LAND ROVER IN GOOD company?

i Have to take issue with Dave Phillips’ remarks in the vocal Yokel column in the May edition of LRM. i quote: “Land Rover has been involved in more than its fair share of these turbulent liaisons, hitched in turn to the Rover Car company, British Leyland, British aerospace, BMW, Ford and, at the time of writing, Tata Motors.”

To create the impression that the Rover Company was little more than an annoying and turbulent liaison with Land Rover is nothing short of a gross distortion of history. You cannot speak of the Rover Company in the same way as Ford and BMW, who acquired Land Rover as part of a bigger transaction and then, when they found it wasn’t the flowing cash cow they thought it was, couldn’t wait to sell to someone else.

The Rover Company conceived Land Rover from scratch and gave birth to the whole concept. They set up a small production line next to the magnificent Rover P4, used Rover parts, engines and adapted the chassis to get the whole thing rolling. They are Land Rover’s parents – not some promiscuous affair with a passing lover along the way!

They turned Land Rover from nothing in 1948 to an iconic brand and then had to sell 20 years later in 1968 to British Leyland and Lord Stokes out of pure financial necessity, but that is another story in the long saga of the British car industry and their ability to come up with brilliant designs – and their subsequent inability to make them pay and thereby secure their future.

Without the Rover Company it is doubtful that Land Rover would exist today in any form. it deserves huge respect.

Keep up the good work at LRM, Ken Bailey (via email)

You’re quite right, Ken, and I agree with you entirely. I didn’t mean to offend you with my tongue-in-cheek remarks. I was merely making the point that Land Rover has been through a lot of lovers… Sorry, owners – Dave Phillips.