The Land Rover brand has forever associated itself with making some of the finest cars to take off-road, through the dirt and the grime of farmlands and mountainous tracks, and with good reason – with its high traction wheels leading to an elevated design, it can easily tackle the tougher terrains of the countryside.
It’s a reputation that Land Rover are clearly proud of, as they proved this year by putting their first ever hybrid engine vehicles through their paces with a trek through forests and deserts as they journeyed from Solihull, England, to Delhi, India, in a highly publicised retracing of the historically infamous “Silk Trail”.
But, just look at any highway and you’ll be almost guaranteed to see at least one or two Land Rovers in the mix. So, just what is it that draws these cars into the city?
Surely it’s like seeing a flock of flamingos loitering around a play park in Suffolk, or a bloat of hippopotami meandering along a motorway in Stoke? Isn’t the Land Rover a little out of its element away from the countryside?
Far from it. As a browse at some Range Rovers for sale or Defenders for purchase might indicate, the brand has managed to establish itself as a prime city vehicle. These heavy steering 4X4s have, over the years, been optimising themselves to meet the specifications of the city, with an increased sense of luxury within the cabin.
A look at the latest Land Rovers
If you’re still not convinced of the Land Rover as a city car, just take a look at the features in its latest Range Rover series, which complete its steady upturn from countryside, high traction bruiser to luxury city vehicle.
Land Rover now market their cars as status symbols that are proudly used by the rich and famous, and rightly so. One look at the latest Range Rover and you can see that it’s a beautiful piece of kit. And, with features such as a 28-speaker Meridian sound system to flaunt, you can tell that this is an opulent car designed with comfort in mind.
None of this, naturally, takes away from the fact that the Range Rover has a deserved reputation for off-road driving – the latest Range Rover can traverse rivers up to 900mm in depth and make its way through many treacherous terrains that other cars wouldn’t even dream of.
So, it leaves the Land Rover brand in an extremely handy position, being viewed as both an effective off-roader and an ideal car for a jaunt in the city. And, with news that the brand’s sales have risen by 21 per cent in the second quarter of the financial year, it looks like catering for both demographics is maintaining their traction, ahem, in the marketplace.
