A NEW DIRECTION FOR LAND ROVER

On the 19^th April an article in The Times stated, “Jaguar Land Rover is to drop the 75-year-old Land Rover brand in a reboot of the automotive giant’. On the 20^th April Autocar reported:

Speaking today at a wide-reaching company update presentation, CEO Adrian Mardell confirmed the rebranding of the company away from Jaguar Land Rover, where the cars are created under two brands “making magic in the Midlands”, and instead calling itself JLR, a ‘house of brands’ with cars created under Range Rover, Discovery, Defender and Jaguar names.

According to the firm’s chief creative officer Gerry McGovern:

The reality is Range Rover is a brand and so is Defender. Customers say they own a Range Rover. In luxury, you need absolute clarity. Land Rover Range Rover SV Autobiography doesn’t give it. We love Land Rover, but there isn’t as much equity as Range Rover, and Defender is increasing massively.

Naturally, there was a great reaction from around the world. However, on the 20^th April, The Sunday Times reported:

The Land Rover brand ‘remains as the cornerstone of our business’ and ‘will not disappear’, a spokesperson for JLR has confirmed, contrary to reports that the 75-year-old nameplate will be dropped by the car making group.

Instead, Jaguar Land Rover, now known as JLR, would operate a “House of Brands” marketing strategy. “In practice, this will mean the likes of the Range Rover will be known simply as that, rather than the ‘Land Rover Range Rover”’ Driving.co.uk has been told. The Times also noted “The words Land Rover are not to be totally expunged from motoring history, the company said. Some vehicles will carry small Land Rover badges inside and out as what a spokesperson called a ‘trust mark’”. https://www.jaguarlandrover.com/our-brands

But the news still marked a significant change in an automotive tradition established three-quarters of a century ago. Rover’s new 4x4 utility made its bow on the 30^th April 1948 at the Amsterdam Motor Show; this newsreel is a reminder of how radically different the Land-Rover was from the firm’s saloons -

75 years later, the Land-Rover silhouette, as refined by David Bache for the 1958 Series II genuinely deserves the much abused epithet “iconic”. When the last Defender left the Solihull works in 2016, it was one of the world’s most recognisable automotoive designs.

And the social media reaction of the past 48 hours vividly illustrates the sadness when a famous brand is believed to pass into history. From the British Motor Corporation/British Leyland empire alone, Riley, Austin-Healey, Wolseley, Triumph, Morris and Austin fell victim to corporate politics and neglect. Meanwhile, L-R became a BL subsidiary in 1978 and even outlived its parent company, with 2005 marking the end of the Rover name.

And so, the L-R badge is to live on as that “trust mark”, but it seems unknown whether any future products will be marketed solely under the famous green logo. The days when the name “Land-Rover” instantly conjured images of “The World’s Most Versatile Vehicle” now seem to be long in the past.