When I last talked about Range Rovers – over
a year ago – I promised you flying cars. Well, we’re getting there, but we’re not
there yet. When we left the Range Rover, it had risen from a
farm workhorse to a school run fashion accessory. But in the process it had turned into a steady
seller that was keeping Land Rover afloat, despite no update for 24 years. So, what happened after that long overdue facelift? This is the second part of the Range Rover
Story! (music) Land Rover was owned by the Government throughout most of the 1980s but was sold to British
Aerospace in 1988. That same year, the new owners approved a
Range Rover update. Even British Aerospace with their tight fiscal
control realised that the Range Rover wasn’t the golden goose that was going to lay forever. After 18 years with no major updates, at some
point the competition was going to catch up and the Range Rover would be finished, so
it needed money for a refresh, and that refresh needed to be done properly. The new Range Rover wasn’t the only new
Land Rover in development. The lower-priced Discovery had started development
two years before, in 1986. It would take on the likes of the Toyota Land
Cruiser, Mitsubishi Shogun and Isuzu Trooper that were eating into Land Rover’s market
share. Bringing this mid-level car into Land Rover’s
line-up would allow the Range Rover to continue its push upmarket. While the Discovery would use the running
gear from the previous Range Rover, the new Range Rover’s chassis would be thoroughly
updated. The lowly Defender was all but abandoned,
as Land Rover went chasing more affluent customers. When a car has been around for so long without
changing, its shape can become iconic. That happened to the Mini, to the Beetle and
the Jaguar XJ. When the humble London taxi was updated, the
boxy design wasn’t embraced to people’s hearts like the Austin from the 1950s. Updating a classic design is hard, and it’s
easy to be on the receiving end of a pitchfork-wielding mob if you get it wrong. Land Rover were aware of this when they tendered
for a new Range Rover shape. Five designs would be considered – from
Bertone, partners Hefferman and Greenley, ItalDesign, Pininfarina, and from Land Rover’s
internal design team. These designs were whittled down to just two
– Bertone’s and Land Rover’s. Customer clinics made it clear that conservative
customers wanted the classic Range Rover shape that had been produced by Land Rover’s in-house
team. However, it’s dangerous to let customers
clinics guide development. As Henry Ford didn’t say, but should have,
“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.”. It’s hard for customers to make a leap to
something new when they want the same comfortable thing they know, only better. Sometimes revolutionary products aren’t
understood by customer clinics but are embraced by customers when they’re launched. In this case though, the conservative route
was likely the right course to take. There wasn’t effective luxury off-roading
competition at this time. It was clear that the Range Rover was competing
not with cars like the Toyota Land Cruiser, but with the BMW 7-series and Mercedes S-Class. So, the interior needed a level of refinement
that would allow it to compete with its German rivals. But with a limited budget, this refinement
meant delving into the Rover 800 parts bin, and given the limited level of refinement
of Rover parts at that time, the Range Rover was always going to be fighting with one hand
tied behind its back. The chassis was stiffened, with 1990s level
crash structures and improved safety, such as side impact bars. Further sound deadening made for a quieter,
more refined cabin. The previous car had been updated to use air
suspension in 1992, and the new car would come with it as standard. This allowed the ride height to be adjusted,
so it could be low to help with cornering on the open road, and high for ground clearance
while off-roading. And although the Range Rover rarely went off-road,
it sold as a one of the finest off-roaders that could go anywhere. So, it was important that the new car had
all the 4x4 ability the old car had, whilst being better on the highway. Like the classic Range Rover before it, the
new car would use the venerable Rover V8 engine, first used by Buick in 1961!, and famously
used on the Rover SD1. But it was improved and enlarged to 4.0 and
4.6L. While the 200Tdi was meant to be the future diesel engine for all Land Rover’s
cars, the unrefined engine wasn’t considered for the luxury Range Rover even though by
