Land Rover Series

Land Rover does not build many cars like the Land Rover Series: a 2-door Off-road vehicle / 4-door Off-road vehicle / 2-door pickup with 1.6 Liter, built from 1948 to 1985 in a decade split by war, when civilian production stopped and restarted. Its designer of record is Maurice Wilks.

The story

The Land Rover Series I, II, and III, or simply the Land-Rover (commonly referred to as Series Land Rovers, to distinguish them from later models) are compact British off-road vehicles, produced by the Rover Company since 1948, and later by British Leyland. Inspired by the World War II jeep, it was the first mass-produced civilian four-wheel drive car with doors and an available hard roof. Unlike conventional cars and trucks of the time, it used a sturdy, fully box-welded frame. Furthermore, due to the post-war steel shortage and aluminium surplus, Land Rovers received aluminium alloy bodies that did not rust, thereby favouring their longevity.

In 1992, Land Rover claimed that 70% of all the vehicles they had built were still in use. Most Series models feature leaf-spring suspension with selectable two or four-wheel drive (4WD), however Series I's produced between 1948 and mid-1951 had constant 4WD via a freewheel mechanism, and the Stage 1 V8 version of the Series III featured permanent 4WD. All three models could be started with a front-hand crank and offered front & rear power takeoffs for accessories. After introducing a long-wheelbase model in 1954, Land Rover also offered the world's first four / five-door, 4WD off-road station wagon in 1956. Series Land Rovers and Defenders continually excelled in space utilization, offering (optional) three abreast seating in the seating rows with doors, and troop seating in the rear, resulting in up to seven seats in the SWB, and up to ten seats in the LWB models, exceeding the capacity of most minivans, when comparing vehicles of

What is underneath

Under the skin sits 1.6 Liter; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. The gearbox is a 4-speed manual. The wheelbase is 1948–1953: convert|80.0|in|mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.

Its place in the line

Where it sits in Land Rover's history is not in doubt: the Land Rover Ninety & One Ten / Defender followed it; it was built at Solihull. On a showroom list of its day it stood against the Citroën 2CV, the Porsche 356, the Chevrolet Bel Air. Nearby in the Land Rover catalogue sit the Land Rover Defender L663 and the Land Rover Discovery Sport.

The money

MotorJury scores cars on the United States complaint and recall record, and the Land Rover Series has none: too old, too rare, or never sold there. Its value today is a collector's question, decided by provenance and condition rather than by a class average.