Land Rover Monthly March 2019

THERE IS never a bad time to buy a Land Rover. Provided you buy smart, of course. The great thing about being a Land Rover enthusiast is that some of the older Land Rovers really hold their value extremely well. So you can wisely buy something, drive it for a few years and then provided you have treated it well, you could potentially sell it for what you paid for it. Or if it’s a very good Discovery 1, Freelander 1, Series I or a decent Defender, then you could even sell it for much more than what you originally paid for it! Who would not want to be a Land Rover enthusiast? Owning a Land Rover is the most affordable way to join the off-roading gang or own a…

ON THE 27 December, Land Rover issued a press release showing that it had something to celebrate in the New Year with the revealing of its new Defender, which will be ready to go on sale in 2020. Testing of the new vehicle is already underway around the world with the first development mules and prototypes reaching North American shores in early December. Testing on the continent provides valuable data to engineers, with a wide variety of terrain and surfaces. Engineers will subject the new Defender to rigorous and extreme tests to ensure it is the most off-road-capable Land Rover vehicle ever. To that end it will be operated in temperatures ranging from -40F to +120F in on- and off-road situations, at altitudes of more than 13,000 feet above sea…

JAGUAR LAND Rover has just released an amazing new film and while it charts its first electric car – the Jaguar I-PACE – if you are interested in the company’s journey towards electrification, then it’s very interesting. Check it out on Vimeo on Demand – available to rent for £2.35, or to buy for £7.86: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/169870. ‘Jaguar: Going Electric’, directed by award-winning filmmaker Ben Lawrie and narrated by Mark Strong, gives you exclusive access to Jaguar’s state-of-the-art engineering laboratories and top-secret design studios, with insight from JLR design chief Ian Callum. With the car maker saying it wants to have electrified versions of all its models by 2022, it is fascinating to see how it is embracing the biggest change in the automotive industry for the past 100 years. The…

SV Coupe scoops award FOR THE second year running, the Interior Design 2018 Best of Year Awards included an automotive category, and it was the limited edition Range Rover SV Coupe that took top honours in the Overall Design class. Paying tribute to the original two-door Range Rover, it’s not the first award picked up by this highly-bespoke vehicle, but it comes at a price! Jaguar Land Rover confirms 4500 job cuts FOLLOWING SPECULATION in the last issue that Jaguar Land Rover was to axe thousands of jobs the car maker has now confirmed it is reducing its global workforce by around 4500 people. This is in addition to the 1500 people who left the business in 2018. In what seems like an effort to put a positive spin on…

JAGUAR LAND Rover has developed the ultimate car door that opens automatically as the driver approaches or can be operated by gesture control. While it makes use of motion sensors and existing keyless entry technology to detect the driver as they walk towards the vehicle before automatically opening, it also utilises radar sensors on the driver’s door to detect lamp posts or other obstacles and stop it from swinging open and bumping into them. The door can also be programmed to close and lock behind you as you walk away. Once inside, occupants can close the mobility door with an overhead button. Software built into the infotainment system shows the status of each door and allows operation of the driver and passenger doors from inside the cabin. JLR research engineers…

A RANGE Rover Sport less than three years old and belonging to Olympian swimmer Sharon Davies burst into flames outside her house in Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire. The 56-year-old BBC pundit shared a picture of her burnt-out Range Rover on Twitter and wrote: “Trying to get hold of Land Rover. This is what’s left of my car! Firemen say electrical fault.” While she praised emergency services, she was less than impressed with the customer service she experienced from Jaguar Land Rover. A spokesperson for the firm confirmed on New Year’s Day that ‘it was involved in a thermal incident but the cause is unknown and it will be comprehensively reviewed by Land Rover technicians’.…