29/04/2013
Although it's a luxury SUV today, the Range Rover didn't start off that way and was plagued by quality control issues.
Some of the higher-end luxury cars available will lose you a staggering amount of money over fairly short periods of time, but this is just the nature of this segment, and something you accept when you buy such a car. But when it comes to more mainstream cars, there are some real standouts that might surprise you as bad investments. Alfa Romeo has always been famous for this in Europe, but this could turn around with its reintroduction to the US market. But the Range Rover is a proven money sink The first Land Rover was developed in 1947 with the idea of being a useful piece of light farm machinery. All things considered, the evolution from farm equipment to the standard by which all luxury SUVs are judged happed remarkably fast. But it didn’t happen right away, and even the earliest Range Rovers weren’t really full-on luxury vehicles. Truthfully, it wasn’t really a luxury vehicle at all for several years. At the time (1970), the Land Rover Series II was the only other Land Rover, and this was designed to be primarily a military vehicle, but one which civilians could buy if they felt so inclined.
The Range Rover was simply a version which was more practical for civilian use, but not really any more luxurious. Early models had vinyl seats and lacked carpets, air conditioning and even power steering. But the coil spring suspension in place of the more truck-like leaf springs used by some competitors meant that the ride was far more comfortable. Land Rover stressed that the balance of comfort and off-road ability made it a vehicle for all occasions, and it soon started to attract buyers who found this idea appealing. But even back then, Range Rovers were being much more in town than off-road.