Land Rover's top model - the full-size, luxury Range Rover - comes to market with some major changes for 2006, improving on the line that had already received a complete makeover just three years ago.
The biggest news is the addition of a supercharged version - billed as the "most powerful Range Rover ever."
But even the normally aspirated HSE model, which we tested for this report, received a good share of upgrades.
Another big change for 2006 is that the Range Rover's engines are now derived from Jaguar. These new engines replace the V-8 that Land Rover had been buying from German luxury automaker BMW, the former owner of Land Rover. Ford Motor Co. bought the British Land Rover luxury brand in mid-2000, ending the company's short life as a subsidiary of BMW, which had purchased it just four years earlier.
Today's Range Rover owes much of its development to BMW, however. BMW co-developed the vehicle with Land Rover so that the platform could be used for a new line of BMW sport utility vehicles as well.
Ford took over and finished development of the Range Rover side of the equation, rolling out the new generation in 2002 as a 2003 model.
Development was so far along when Ford took over that Land Rover had to buy the 283-horsepower 4.4-liter V-8 engine from BMW. It then took Ford three years to develop its own engines and redesign the Range Rover to accommodate them.
In the 2006 model, the base engine is a normally aspirated aluminum 4.4-liter V-8 rated at 305 horsepower and 325 foot-pounds of torque. That's what comes with the Range Rover HSE model, our test vehicle, which carries a base sticker price of $75,035 plus $715 freight.
For a starting price of about $90,000, the high-performance Range Rover model is offered. It comes with a Jaguar-based supercharged 4.2-liter aluminum V-8, rated at 400 horsepower and 420 foot-pounds of torque.
In both models, the engines are connected to a new six-speed automatic transmission with Command Shift manual shift option. Land Rover says top speed of the normally aspirated model is 125 mph, and the vehicle accelerates from zero to 60 mph in 8.3 seconds. For the supercharged model, zero to 60 is achieved in 7.1 seconds, and top speed is 130 mph.
Land Rover officials said the switch to Jaguar engines was a natural progression of Land Rover's association with Ford.
The designers did mock-ups of many different models, including a two-seat roadster, a fastback, and a station wagon. GM was trying to keep the cost as low as possible, however, to compete with the Mustang, and decided tostick with just two models, a coupe and a convertible.
Chrysler and out of house contractors have offered conversions and adaptations to the basic vehicle, such as fire engines, excavators, hydraulic platforms, and four wheel drive versions, as well as one of special builds including amphibious Chrysler and vehicles fitted with automobile instead...
This car will more resemble the Cayman packed with power. This model wants to give the Ferrari 458 Italia nightmares. It will enter the market above $200,000 and squeeze out at least 600 horses out of its mid-engine V8 or V6 that might even feature a turbocharger for each second cylinder.
LRNA needs to determine a positioning strategy for the Discovery and itself in North America to entice its two distinct target markets. LRNA is aware that it has two distinct target markets whose purchasing decisions are impacted by various drivers but also knows that factors such as quality, safety, reliability, comfort, off-road capability and aesthetics overlap. When compared with other SUVs or SUV alternatives, we believe the following differences should be highlighted to develop a distinctive niche for the Discovery and Land Rover brand in the target audience’s mind. The Discovery and Land Rover brand should be positioned as luxury car alternatives with rich histories and superb off-road capabilities designed for the crème-de-la-crème of consumers: affluent, intelligent, practical, unique, full of character, and seeking to empower themselves through adventure and exploration during their driving experiences. The Discovery and Land Rover brand should, in effect, convey the following message: you are what you drive.
Since the 1960’s, there has been a constant struggle for dominance among muscle car producers. However, there is one battle in particular that has piqued the interest of buyers and fans for ages; the Chevy Camaro and the Ford Mustang. Now why are these two so prominently competitive? To answer this, we’ll have to look back to their roots.
