The Impossible Question. Our Favourite Piece of British Design. Caroline.

The Land Rover.

It is indeed an impossible question, but one which for me has only one answer, and that is the Land Rover. By which I mean the original and the best, the one that became the Defender, but originally called the Land Rover because it was designed to do just that, rove the land.

I have driven a long wheelbase or 110 Defender for 30 years. I am on my fifth, which will probably be my last, sadly. I have had navy blue, county green, red and black, but never with the white stripes down the sides: I am a purist. And yes, my current one is far more comfortable than my first. It has electric windows in the front, power steering, blacked-out rear windows, shark-tooth alloys (whatever those are), and even heated seats. But it rattles and shakes, and the doors leak when it rains really hard, just like my first one. Climbing into it feels like coming home. I have done so many miles in a 110 that the dimensions of it are hard-wired into my brain. I once parked between two Maseratis, with a scant couple of inches gap at either end, without a second thought.

Born in 1947, the Series 1 was launched at the Amsterdam Motor Show in 1948 and cost £450. The long wheelbase was introduced in 1954, and the Series 2 followed in 1958. 1971 saw the introduction of the Series 3 and in 1990, the Land Rover was christened the Defender. In 1978, Land Rover became its own company under British Leyland Motors, but it was sold to BMW in 1994. After a spell as part of the Ford Motor Group, it is now owned by Tata Motors, but the Defender was always built in Solihull until the last one rolled off the production line in 2016.

The shape may have evolved over the 68 years, but it has remained totally recognisable, iconically so.

The new ‘Defender’ is, I’m sure, a perfectly great (if very expensive) car. Apart from the fact that it is made in Slovakia and Malaysia, my problem with it is in the name. Why call it a Defender, when it isn’t one, clearly. Why not give it a new name, like the company did for the Range Rover, the Discovery and the Freelander. Suggestions welcome!