Range Rover MkIII: saying goodbye to an old friend.
Auto Tech
Goodbyes are always difficult, but this one is gonna be particularly hard because we're saying goodbye to the Range Rover Mark III, one of the most capable cars that ever existed.
Released in 2002, the 3rd generation Range Rover internally dubbed L322 was pegged as the pinnacle of luxury, comfort, and capability.
It built on the fact that people wanted a car that could get them and their families to school no matter what the conditions, if say they lived on a floodplain or
in the Arctic or Chelsea.
You know Chelsea, right?
Lots of fords and hills.
Anyway, enough of this.
The Range Rover is the kind of car you buy for peace of mind.
You can see out of it there's room for people and things that will happily travel on the road as well as it will through the Amazon.
So what's so special about this one then?
Well, quite a bit actually.
See it was brought at a time when Land Rover's a company was pretty confused and the decade for saving its launch its parent company Rover had been sold to BMW and then later it alongside Jaguar was sold to Ford for a lot of money.
The thing is during all that time, this car was in its development so what resulted was a sort of Franken-car.
You see the Range Rover we have here was designed and developed by BMW so even though it was technically a Ford the Ranger came with BMW engines and electrics.
Around the middle of the last decade Jaguar engines found their way under the hood which has been 5-liter supercharged V8's and the like but
also Land Rover introduced a TDV8, a diesel V8.
It offered pretty good performance and for a car this size and this weight, pretty good economy too.
Around the time the Jaguar engines made their appearance, the Mark III Range Rover had its first facelift.
It's second, this one appeared in 2010.
The L322 did have a few issues though.
They were never known as the most reliable of vehicles especially early models and despite the fact
that it's a vast machine it was frequently criticized for having very little rear leg room.
The Mark III though was actually around one of the most important things that ever happened to Land Rover.
Its sale alongside Jaguar to Tata Motors is possibly the best thing that could've happened to the company especially when you look at the state it's in now.
All that aside, this car was often referred to as the best car money could buy.
Now forget all the reliability problems.
This is the kind of car you buy when you wanna drop the kids off at school and then go and climb a mountain.
And the Westminster around offroad is incredibly fun, but it's how it makes everything seem so effortless that impresses.
Yes, it's big, heavy, and in some cases can cost lots and lots of money.
But when you boil the Ranger down to its base parts it's pretty clear to see what this car is, a game changer.
It's the car that brought the British brand into proper popular culture.
It's the car the likes of BMW, Audi, Mercedes, Bentley,
and, and, and have all tried to imitate, is widely regarded as being one of the best cars in the world.
Personally I think it's one of the most influential cars ever to grace our roads.
For now though the Mark IV is here to stay and its days are well and truly done.
It's okay though.
I think the L322 deserves a rest, don't you?
