Land Rover Monthly April 2016

“While we all mourn the passing of a legend, remember that Defender will live on forever” This month’s LRM features a special tribute to mark the end of Defender production at Land Rover’s Solihull factory. The Defender and its distinguished predecessors – the Series I, SII, SIIA, SIII, Ninety and One Ten – had been rolling off the Lode Lane production line since 1948. No wonder the occasion was marked by the world’s media. It was a sad moment for all of us that love the Defender. But its passing was inevitable – not from any inherent fault of the vehicle, but because it didn’t meet modern safety and emissions criteria. To politically-incorrect old souls like me, most of this legislation is a load of bureaucratic nonsense devised by politicians…

JAGUAR LAND Rover has reported record January sales, however the marque suffered a fall in both profits and revenues. Global retail sales for the month of January were up year-on-year, with Europe enjoying a 65 per cent increase in sale figures. The Evoque and the new Discovery Sport were the biggest hits, with 9486 Sports and 9729 Evoques sold in January. The figures come on the back of the West Midlands-based firm’s best-ever year in 2015, with 487,065 new cars sold worldwide. Profits, however, are down, with JLR reporting a 2 per cent fall in revenue to £5.8 bn, while pre-tax profit slipped by 27 per cent to £499 m during the third quarter of the financial year. JLR have blamed the fall in profits on a change in business…

JLR HAS moved to quash safety fears over its driverless technology, stating that the aim is for cars to drive like humans, not robots. The three year £5.5 m MOVE-UK project, which is led by Bosch, is being undertaken to help develop the technology for the purpose of safety and comfort, as well as financially, with future insurance policies being developed in line with the findings of the study. To aid research, a fleet of Land Rovers and Jags will be driven daily by employees in the London Borough of Greenwich, to establish how a range of different drivers react to real-world driving situations, including heavy traffic, busy junctions, road works and bad weather. Data from sensors in these cars will reveal the natural driving behaviours and decision-making that drivers…

LAND ROVER has teamed up with luxury travel partner Abercrombie & Kent to offer the most luxurious road trip on Earth. With prices starting at £100,000 per head, Land Rover will take well-heeled customers across the globe via the range-topping Range Rover SV Autobiography. Visiting five continents, eight countries and sampling the world’s best hotels, Land Rover has planned the ultimate road trip, which despite its five-star nature, promises to visit locations made accessible thanks to Land Rover. Complete with additional styling quirks, interior modifications, and the most powerful engine ever offered in a Range Rover, the SVAutobiography is exclusively crafted at Jaguar Land Rover Special Vehicle Operations in Coventry. Mark Cameron, Land Rover Experiential Marketing Director, said: “We set out to design a trip worthy of the ultimate luxury…

THE FIRST ever diesel Land Rover has gone up for sale online with a staggering asking price of £200,000. The battered Series I and its remarkable price tag had appeared on eBay at the time LRM went to press, with any accepted bids likely to make the car one of the most expensive Land Rovers of all time. The vehicle is thought to be the first-ever production version of the diesel 88-inch, built in 1956. Its current owner, Tim Hughes, bought the car in its current rust-ridden state ten years ago, and has kept it under wraps in a barn ever since. According to the logbook, the car was registered in 1957 and sold 10 years later to an owner in Handsworth, Birmingham, before moving to Bucknell in Shropshire and…

CELEBRATING THE LEGEND DESPITE PRODUCTION coming to an end, the Defender is set to live on at Solihull via a special heritage restoration programme. Land Rover has assembled a task force to work on the newly-launched programme, which will see old Defenders restored to their former glory. Many of the 12-man team have been cherry-picked from the former Defender production line. Between them they can boast 172 years of experience working with the green oval. ZULU SUPER DEFENDER WITH 475 bhp and almost 480 lb-ft of torque from a JLR 4.7-litre V8, JE Motorworks limited-run Defender means business. Costing from £149,500, the Zulu modifications can be done to any type of Defender, from a 90 to a 130 pick-up. Together with the engine and six-speed automatic gearbox you also get…