Land Rover Defender History

The iconic British marque Land Rover sports thewagon with variants in between like the 4-door
familiar profile that has been in the minds of thepick-up and 2-door soft tops.
general public since it started in 1948.  For about 37A year earlier, the Land Rover Discovery was
years, they went through minimal styling changesintroduced sporting a new turbo diesel engine and
from its Series I through Series III and never reallymore power but using the same chassis on the same
ended with the last Series III rolling of the Solihullproduction like as the 90 and 110.  It was positioned
factory in 1985.to compete directly with emerging mid-ranged SUVs
Early Historyin city roads while the more spartan Defender line
It's really just a name change to distinguish its line ofcoming out a year later was positioned more for the
models that became increasingly necessary to do inmore utilitarian 4X4 all terrain all purpose markets.
the 80s.   When LandRover ended its Series III lineIn 1994, the Rover Group lost British ownership when
of 4WD off road SUVs in 1983, it did just that withBritish Aerospace sold the division to Germany's
the introduction of the Land Rover 90 3-door modelBMW. At about the same time,  Defenders were
and 110 5-door station wagon models based onlaunched in the US with heavy modifications to
wheelbase lengths.  comply with stricter US DoT road regulations for
The Series III would continue for another 2 yearscrash safety and lighting.
and see its last specimen roll off the SolihullThrough the last decade of the 20th century, the 
production plant in 1985. At the time of the DefenderDefender had attempted to compete with the
launch, the only other Land Rover model inupmarket range of SUV offering options that uplifted
production was its slightly upscale Range Rover,the basic utility vehicles to above-spartan
launched in 1970. specifications.  The company came out with the
Still owned by the British Leyland Corporation, the50th anniversary Defender in 1998 with automatic
Ninety and one-ten was followed immediately by thetransmission and air-conditioning using the same
longer 127 and the 130 in the same year. They wereRange Rover 4 liter V8 engine. 
built on a separate production line. It would takeWith Ford Motors taking over the helm from BMW in
another five years in 1990 for the series to finally2000, it would take another 7 years for the
assume the Defender name.Defender to see major changes that saw its Td5 2.5
The Defender of the 90s to the presentliter 5-cylinder turbo diesel get mated to Ford's
In 1986, British Leyland became the Rover Group PlcDuraTorq transmission. 
and was privatized in 1988 before getting sold toThe 2007 Td5 engine would be the last Land Rover
British Aerospace.  It was under the stewardship ofengine to be made at its Solihull plant. A year later,
British Aerospace when the biggest styling change toownership passed on to India's Tata Motors Group
the Land Rover happened in late 1990. The Landwhich is expected to overhaul the 25-year old design
Rover line up became the Land Rover Defenderin 2012 under Project Icon.
which featured the same 3-door and 5 door station