the time the Range Rover launched it had been enlarged to the 300Tdi. Land Rover’s quest to find the perfect diesel
led them to BMW’s M51 6-cylinder, used in their 3, 5 and 7 series. With a tweaked torque curve, it worked well
for Land Rover’s new 2 tonne (2.2 US tons) beast, although it was a little underpowered. While the Land Rover Discovery took just three
years to make it to market, arriving on the scene in 1989, it would take a leisurely six
years for the new Range Rover to appear. When it did arrive the press praised the car,
but in truth it wasn’t the all-round success 6 years of development should have produced. But it was enough to keep customers flocking
to Land Rover dealers around the world. Although development of the Range Rover was
started the year British Aerospace took the company over, it would be launched under new
owners BMW, just 7 months after their takeover in February 1994. With BMW and Rover both producing around half
a million cars a year, BMW hoped it would catapult them past Mercedes-Benz, and allow
them to compete with volume car maker Volkswagen. But the jewel in Rover’s crown, at least
as far as BMW was concerned, was the Range Rover, further expanding BMW’s share of
the luxury car market. BMWs first plan for the Range Rover was to
replace the Rover V8 petrol engines with something from BMWs stable, and to uprate the 2.5L diesel
engine to 3.0L. Along with this, BMW investigated a super-luxury stretched version that could sell for over
£100,000 ($123,000 USD, €110,000, $180,000 AUD). But it became clear to BMW that Land Rover’s
quality wasn’t as high as BMWs. During a blindfolded test, the car’s quality
was torn apart and it became clear that the Range Rover wasn’t ready for this price
category just yet. This also showed that instead of focusing
on a 1998 refresh, they should start again with a completely new version. The refresh was scaled back, the new Discovery
was delayed and the Range Rover engine updates were put on hold so Land Rover could focus
on delivering a new Range Rover that would have the quality BMW thought it deserved. Rover’s evergreen V8 engine would live for
yet another day! But this didn’t stop Land Rover from producing
high end luxury models for its wealthy clientele. Since 1993 the Range Rover could be customised
through Land Rover’s “Autobiography programme”, and this continued for the new 1994 model. And it was a popular choice for its rich customers,
delivering some much-needed additional revenue. They could choose from any external colour,
from a wide variety of the finest leather and wood interior finishes, wheel designs,
technology gadgets and other body styling packages. With the Autobiography programme a success,
Land Rover decided to offer a standardised package as the “Vogue SE” version in 1998,
initially limited to just 220 cars but that run was expanded with the Vogue being a popular
option. But in 2000 BMW had had enough of its British
experiment. With one stroke of the pen, BMW sold Land
Rover to Ford. It’s easy to see why BMW would want to off-load
Rover, as that was still losing money hand over fist, but it’s harder to see why they
would want to sell Land Rover. BMW stated the company wasn’t making a profit,
but that may be due to the massive injection of capital for the Range Rover replacement. But the Discovery, Freelander and Range Rover
were popular cars, and if you’re not making a profit when your cars are selling well,
then you’re doing something wrong. Land Rover’s portfolio complimented BMW
beautifully. The Discovery was a popular 4x4 alternative
to cars like BMW’s 5-series, and the Range Rover was bought by 7-series owners. So why sell Land Rover, especially as it was
a marque BMW was so keen to get its hands on just five years earlier? It’s not clear, but it seems it all came
down to money. Rover had been sucking BMW dry to a tune of
almost £1B ($1.25B USD, €1.1B, $1.8B AUD) every year and was still losing £2.5M ($3.2M
USD, €2.8M, $4.6M AUD) a day. The English patient that had bankrupted British
Leyland in 1975 and continued to lose taxpayer money into the 1980s was still on its death
bed despite BMW’s funding. BMW would pay a further £500M ($629M USD,
€558M, $915M AUD) to the new owners just so Rover wouldn’t go immediately broke. And don’t forget the £529M ($665M USD,
€590M, $968M AUD) BMW paid British Aerospace for the company in the first place. Not even BMW’s deep pockets could take a
pounding like this, which probably explained Bernd Pischetsrieder’s exasperation with
the British Government over further funding to keep Rover alive. BMW had to jettison Land Rover to raise cash,
only being able to keep the MINI brand. So, Ford bought Land Rover for a cool £2.3B
($2.9B USD, €2.57B, $4.2B AUD) to add to its 1989 Jaguar purchase, despite it supposedly
losing money. Ford inherited a new Range Rover that was
essentially ready to release, and it had been well funded by a company that knew how to
make luxury cars. Ford knew how to sell in the lucrative North
American market, which could further expand Range Rover sales. But funding the Range Rover had been done
at the expense of the Discovery. Development of the new Range Rover had begun
at BMWs engineering centre in Munich as Rover’s Gaydon design centre was busy on the Mini
replacement, but it transferred to Land Rover’s Solihull factory soon after Ford’s purchase. However, even after Ford’s purchase BMW
was involved in the development of the new Range Rover, to ensure the car could be brought
to market smoothly. One issue Ford had with the new car was the
amount of BMW parts it used. Ford negotiated the use of these parts, but
soon got to work to remove them so they could use parts they had control over. The new car would use BMWs engines – the
4.4L V8 petrol and 2.9L diesel from BMW’s 5-series, all allied to a 5-speed automatic. For the first time the Range Rover wouldn’t
have a manual option. It would use the electronics and in car entertainment
system from the BMW 5-series. As such the car was much more reliable both
electronically and mechanically than the outgoing car. For the first time the Range Rover used a
unibody design. Previously it had used body-on-frame construction
to maximize its abilities off-road. But this made for a heavier car and produced
far too much body-roll on fast country roads. To ensure the car could still cut it off-road
the car would lean on its air suspension system. The car’s ride height would rise to tackle
off-road obstacles, and where the previous Range Rover used a live axle that allowed
for dramatic acrobatics while off-roading, the new car used its air suspension system
to perform similar tricks. The air suspension would also lower while on the
open road and could be used to counteract body roll. It was a win-win, and it was more reliable
than on the old car where the suspension could lower by itself when not in use. The car continued to get more luxury features
such as multi-zone air conditioning and seats that both heated and cooled. Customer and press reaction to the new car was
unanimous – this was the best Range Rover yet! Ford released an updated Discovery in 2004,
and they decided to produce an upmarket version as the Range Rover Sport the following year. While initially this seems to hurt sales of
the regular Range Rover, it soon became a second revenue stream for Land Rover, quickly
increasing sales of both models. Where Land Rover had sold almost 21,000 Range
Rover’s in the USA and Europe in 2002, just four years later sales of the Range Rover
line had more than tripled to 64,000 cars. 2005 was also the year MG Rover had to call
in the receivers. Since BMWs 2000 sale of Rover, they had held
on to the Rover marque name, to ensure the new company couldn’t use the Rover name in North
America which might devalue the Land Rover brand. In 2005 they sold the Rover marque to Ford,
reuniting the Rover and Land Rover brands that had been inseparable since Land Rover’s
inception in the late 1940s. The 2005 Range Rover offered the 4.2L Jaguar
V8, and the following year Ford added a 4.4L version, deleting the BMW petrol engine. Ford removed more BMW parts from the car,
and the infotainment system was updated with one from a Ford approved supplier. The BMW diesel that Land Rover had been so
keen to use in 1994 was swapped in 2007 for a new large Ford diesel that was mainly used
for Jaguars and Land Rovers, but also farmed out to PSA for the Citroen C5 and Peugeot
407. This was a much more powerful unit than the outgoing
diesel, giving the Range Rover some serious grunt. Its interior was improved with Range Rover
Sport parts, and it got better brakes, suspension and 4WD system. With all this work integrating the Range Rover
into the Ford family it was a shock when Ford put both Jaguar and Land Rover up for sale
in 2007! From the outside it didn’t seem to make
much sense, but Ford had a good reason. Like BMW in 2000 it was in financial trouble. They’d already jettisoned their controlling
