News & Reviews- Make: Land Rover

When the word "bespoke" is used in the same sentence as "Jaguar Land Rover" one tends to think of the highest quality leathers, veneers, wool carpets and convenience features rather than an "Advanced Command Vehicle" with integrated shortwave and GPS comm equipment, specialized toolkits, climbing gear, and power supplies, let alone a power-retractable covered landing pad for an onboard drone; and likewise when JLR's Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) gets mentioned it's usually in tandem with "Premium Paint Palette" finishes, Sentinel armoured vehicles, SVR and SVAutobiography halo models, or previously noted bespoke personalization, but in this case it's an orange and white search and rescue vehicle created by SVO for the Red Cross. This "bespoke" 2017 Land Rover Discovery, dubbed 'Project Hero', was designed and engineered by Jaguar Land Rover's Special Vehicle Operations for the Austrian Red Cross and presented to global media at the Geneva auto show earlier this month. An advanced communication Read Full Story

The Discovery Sport has two very good things going for it. One, it's a much better vehicle than the LR2 it replaced two years ago, and two, it's riding a wave of SUV popularity that shows no end in sight.

The best the LR2 ever did in Canada was 1,054 units in calendar year 2007, but after nearly matching that number over its first seven months of availability in 2015 the Discovery Sport reached 2,354 Canadian buyers in 2016, making it the second most popular nameplate in Land Rover's five-model strong lineup. I'm not by any means knocking the LR2, which was a big step up over the original Freelander, but the Discovery Sport is so much improved it deserves all of its success and more.

For 2017, Land Rover has kept updates to a minimum, but that said they're not of minor importance. Infotainment is critical to many buyers' purchasing decisions, so availability of the British brand's new InControl Touch Pro touchscreen system is important. Its larger 10.2-inch display Read Full Story

As you can likely imagine I'm often asked questions such as, "What's the best supercar you've ever driven?" or "Which company makes the best SUV?" To the former I unequivocally respond "Bugatti Veyron," probably because I've never driven a McLaren F1, but I might still answer likewise. The latter question is getting more difficult after spending time with Bentley's new Bentayga W12, but even then I find myself leaning toward the current Range Rover in full-load Autobiography trim despite being able to buy three for the price of one similarly equipped Bentayga.

Why? I'm a details freak, annoyingly so. Really, I regularly strap on my illuminated double-eye jeweler watch repair magnifying glasses and line up my various new, gently used, and vintage high-frequency manually wound and automatic mechanical and quartz three-hand, chronograph, jump hour, digital, etcetera (no tourbillons yet) watches, before setting each to the atomic clock (ironically sourced from my smartphone), making Read Full Story

The Evoque remains the most ideally proportioned and arguably best looking subcompact SUV on the market, and this despite being the oldest design in its class. In fact, there was no subcompact luxury SUV segment in Canada the year before it was introduced in 2011 as a 2012 model, although BMW and its Mini line brought their X1 and Countryman to market earlier that same year.

Four years is a bit long to go without any visual updates, and to many the subtle changes made to this mildly refreshed 2016 Evoque won't be enough to lure them back, a possible reason for the model's declining sales. It was never going to match the X1's numbers, however, this made clear in their first full year of sales when BMW found 4,776 X1 buyers and Land Rover just 1,254 for the Evoque, while even Mini managed to find 1,731 Countryman buyers that year.

Mini, which hasn't changed the Countryman's design one iota since inception, is now lagging the entire segment with just 531 deliveries over Read Full Story