The Range Rover that Britain’s Prince Charles used to take Princess Diana on their first date has appeared for sale on an online auction site.

The sellers claims to have bought the vehicle for $5,200 at an auction last year, not realising it was that particular Range Rover. He knew it was from Buckingham Palace, but no further details.
British Officials have apparantly confirmed the ownership of the vehicle, so it appears to be legit.

The new pope’s old Volkswagen Golf sold for $223,000 so it’s anyone’s guess how high the bidding will go for this Range Rover with a past.

Councillors put their full support behind Land Rover workers in Solihull at a Full Council meeting on Tuesday night.

Members unanimously supported Councillor Ken Hawkins’ (Con, Elmdon) motion to support Solihull’s largest employer.

The motion stated that “The Council confirms its support for Land Rover and for the manufacture of Land Rover vehicles in the borough.”

Members of all parties spoke on their support for the Lode Lane-based plant and was recently victim to a demonstration from Greenpeace.

Coun Hawkins, said: “Land Rover are a vital part of our local economy and we are rightly proud to have them in the borough.

Sales of the latest addition to Land Rover’s luxury 4×4 line up are booming, a leading motor dealer has said. The car, which is aimed at getting Land Rover into the sportier segment of the off-road market, went on sale in the last few few weeks at on- the- road prices ranging from ?35,000 to ?59,000.

Land Rover took some 4,000 advance orders for the Sport and the UK dealer allocation has been taken up until the end of the year. “It is the top specification model that people are buying.” Land Rover is currently bucking the downward trend in car sales so far this year, particularly in the tough American market, thanks to the success of the third generation Discovery launched late last year.

Land Rover?s first-ever concept vehicle makes its debut at the Detroit Show, and the company says that the Range Stormer “sports tourer SUV” is a definite preview of an additional model line.

Standing on a brand-new platform, unique to Land Rover and about to be used in the production version, the show car is powered by a supercharged Jaguar V8. Rather than being just bolted straight in, the torque-optimised engine has been modified to allow for serious off-roading, at the kind of fore-and-aft and side-of-a-hill angles at which all Land Rover products continue to perform.

The Heritage Motor Centre at Gaydon in Warwickshire has just taken delivery of an exceptionally rare Land Rover. Shortly after the Series 1 model was introduced in 1948, coachbuilder Tickford was commissioned to design a Station Wagon version based on the same mechanicals. Tickford designed a metal rear body on a wooden frame, and provided seats for seven occupants, among other features.

The Station Wagon was intended to give the Land Rover greater on-road appeal while retaining its off-road capabilities. Unfortunately, the whole idea bombed because the new model cost ?959 compared with ?580 for the basic Series 1. The extra equipment was only partly a factor in this - the main problem was that the Exchequer, which considered the Series 1 exempt from Purchase Tax, did not feel the same way about the Station Wagon.

Sirius Satellite Radio announced yesterday that Land Rover will be offering Sirius Radio as a factory-installed option in the 2006 models of Range Rover and Range Rover Sport. Additional features will include an installed head unti which displays artist, song title and category when playing. There will also be a touch screen to enhance driver control.

Sirius Radio currently broadcasts throughout the Continental United States, and it in unclear as to whether British models will have an option for Satellite Radio, or indeed if a suitable Satellite Radio broadcaster is available in the UK. Despite the fact that we might not have access to this particular extra in the British Isles, it does however indicate a promising move towards further customising the Range Rover models, moving with technology to keep them the fore-most in their genre.

The 4X4OTY award-winning new Discovery bristles with technology, but does it work and how does the all-new Land Rover compare with its rivals? Allan Whiting and the gang from 4X4 Australia magazine were pleasantly surprised.
Occasionally a landmark vehicle comes along and, more often than not, it emerges from the British town of Solihull. Some of us are old enough to remember the impact the first Range Rover made on the Australian 4X4 scene in 1972.

The Range Rover Sport, an all-new sports tourer SUV from Land Rover, will take pride of place in the British automaker’s range as the best-performing and best-handling vehicle it has ever built.
To be officially launched at the January 2005 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, the new 4×4 was designed to take on the performance luxury SUV leaders, such as the Porsche Cayenne and BMW X5 4.8is.

As such, the new Range Rover Sport is powered by a modified Jaguar engine - a supercharged V8 powerplant that makes 287kW of power, or 385hp.
“The Range Rover Sport is an additional, fifth nameplate for the Land Rover brand,” said Matthew Taylor, Land Rover’s managing director.