stake in Aston Martin earlier that year, but they needed to get rid of not just Land Rover,
but Jaguar as well. In fact, Jaguar was the main problem. Land Rover was profitable, but if Ford was
losing money, Jaguar was haemorrhaging it – to the tune of £476M ($600M USD, €531M,
$871M AUD) per year. The S-Type and X-Type that Ford had such high
hopes for had both failed to set the world on fire. With both companies being so intertwined,
it made sense to sell them as a two for one offer. After all, who would buy Jaguar if it was
losing so much money? Better to sweeten the pot by selling both
companies together. So just 6 years after the BMW experiment had
ended, Land Rover found the “for sale” notice once again hanging outside their factory
gates. After a long search, Ford finally selected
Indian mega corporation Tata who offered £1.7B ($2.3B USD, €1.9B, $3.1B AUD). That might sound like a lot, but it was about
half of what Ford paid for Jaguar in 1989 and Land Rover in 2000 (£4.3B, $5.3B USD,
€4.75B, $7.8B AUD). Ford was luckier than it knew at the time
though, because just months after the deal concluded in 2008 the world was hit by the
Great Recession that drove both its American competitors, General Motors and Chrysler,
into bankruptcy. After spending big to get the British car
companies engineering know-how, and to help expand their Indian car operations, Tata was
forced to get a £340M ($428M USD, €380M, $622M AUD) loan from the European Investment
Bank to tide Jaguar and Land Rover over while they got Jaguar back into the black. Despite the recession hitting luxury products
hard, sales were still strong, and the Range Rover line would be increased with the Range
Rover Evoque in 2011. The car had been in development since 2006, and was
a major departure for the large luxury Range Rover. It was shorter than the diminutive Land Rover
Freelander. Land Rover was following the pattern of German
car companies who were making ever smaller versions of their luxury saloons and crossovers. And talking of competition, while the Range
Rover had the market pretty much to itself in the 1990s, by 2011 the luxury SUV market
was getting crowded. We had the Audi Q7, BMW X5, Mercedes M-Class
and the Lexus LX. Heck, even Porsche had muscled in on the game
with their SUV, sports car, whatever it was - the Cayenne. Where Land Rover had previously tried to expand
their range using the Land Rover brand, this time it was the luxury Range Rover brand that
would be used. This made sense, as the brand had real caché. If you could buy a mini BMW, why not a mini
Range Rover? The Evoque was brought to life by Gerry McGovern. Gerry was born in Coventry, just down the
road from Land Rover’s Solihull factory and spent his early career at Chrysler in
the UK before moving to Austin Rover in 1982. He created the MG EX-E concept before becoming
the lead designer on the MGF. After this he switched to Land Rover where
he led design work on the Freelander and he’d led the team who created the 2002 Range Rover. After this he’d been lured away to rejuvenate
the design of American Lincolns and Mercurys. But by 2004 he’d returned to Land Rover. The Range Rover Evoque started off as the
LRX concept in 2008 and had been well received. Gerry McGovern said at the launch “It’s
a Land Rover that would be comfortable on Bond Street or Fifth Avenue but wouldn’t
flinch at getting its wheels dirty”. Land Rover clearly understood its customers. It’s a testament to the original design
that the Evoque changed so little on the outside, although the interior was watered down a little. Gerry McGovern would be at the heart of Land
Rover’s raft of new cars from now on. So, by 2011 we now had three different Range
Rover models – the small Range Rover Evoque, larger Range Rover Sport, and original Range
Rover. And those expensive Autobiography versions
were still available, meaning you could spend a lot or a boatload for Land Rover’s top
of the line car. But the Evoque was the first Range Rover that
would be produced overseas as well as in the UK. Thanks to Tata’s 2011 £5B ($6.3B USD, €5.59B,
$9.2B AUD) investment in the company, what followed was updates to both the Range Rover
in 2012 and Range Rover Sport in 2013, producing a completely updated product line to take
on the best the competition could throw at it. The 4th generation Range Rover launched 42
years after the original. It shows Land Rover’s tumultuous history
that each generation had been launched by a different owner. The design language from the Evoque was clear
