10 reasons we love... Land Rover

In this age of a new, strongman brand of protectionism and tariffs from Trump and Xi Jinping, thank goodness, more than ever, for desirable British brands. And Land Rover has to be right up there, sparkling like the icon it is from its Gaydon headquarters, where it gainfully employees about 16,000 people to design, engineer and build the best 4x4s in the business.

The new face of Jaguar Land Rover, as of 2024, rearranges the family tree into the distinct sub-brands we know and love: Defender, Range Rover, Discovery and Jaguar (which gets a whole article of its own) But it shows you how much the parent company values Defender, Range Rover and Discovery, and so do we: three incredible models that continue to spawn mini versions…

So good, they then built the Evoque, Velar and Range Rover Sport, all off the back of its spirit and bearing its badging.
Launched in 1970 as a three-door, offering such Seventies classics as mustard-yellow paint and a vinyl hose-clean interior, this was the face that launched a thousand copycats, to paraphrase the ships thing. Engineered to march across fields and up mountains, it was soon claimed by the city-slicker set for their own, with its sexy design and imposing shape. Nearly 50 years later, we’re about to say hello to the pure electric version. All hail the Rangie.

You either love or loathe the redesign (sales would indicate most people adore it, as do we), but no one ever had a bad word to say about the original, which barely changed a bumper sticker between 1947 and that famous sketch on Pendine Sands, and the last cars that rolled off the production line in 2016 before Gerry McGovern’s new version took hold. No one has designed a better SUV before or since, either in terms of aesthetics or practicality.

Underrated and overlooked in our opinion. The Velar is a beautiful thing with the same gorgeous interior and strong off-roading capabilities that its sibling offers, but with its sleek coupe roofline, it’s the urban Land Rover the world was waiting for and the brand needed. Unfortunately it somewhat bastardised the pricing strategy in the brand’s line-up, squeezing into a cost gap that didn’t really exist, and sales haven’t reflected the pitch-perfect package the Velar offers. The name comes from the first Range Rover prototypes in 1969.

A lesser set-up has been used by van drivers for ever, but until Land Rover’s excellent rear-view mirror that transforms into a camera feed when your rear window is blocked, no other car marque had thought to do it. The image is razor-sharp, so you can quite merrily fill the boot of your Disco or Defender to the ceiling with the family gubbins and fret not. Also works well at night.

Is there anything more truly terrifying than cresting a steep hill with such a sharp drop the other side that you have no view of the descent, then feeling your heavy 4x4 tip downwards and start to gather pace, and taking your foot OFF the brake pedal? It is utterly counter-intuitive, and certain death seems the only conclusion, until, a split second later, HDC takes control of the braking, pinching each wheel in turn to maintain traction, feeding the car down the vertiginous muddy slope at 5mph until you reach the bottom. It’s magic.

Land Rover is the master of country-pursuits accessories, producing everything from green dog bowls with HUEY numberplates to ladders and pop-up tents for your car, portable dog showers and a range of smart apparel with fellow British brands like Barbour. The general fashion status of Land Rover has never wained. Clever, smart and highly desirable.

Yes, the company has been slow to the market with pure electric powertrains, because batteries are heavy, as are big cars, as are permanent four-wheel-drive systems, so it’s been a head-scratcher for the Gaydon massive. But you cannot fault their plug-in hybrids (PHEVS): our Range Rover PHEV was the first plug-in we encountered that exceeded the maximum quoted range: the paperwork said 52 miles and we regularly got 60 miles from it when we ran one for six months.

Land Rover is the master of combining luxury and a rugged vibe, with its mixture of chunky switches and buttons sitting sweetly ensconced in the softest leather and kvadrat wool. The company has also been progressive with its sustainable materials, and now offers ceramic sections in the door panels of the Range Rover, alongside responsibly sourced woods, unusual metals and technical weaves on its fabrics. The interiors are often works of art to rival Bentley. And that’s saying something.