News : Land Rover celebrated in New York

Georgina Chapman, Co-Founder of Marchesa joined Land Rover to help celebrate the 25th anniversary of the company’s presence in the USA in a VIP celebration where the 1987 Range Rover and 2012 Evoque were on display.  NFL star Bart Scott and TV personality Kelly Bensimon, were also on hand and shared details of their own Land Rover vehicles.

Loyal customers and media at the event, held at The Park in New York’s Chelsea neighbourhood, were the first in New York to interact with the new DC100 expedition version. To celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Land Rover North America, Land Rover has produced an updated version of the DC100 Concept equipped for expedition use. The DC100 explores possible design directions for the future of the iconic Land Rover Defender.

Earlier in the day consumers were invited to an urban off-road adventure where they drove the 2012 model year vehicles at a custom-made course in the heart of New York City’s meatpacking district.  Heritage Land Rovers on display at the off-road course included: 1987 Range Rover, 1993 Land Rover 110, 1995 Range Rover Classic, 1995 Camel Trophy Discovery and a 1966 Series IIA.

More than 575,000 Land Rover vehicles have been sold in North America since 1987 establishing the U.S. as the world’s largest market for Land Rover’s Range Rover SUVs and New York City the largest metro market. Land Rover’s latest success story is the launch of the Range Rover Evoque, which has received over 95 international awards including the 2012 ‘North American Truck(!) of the Year’ and the 2012 Motor Trend ‘SUV of the Year’. The Evoque is currently sold out and expected to remain on back-order for the remainder of 2012.

‘The outlook for the company in this its 25th anniversary year in the US is strong and deserving of recognition here in New York City, our largest metro Range Rover market in the world,’ said Kim McCullough, Brand Vice President, Land Rover North America. ‘With the renewed focus, enthusiasm and energy that the company holds for the brand, I have no doubt the next 25 years will be as strong as the last.’

 

Keith Adams

19 Comments

  1. I’m really glad that Land Rover is doing well in the states.

    But what I’m confused about is how they remained so popular out there (like Jaguar) considering some of the rather….pathcy build quality, where as Sterling and the Rover SD1 failed dismally because of quality issues?

  2. Andrew.. I guess it’s down to image and class? Plus, the Sterling badge had none of the perceived heritage.. Maybe if they’d given the Rover name another bash it would have been different?

  3. Of course.. Jaguar had always sold sports cars out there.. and the Americans love a SUV..

  4. They are still popular because they produce ‘cool’ vehicles that people desire. If a car has class and style, then people are more accepting of other foibles (and prepared to pay more), in the same way people have higher reliability expectations of a Bic biro than off a showy gold pen!

  5. How genuinely nice it is to see a Range Rover Sport finished in any colour other than black or silver. The colour (Rimini Red, I think) together with the chosen wheels (which aren’t from the Supercharged variant)and lack of add-on foibles, really do make the Sport look quite attractive.

    Lovely to see the 1995 Range Rover Classic County SE and Land Rover Defender NAS, too, although what a shame that one of the soft-top Defender NAS 90 versions finished in a high impact colour – which the American market loved – wasn’t included as well, as it would have juxtaposed well with the DC100 concept.

  6. I always find it hard to look at Land Rover’s recent success without a bit of resentment. In the past, they produced products that were nearly worse quality than Rover cars, yet people regularly overlook that fact. I think Rover were just as deserving of success with products like the 75 and still-born 55 for the 21st century and were not embraced like they should have been.

  7. @Jeff:

    Your comments are right: back in the mid 1990s (1996), Bernd Pischetsreider, Chairman of BMW, publically ridiculed Land Rover for its poor quality. This was echoed by Dr Wolfgang Reitzle, then Chairman of the Rover Group who found over 100 faults with the new generation Range Rover whilst sat blind-folded in the driver’s seat.

    Move forward to 2000 and it was poor sales rather than poor productivity and build quality (which Land Rover was experiencing) that resulted in Rover Cars making up the bulk of the losses within the Rover Group. Only under Ford’s ownership, who seemed to have a more proactive approach to quality control than BMW did, together with healthy investment in new products did Land Rover’s build quality and reliability record vastly improve.

    Although I am a huge Land Rover fan (nearly on parr with my enthusiasm for the Rover cars marque), I will be the first to admit that the 1990s was a low point for Land Rover where its quality control and reliability was definitely below that of Rover Cars, not to mention its rivals.

  8. In all honesty, BMW invested heavily in Land Rover. BMW provided the funds to abandon traditional practices.

  9. Eric from Holland:

    This is very true about BMW and their commitment to investment in new models such as the Land Rover Freelander, Discovery II and Rover 75. But they were clearly not proactive enough in terms of addressing the quality issues at Land Rover, even with the Freelander which they had overseen the development of.

  10. The original R-R still looks so good that if they relaunched it, it would still probably be a big seller!

  11. For god sake that DC100 is horrific and appears to be aimed at the same gay/hairdresser market as the evoque !!! How about Land Rover stop patting themselves on the back, look at there sale figures, compare them to Toyota , whom they outsold in 4×4 vehicles in 1970 and realize there growth has been pathetic and give us a modern Defender work horse, which is still there Halo product !!!!

  12. Can someone please save that Ford taxi they built the hill on and replace it with that DC100 thing !!!!

  13. David 3500

    Yes, but that didn’t even stiffle the market’s desire for Land Rovers. The post 2000 Range Rover was very technically advanced and sophisticated and under BMW control, in Holland that is,they were no longer sold by Rover dealers but through selected dealers. Land Rover enjoy success ever since.

    I know a former MG Rover dealer who didn’t rate the new MINI highly. Quality has improved(post 2007)and they pulled it off.

  14. It’s pretty clear from these pictures what the DC100 is all about.
    It’s not a Defender replacement. The Defender is at the end of it’s life. Land Rover are introducing a new vehicle, aimed at a completely different market, at the same time that the Defender is finishing.
    The Defender is a tool for a job. The DC100 is to go surfing with.

    Chris.

  15. chris

    they should call it a surf then , or hairdresser maybe the soft but not a Defender as this has always been a work tool not a poser product.

  16. sorry this car is rubbish.look up Twistedperformance.co.uk and fall in love with the defender again.

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