All 2017 Chevy Trax are powered by a 1.4-liter, turbocharged four-cylinder engine making 138 horsepower and 148 pound-feet of torque. All models provide a six-speed automatic transmission with standard front-wheel drive and available all-wheel drive.
Vauxhall was founded in 1857 by Alexander Wilson and they began manufacturing vehicles in 1903. Then Vauxhall was bought out by GM (General Motors) in 1925.
It seems like most cars on the road today are Fords. No matter the shape nor model the iconic blue logo always Seems to stand out. Ford began in 1890 when its legendary founder Henry Ford built the first ever Quadricycle. In 1903 Ford Motor company becomes incorporated, and in 1908 Ford introduces the first ever Model T. Fast forward to present day and Ford is still making innovative additions to their vehicles especially when it comes to technology. Over the past 126 years Ford Motor Company has been both successful and profitable. They attribute their success to their work in local communities as well as their ability to Franchise their brand throughout the nation. These aspects and more are what has made Ford such an outstanding and
Current: Currently, LRNA has switched from a corporate identity based solely on the Range Rover, to the overall umbrella brand of Land Rover, which it self has multiple sub brands (or vehicles) one of which is the Discovery. With the decision of branding and introducing the Discovery...
This would go down as the best-selling year in the history of the GTO model. And despite dropping the tri-power option you could get a 389 V-8 pushing out an under estimated 360 HP. In 1967 they would drop the 389 in favor of the larger displacement 360 HP 400 cubic inch V-8.
The Design team of the Mustang only had 18 months to make the car and they finished well before that and under budget as well. Ford designers pretty much threw out the handbook on design limitation pushing some of the technology of the time to its limit. Even though a lot of parts on the Mustang came from the Falcon car, its body was completely different and had very good handling for its time. There were some big changes to the Mustang, only five months after it had been introduced. Ford completely changed the engine on the Mustang, making it faster and stronger, and eventually the designers came up with the now famous Mustang GT.
Ford’s production plants rely on very high-tech computers and automated assembly. It takes a significant financial investment and time to reconfigure a production plant after a vehicle model is setup for assembly. Ford has made this mistake in the past and surprisingly hasn’t learned the valuable lesson as evidence from the hybrid revolution their missing out on today. Between 1927 and 1928, Ford set in motion their “1928 Plan” of establishing worldwide operations. Unfortunately, the strategic plan didn’t account for economic factors in Europe driving the demand for smaller vehicles. Henry Ford established plants in Europe for the larger North American model A. Their market share in 1929 was 5.7% in England and 7.2% in France (Dassbach, 1988). Economic changes can wreak havoc on a corporation’s bottom line and profitability as well as their brand.
Nanjing faced major challenges in Rover production in units of Engineering, Purchasing, Distribution, Staffing and Intellectual Property. In 2007 Nanjing relaunched sportscar production since Rover’s collapse in Longbridge and the chairman of Nanjing’s UK operation planned to produce 25,000 cars a year and twice of that in two years. Meanwhile, SAIC had also been active and owned the rights to produce Rover models under “Roewe” brand in
Another car with an interesting past is the Jaguar. During the last part of World War 2 , while the Jaguar employees spent more time putting out fires from Nazi bombing raids than making war material , William Lyons and his chief engineers began designing a new engine to make Jaguars run faster and more smoother than ever. The design was good enough to be used in Jaguars for the next 38 years” ‘(Craven, 10).
In today’s society when you think about super extravagant, high end, luxurious vehicles, what top of the line automotives can you actually think of that comes to mind? If you guessed correctly it would actually be no other than “The Mercedes Benz”. Mercedes Benz is known to man as one of the finest cars of luxury dated back to the late 1800. In 1886 Karl Benz invented the first horseless tricycle. Later on in the early 1900’s both Karl Benz and Gottlieb Dailmer whom were both born in Germany teamed up and branded the first “Mercedes”, which was known as the first automobile which was also developed by William Maybach. Also known for the first car with four wheels