LAND ROVERS MAKE ME PROUD “It was an absolute treat to see these old Land Rovers performing innumerable tasks”

Last night I watched, with mixed emotions, an episode of Channel 5’s, The Cars That Made Britain Great. Land Rovers featured prominently, from the Series 1 through to the current Range Rover, though omitting Discovery, Freelander, Evoque and Range Rover Sport. Old film clips showed Series types being hurled over rough terrain with total disregard for the vehicle, the occupants and the terrain, in a way that would have today’s responsible off-roaders cringing, and the contemporary Land Rover company denying any connection with its own past. Great footage, that made me proud of my old Series III.

Annoyingly, the programme referred to each of the Series vehicles as Defenders, and suggested the Defender was developed from the Range Rover dating from 1980. My dog knows that Range Rovers date from 1972, that the Defender was obviously developed from the Series vehicles, that Defenders didn’t exist until 1990, and that anything pre-1984 is definitely not a Defender. Among the opinions of the celebrities, surely the programme could have included just one expert (and there are plenty in our Land Rover movement) to ensure the facts were correct.

It was though, an absolute treat to see these old Land Rovers – British machines – performing innumerable tasks around the world. But, while I accept that businesses have a duty to profit, it made me question Land Rover’s abandonment of such an iconic vehicle type, and indeed a massive slice of British culture.

Current Land Rovers are high-end machines, technologically advanced, and successful in the intensely competitive SUV market. But, Range Rover apart, they no longer stand out as something special. They are easily compared against the competition; and when I read comparative test reports in the ‘new car buying’ press and see the Discovery Sport beaten by the new Skoda SUV, and the Audi Q7 coming in stronger than the new Discovery, I wonder if we’re losing ground. Meanwhile, the Defender hole is being filled by Nissan, Mercedes, Mitsubishi and Volkswagen – can a new Defender break into that market?

Looking on the bright side, there’s a cracking technical section over the page showing how those iconic machines can be restored, improved and maintained in superb running order, plus a valuable mod for the modern V6 auto models. And, of course, there’s future technology coming up soon.