Thread: Land Rover production in the 1970s.

I have a book called "The Land Rover. Workhorse of the World." by Graham Robson, published in 1976. It's worth getting hold of if you can find a copy. This bit made me laugh and I thought I'd share it (from 1976, remember):

"Do not show a production expert around the Land Rover production lines and expect him to be happy. He might be amazed, he might be a touch incredulous - but he will not be impressed. Over the years Land Rover production grew haphazardly, and every manager at Rover treats the Land Rover buildings with a mixture of amusement and affection, and even at times with a spot of ridicule. By the standards of the 1970s the way in which vehicles are built is outdated.......In assembly methods, as in so many other ways, the Land Rover is a law unto itself."

Just marvellous. Do you suppose anything has changed?

It has to be remembered that the Landrover was introduced as a stop gap measure in 1948, absolute minimum of outlay, tooling etc. This meant that it was hand assembled. And from then until the time Robson was writing that book (which I have), they sold more than they could make, adding production capability ad hoc as possible, bearing in mind that Rover was a small company, and despite the fact that most of their income was from Landrovers, still trying to be known by their saloon cars, which is where they spent most of their money.

The merger with Leyland was intended (by Rover) to give them the capital to expand and modernise their production. But instead they found themselves used as a cash cow, which was in large part responsible for the loss of much of their market to the Japanese, and the quality of their products declined while the design remained static. When some funds became available they went to the Rangerover, which by then was increasing in sales, where the Landrover was decreasing. During the eighties, the RR Classic changed production method from hand assembled to more or less modern production. There has been only a small move in this direction with the Defender, mainly because to build it other than by hand would make it less what the Defender and its predecessors have always been.

Some changes have been made, including replacement of handmade structures with pressed steel structures, such as the doors and part of the tub in the 2007+ models, replacement of aluminium by steel on doors, dropping of galvanising on body capping. Most owners do not see these changes as improvements. Any major changes to production methods would see the meccano like construction disappear and what would be left would be just another vehicle, resembling a Defender about as much as a Hummer H3 resembles a HMMWV.

John