Land Rover is a U.K.-based auto manufacturer specializing in vehicles with a heritage of offroad capability. It's all right there in the badge: Land Rover (or the swishier Range Rover line). For a long time, Land Rovers were simple and boxy, adventurous machines you might see on safari in Africa, or exploring the Amazon. In modern times, particularly with the Range Rover lineup, its vehicles are sleek and fashionable — though still not afraid to get their wellies dirty.
Land Rover's story …
Land Rover is a U.K.-based auto manufacturer specializing in vehicles with a heritage of offroad capability. It's all right there in the badge: Land Rover (or the swishier Range Rover line). For a long time, Land Rovers were simple and boxy, adventurous machines you might see on safari in Africa, or exploring the Amazon. In modern times, particularly with the Range Rover lineup, its vehicles are sleek and fashionable — though still not afraid to get their wellies dirty.
Land Rover's story begins, rather romantically, with a sketch drawn on a Welsh beach. The year was 1947, and many farms around the U.K. were using surplus U.S. Army Jeeps as do-everything vehicles. Two brothers, Maurice and Spenser Wilks, were senior employees at Rover, but were also using one of these Jeeps on Maurice's farm. With a stick, a familiar square shape was traced in the sand, an idea for a British civilian version of a plucky WWII hero.
Early Land Rovers are charming beyond belief. They seem to goggle at you with their round headlights, simple and cheery and eager to go play in the mud. These first Series I, II, and III Landies were not fast, nor particularly reliable, but they were so basic, you could fix them with almost anything. Mend and make do, the post-war British way. Exports of Land Rovers all over the world exploded.
It is said that for many people, the very first motorized vehicle they saw was a Land Rover. Boxy Land Rovers were always seen bouncing across the plain or crawling inexorably up a muddy hill. The Jim Carrey comedy, Ace Ventura II, memorably pokes fun at this all-terrain pith helmet image, smashing through the underbrush and barrel-rolling a Land Rover into a parking space. “Like a glove!”
The first Range Rover arrived as a two door model in 1970. It wasn't upmarket at first, just larger than the Land Rover, but it became so popular with well-heeled types — the British Royal family often drove them — that Land Rover saw the opportunity to move the Range Rover brand into the luxury realm.
Currently, the Land Rover Defender and Discovery are miles more refined than their drawn-in-the-sand forebears. The Defender in particular marks a bit of a break from tradition, in that the previous generation was the last to offer that boxy, agricultural feel. Both are even more offroad capable than their ancestors, thanks to technologies like selectable terrain management.
Range Rovers can also handle most muddy challenges thrown at them, but they are more often seen in a city centre than in a field. The Evoque and Velar are more crossover than SUV, easily able to handle inclement weather, but urbanely chic. The Range Rover Sport is genuinely quick on tarmac.
Last, there's the full-size Range Rover, called simply “Range Rover.” The pair of brothers who created the first simple Land Rovers could possibly not have comprehended that their rugged little truck would grow into a luxurious SUV whose closest challengers come from Rolls-Royce and Bentley. But you don't need patent leather shoes to drive a Range Rover — wellies still work.
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