in this car, and it would continue to be used across the Land Rover range. The new car would use an all-aluminium monocoque
for the first time, saving 420kg (925lb) over the old car. And all those weight savings meant the car
was only 436kg (961lb) heavier than the original Range Rover, despite all the extra gadgets
and safety features. That’s quite an accomplishment! It also grew 55cm (22”) in length over the
original car to provide more leg room. The Jaguar V8 was improved and a new V6 was
added. That Ford diesel was still available along
with a new 4.4L V8 built in Mexico. Range Rover was clearly pushing ever higher
in making this car a go-anywhere palace on wheels. The interior was attempting to leave its competition
behind and push into Bentley territory. But the new car would have a price to match
– the starting price was just shy of £70,000 ($88,000 USD, €78,000, $128,000 AUD)! The car retained its amazing off-roading capabilities. The permanent 4WD used a two-speed transfer
case for high and low gears and was controlled with an 8-speed automatic gearbox. The air suspension had been improved so it
provided even better active roll prevention on fast corners while offering excellent off-roading. Think of this as the spiritual successor to
Citroen’s hydropneumatic suspension. The Terrain Response system was like a sort
of advanced traction control system providing the best grip on different surfaces. Long Wheelbase and Autobiography editions
were released a year later. The next generation Range Rover Sport used
the same platform as the new Range Rover. And this platform would be used by several
Jaguars and other Land Rovers. Land Rover obviously didn’t think three
different Range Rovers were enough when they introduced the Range Rover Velar in 2017. Size-wise it fit between the small Range Rover
Evoque and larger Range Rover Sport. It shared its platform with the Jaguar F-Pace to reduce
development costs and help expand its business. And that business was certainly growing! In 1997 Land Rover sold just over 20,000 Range
Rovers in its main export markets, the US and Europe. The year the Velar launched Land Rover sold
273,000 Range Rovers around the world. The investment Tata had put in the business
certainly seemed to be paying off. And why not? Range Rover’s were well put together cars that did just
what their rapidly growing customer base wanted. If you wanted a bit more sportiness in your
SUV, they were happy to supply a Jaguar that could satisfy your needs. And with celebrities around the world using the
Range Rover, the caché of the brand continued to grow. Land Rover continued to update its suite of
Range Rovers when the Evoque got an update in 2018, and as electric cars moved into the
mainstream, Jaguar Land Rover and old frenemy BMW joined forces on electric car development
in 2019. The Range Rover was never something ecologists
could love, but over the years Land Rover has made small efforts to improve its environmental
footprint. Many of the materials in the 4th generation
car are sustainably sourced and are more recyclable. In 2018 the car became a plug-in hybrid for
the first time, using a 2.0L 4-cylinder engine used on smaller Jaguars and Land Rovers. The battery pack allowed the heavy Range Rover
to get 31 miles (km) without using its engine. When I make videos about British cars, the
story rarely has a happy ending. Yes, Jaguar Land Rover made a loss last year
due to falling diesel sales and weak sales in China, and yes, they had to lay off some
people in 2019 and 2020, but in general the company’s sales are growing. The consolidated Jaguar Land Rover business
is certainly more stable and profitable than it was when Tata took it over in 2008. It’s grown to be a force to be reckoned
with, as customers move away from saloons and estates and towards crossovers and SUVs. And the Range Rover itself is most certainly
a success story. What started as a replacement to the Land
Rover that could work well both on and off-road had morphed into, excuse the pun, a range
of cars that are successful around the world, and continue to grow in sales. Thanks as always to my Patrons for their support,
and thanks for subscribing. If you want to get early advert free access
to new videos, or even to get your name at the end, consider becoming a Patron by checking
out the link in the description. Thanks for watching and see you in the next
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