Landrover Parts, spares & Accessories

Creating a Road Legend - the Landrover

If someone asks when the SUV started, you could easily point to the American Jeep Cherokee from AMC as the first. To a large extent, that�s correct. It was the first true modern Sport Utility Vehicle that was positioned as a more robust, roomier and versatile alternative to the traditional station wagon or large sedan for group and family travel on the road or off the road.

It had plush interior appointments no different from a decent station wagon and had more power with all-wheel drive. It came out at a time when the price of gasoline was low enough to cushion owning what would turn out to be gas guzzler by comparison with station wagons. And the press dubbed it with the term "sport utility vehicle" or SUV and the rest, as they say, is history.

Qualities of a Legend

That was in 1984, though the design of the Cherokee dates earlier. But rewind back to 1948 and you�d see that the concept of the SUV as being able to accommodate a group or family, carry heavy loads and have the ability to travel off road with 4X4 dexterity is nothing new. The British had it all figured out in the Landrover.

Sporty yes, it can take you anywhere, from the Tundras of the Siberian wilderness, to the jungles of Peru, from the outbacks of Australia to the Kalahari desert of Africa, and from the Safari preserves of Namibia to the streets of New York. Utilitarian even more so, it can haul 4 tons of farming equipment, carry nearly a ton of load, gets aftermarket conversions kits to become an ambulance, a fire truck, a military patrol, a pick-up, a van, an amphibious rescue vehicle or a farm tractor, just to mention some.

One thing different about it was its interior appointment. There was none. It was as bare a vehicle can be with no air-conditioning, no carpeting, no leather bucket seats, no dash boards, and no electronics. It�s as spartan as you can get. But to a large extent, its barren interiors added to its agility to carry and haul heavy loads and drive through 45-degree inclines.

Apart from the fact that its legendary 2-liter diesel or petrol engine mated to a Hardy-Spicer gearbox was exactly a match made in heaven for vehicles of this type. Today, nearly 7 out of 10 Landrovers ever built since 1948 remain road-worthy. Give credit to their meticulous owners and the fact that the Landrover�s hand-built construction can be considered the easiest vehicle to repair, disassemble and re-assemble.

A Bit of History

The British Army simply had to replace the aging Ford Willys Jeep left over by the departing US troops and the Rover Company made a brilliant 4X4 that was the perfect replacement.

Revealed at the Amsterdam Motor Show in 1948, the Landrover quickly gained appeal among the practical minded families, farmers, explorers, scientists, governments and the military everywhere.

Apart from the British army, you can see Landrovers in many European, African and Australian armies. Even the US Army has them up to this alongside their Humvees.

But it�s interesting to see that the Landrover name, as iconic to the British mystique as a Bentley and a Rolls, has been changing hands over its 62 year existence. Its Rover Company was bought by British Leyland Motors in 1967. It eventually got renamed as the Rover Group in 1986 and was privatized when it was sold of to British Aerospace in 1988.

Finally, in 1994, the icon left British hands with German BMW acquiring the Rover Group. The acquisition lasted only until 2000 when Ford Motors bought it. In 2008, just when the global recession had companies seeing red ink, the Landrover marque was acquired for �1.8 billion by Tata Motors of a former British colony, India.