The Long & Colourful History of Land Rover
There isn’t a motorist alive today that doesn’t know what a Land Rover is, and this iconic British brand came into being in 1948, when the Rover Company decided to introduce a 4-wheel drive off-road vehicle called the Land Rover. This model quickly became very popular with the British gentry and farming community, gaining a reputation as a rugged and very durable off-road vehicle, and the Land Rover name was born.
The Birth of the Land Rover Company
The company, Land Rover was formed in 1978, while prior to that date, the Land Rover was one model of the Rover company, which was owned by British Leyland. Once the company was formed, they began to design and build new models that rapidly gained popularity in the UK and abroad. While the Land Rover was constantly developed, the Range Rover, a premier luxury country vehicle, was introduced in the 1980s and ever since that time, the Land Rover Company has only produced premium off-road vehicles.
BMW Owned
On January 31st in 1994, the Rover Group Plc was sold to BMW, which included Land Rover and during their restructuring, they decided that Land Rover did have a future and in the year 2000, the Rover Group was sold by BMW and the Land Rover was sold to the Ford Motor Company. If you would like to view the latest models of Land Rover Defender series, check out Nene Overland, a leading UK Land Rover dealership. They stock a range of new and used models of the Land Rover Defender series, with the 90, 110 and 130 models, each with its own unique set of properties.
The Ford Era
Ford took the design of the Land Rover and made it more modern with the birth of the Discovery series. In 2006, Ford purchased the Rover brand from BMW and in 2007, it announced it had sold Land Rover and Jaguar Motors to a consortium, with Tata Motors being the majority shareholder. Click here for an informative article on the correct use of high beam when night driving.
Tata Motors
In 2008, Tata Motors created Jaguar Land Rover Limited as a British registered subsidiary, which was used as a holding company for two businesses; namely Jaguar Cars Limited and Land Rover. This effectively merged Jaguar and Land Rover and the UK company took responsibility for design, manufacture and marketing of both Jaguar and Land Rover.
In 2014, the Land Rover Discovery range was launched and one year prior to that, Land Rover was merged with Jaguar to form Jaguar Land Rover Limited and ever since then, they have developed both brands in the luxury car market.
The SUV market is the biggest in the UK and Land Rover have a large share of that market with their Defender series, which come in 90, 110 and 130 models. If you would like to book a test drive, search online for an approved Land Rover dealership, where you can view their range of new and used Land Rovers, the off-road specialists.
