LAND ROVER Timeline

• 1948: The first Land Rover was officially launched 30 April 1948, at the Amsterdam Motor Show
• 1958: Series II launched
• 1961: Series IIA began production
• 1967: Rover becomes part of Leyland Motors Ltd, later British Leyland (BL) as Rover Triumph
• 1970: Introduction of the Range Rover
• 1971: Series III launched
• 1975: BL collapses and is nationalised, publication of the Ryder Report recommends that Land Rover be split from Rover and be treated as a separate company within BL and becomes part of the new commercial vehicle division called the Land Rover Leyland Group
• 1976: One-millionth Land Rover leaves the production line
• 1978: Land Rover Limited formed as a separate subsidiary of British Leyland
• 1980: Rover car production ends at Solihull with the transfer of SD1 production to Cowley, Oxford; Solihull is now exclusively for Land Rover manufacture. 5-door Range Rover introduced.
• 1983: Land Rover 90 (Ninety)/110 (One-Ten)/127 (renamed Defender in 1990) introduced
• 1986: BL plc becomes Rover Group plc; Project Llama started
• 1988: Rover Group is privatised and becomes part of British Aerospace, and is now known simply as Rover
• 1986: Range Rover is introduced to the U.S market in April 1986
• 1989: Introduction of Discovery
• 1994: Rover Group is taken over by BMW. Introduction of second-generation Range Rover. (The original Range Rover was continued under the name 'Range Rover Classic' until 1995)
• 1997: Land Rover introduces the Special Edition Discovery XD with AA Yellow paint, subdued wheels, SD type roof racks, and a few other off-road upgrades directly from the factory. Produced only for the North American market, the Special Vehicles Division of Land Rover created only 250 of these bright yellow SUV's. Official formation of the Camel Trophy Owners Club by co-founders Neill Browne, Pantelis Giamarellos and Peter Sweetser.
• 1997: Introduction of Freelander
• 1998: Introduction of second generation of Discovery
• 2000: BMW breaks up the Rover Group and sells Land Rover to Ford for £1.8 billion
• 2002: Introduction of third-generation Range Rover
• 2004: Introduction of third-generation Discovery/LR3
• 2005: Introduction of Range Rover Sport
• 2005: Adoption of Jaguar AJ-V8 engine to replace the BMW M62 V8 in the Range Rover
• 2005: Land Rover 'founder' Rover, collapses under the ownership of MG Rover Group
• 2006: Announcement of a new 2.4-litre diesel engine, 6-speed gearbox, dash and forward-facing rear seats for Defender. Introduction of second generation of Freelander (Freelander 2). Ford acquires the Rover trademark from BMW, who previously licensed its use to MG Rover Group
• 8 May 2007: 4,000,000th Land Rover rolls off the production line, a Discovery 3 (LR3), donated to The Born Free Foundation
• 12 June 2007: Announcement from the Ford Motor Company that it plans to sell Land Rover and also Jaguar Cars
• August 2007: India's Tata Motors and Mahindra and Mahindra as well as financial sponsors Cerberus Capital Management, TPG Capital and Apollo Global Management expressed their interest in purchasing Jaguar Cars and Land Rover from the Ford Motor Company.
• 26 March 2008: Ford agreed to sell their Jaguar Land Rover operations to Tata Motors.
• 2 June 2008:Tata Motors finalised their purchase of Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford.