 4x4 of choice, probably because of the superior durability and build quality of the Land Cruiser.

In the United States, Land Rovers have a reputation as overpriced "yuppie" toys, since most are never used off-road; however there are also enthusiasts and clubs that take the vehicle to its limits.

Table of contents

1 Company Timeline 2 Models 3 Quality Problems with Land Rover marque 4 External links 5 References

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
• 1994 Rover Group is taken over by BMW. Introduction of second-generation Range Rover.
• 1998 Introduction of the Freelander
• 2000 BMW breaks up the Rover Group and sells Land Rover to Ford.
• 2002 Introduction of third-generation Range Rover

Models

• Series/Defender is the original Land Rover. These flat-sided, simply constructed vehicles are classified by wheelbase - 80", 86", 88", 90", 101", 107", 109", 110", 127", and 130"; as well as the forward control model 101". Four wheel drive is engaged via a control lever, a reduction gearbox allows negotiation of very steep hills, and the front and rear suspension is via leaf sprung beam axles. Series designate major model changes: Series I, II, IIA, III, and Defender. The Defender model, until 1990 just named Land Rover 90, 110 or 127 depending on wheelbase, used the improved drivetrain, suspension and chassis of the previous model of Range Rover.
• Range Rover is the more upscale model, considered one of the top-of-the-line utility vehicles, and still extremely capable off-road. Introduced in 1970. Improvements compared to the "series" model include constant four-wheel-drive through a lockable centre differential, all-coil suspension, disc brakes on all wheels, and a 3.5 litre aluminum V8 engine. It was introduced to the US in 1987, where it is known as an SUV (sports utility vehicle). The second generation ran from 1994, still with Rover V8 engines. In 2002 a third generation was introduced which saw the model move further up-market. Range Rovers now come with BMW V8 petrol and 6-cylinder diesel engines (a legacy of Land Rover being owned by BMW when the third generation Range Rover was being developed).
• Discovery is the most popular model of Land Rover; introduced in the late-1980s. It is not as utilitarian as the Defender; but again, very competent off-road. On 2 April 2004, Ford Motor Company introduced a new Discovery, known as LR3 in the United States.
• Freelander is a newly introduced (1998 UK/2002 US) "mini" model to compete with the Jeep Liberty, Toyota RAV4 and similar vehicles.

At the 2004 North American International Auto Show, Land Rover introduced its first concept, the Range Stormer (Gritzinger, 2004).

Quality Problems with Land Rover marque

Recently the Land Rover marque has built a somewhat negative reputation for poor reliability and build quality problems and this is reflected in its showing in various industry quality and dependability related surveys including:

• US JD Powers vehicle dependability survey for 2003 published 8th July 2003 places the Land Rover marque second to last. The 2003 JD Powers Vehicle Dependability study is 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]
• Land Rover Discovery 6th from Bottom of 100 models for reliability in Auto Express 2002 survey in the UK.
• Joint 16th from Bottom in 144 car 2002 JD Power UK based ‘What Car?’ magazine Customer Satisfaction survey
• Landrover had joint highest average cost in warranty claims for cars up to 10 years old in 2002 UK Warranty Direct index – no subjectivity here whatsoever these data are based on full maintenance leasing claims.
• Land Rover Discovery was Joint second bottom in 2002 UK Which magazine reliability survey of cars up to 2 years old- however only 35 cars in the Land Rover sample.
• Land Rover 3rd least reliable of 31 makes of car in 2002 UK 'Which?' magazine reliability survey cars 2000 - 2002
• least reliable of 32 makes built 1997 - 1999. Spate of engine power, gearbox and exploding clutch problems which LandRover will not repair under warranty
• Only 89% breakdown free in 2003 UK ‘Which?’ magazine JD Powers survey

Beginning with the LR3, one of the replacement power plants for the new model will be a 4.2 litre V8 engine developed by Jaguar; also now part of the Ford group.

Some of the service problems in US spec Land Rover Defender and Discovery models are related to an obsolete petrol engine produced under license by Land Rover, the US spec Discovery's and Defender\'s petrol engine 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.

It now seems as if Ford is attempting to seriously 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. Land Rover's chief executive described this as "crunch time" for Land Rover.

External links

• Land Rover Official website
• Roverweb Land Rover Club
• Internet Land Rover Club
• The Land-Rover FAQ

References

• Gritzinger, B. (2004, January 19). And baby makes four: Range Stormer conceives sporty side of Land Rover. In News. AutoWeek, 54, 4.