Talk about a 4-wheel, off road, gas powered turn around. Indeed, Land Rover repair had practically become its own industry. Land Rover has a reputation as a gas hungry and overweight vehicle, but it has turned itself around with remarkable staying power, according to Fortune. For a brand that has been “traded more often than frozen pork belly futures,” with failed revisions in the hands of the likes of Rover Group, BMW, and Ford, the brand has “become cool again, along with Prince William, Kate Middleton, and the cast of Downton Abbey,” Fortune reports.
Not that Fortune has always been starry eyed, head over heels infatuated with the Land Rover, a vehicle the publication said had long been headed into the direction of “zombies, the walking dead of the auto world,” thanks to decimated product lines, disheartened dealers and declining prospects. In the 90s, Land Rover had become “laughably inefficient,” its quality “a joke,” its product lines nothing more than “outmoded, overweight, gas hungry off-road vehicles that seemed to have little future in a world of product engineering dictated by fuel economy and emission standards.”
Sales dipped as a result, peaking in 2007 at 49,550 before slipping all the way to 26,306 in 2009. But surprisingly, Land Rover turned itself around, expanding its product line in the cheaper markets while reengineering its luxury models. Sales were boosted by 15 percent in 2013 thanks to exclusivity. Today, Land Rovers, Fortune noted, “are selling almost as fast as they can be unloaded at dealerships.”
Land Rover’s Improved Quality
A lot of what had dampened the brand was its quality. Its older models, known for their expensive Cincinnati Land Rover repair, slid to the bottom of the J.D. Power reliability ratings for three-year-old vehicles. But quality has improved, and people are needing to have their Land Rovers repaired less. In the latest Power surveys, the brand has climbed from 28th to 21st, just behind such reliable brands as BMW and Volvo.
Land Rovers are also building a new reputation for speed. In addition to there being less needed Land Rover maintenance, Land Rover’s Range Rover Sport outperformed on a drag strip a Ford Mustang GT that weighs 1,800 pounds less.
Building a Luxury Brand
So rock on and keep on ATVing. Land Rover is here to stay, boosted by an engine performance that is like no other. It is becoming known as a luxury brand of vehicles. The company introduced the Long-Wheelbase (LWB) Autobiography Black edition Range Rover at a lavish event in Beverly Hills, tagged with a sticker price of $185,000.
